L U N A T A L K with Eva Moon

Deranged Atheist Sock Monkey

September 1, 2008 on 10:02 am | In General Musing |

There’s an inherent conflict when a celebrity attempts to write a novel. The reader can’t help but hear the celebrity’s voice. This may be a good thing for the celebrity, but it is rarely a good thing for the story. I suspect celebrities also tend to be resistent to editing. I am a fan of good editing. (Not of our own novel, of course, but it’s an admirable quality in others.)

I just read “Sock” a novel by Penn Jillette. I’m a fan of Penn and Teller and I enjoy Penn’s rants immensely. I wish I could say the same for his novel.

“Sock” is the story of an NYPD diver who pulls the body of his former lover from a river and becomes obsessed with tracking down her killer. The story is narrated by the diver’s childhood sock monkey. It’s a promising premise and the sock monkey is an entertainingly deranged tough guy with miles of attitude.

Elmore Leonard, in his excellent essay “10 Rules of Writing” says that good writing is not about the writer, but about the story. The writer must remain invisible.

This book is full to overflowing with the writer from start to finish. The story is buried in steaming piles of writing. Even the sock monkey, who had such a distinctive strut at the start can’t stand up to Penn Jillette’s overpowering need to be in the book. He adopts a cute gimmick of punctuating a scene with a single line quote from a popular song and then goes on to end virtually every paragraph that way. After a while, it becomes a game of “Name that Tune” rather than a novel. (Though I’m curious to know if he paid for the rights to quote the songs. There’s not even an afterword with credits.) He breaks completely out of character to talk about the process of writing a novel - including tossing in advice to other aspiring novelists on how important it is to have a consistent narrator’s voice!

In the end the book is not much more than an anti-religion screed. No problem with that, but when I read a novel I want the author to have enough respect for me to trust I’ll get the point through the actions and dialogue of the characters.

Tempted to cudgel your readers with your thesis? Please put a sock in it.

See more like that one:

• Drabble Babble
• Lies, Damn Lies and Publishing
• Supershort
• Flasher
• Go Commando for Literacy