Reading what they write

If money was the basic reason for the reading tours, something else kept him always eager to continue with them. Whatever the physical and emotional strain, his audiences nourished his spirit.

Claire Tomalin, Charles Dickens: A Life

I recall hearing someone say that songwriters can interpret their own songs better than anyone else. This must often be true. People like Willie Nelson and John Denver began their musical careers writing songs for others, then became big stars when they started singing their own songs in public. But just because you can write a song doesn't mean you can sing.

Tim Dorsey

This came to mind this week while listening to five writers read from their work at the Writers in Paradise nightly public readings in St. Petersburg, Fla. Clearly just because you can write a good story doesn't mean you can read it in public.

Comic novelist Tim Dorsey succeeded mainly because his material was so funny. He admitted he doesn't often read to audiences, and it showed. Yet he has an engaging personality that carried through into his reading.

Crime novelist Laura Lippman gave two short readings. The first, an excerpt from her upcoming novel Sunburn, was unremarkable. She read too fast, and it sounded like she was reading a story rather than telling a story. Much better was a first-person piece of nonfiction about getting called to the principal's office at her daughter's school. Like Dorsey's reading, this was good because it was funny, but it was also good because it was true and personal.

For the same reason Andre Dubus III did well on Thursday night. He read an essay about illegally having a rifle in his New York City apartment as a young man and the surprising consequences. His tale was totally captivating even if, like Lippman, his pacing wasn't the best.

Cathie Pelletier

Cathie Pelletier read from her novel The One-Way Bridge. Although she is often known as a comic novelist, the excerpt was about a character's memories of Vietnam and was anything but comic. It was effective because it was good, not because the author was a particularly good reader.

The same was true of Lan Samantha Chang, who read from a novella she has yet to finish. It was about a young Chinese woman who, against her better judgment, accepts a ride from a smiling young American.

For these writers and the others who are reading in St. Pete this week, their reward is an attentive audience and the opportunity to sell a few books. I bought Pelletier's novel and enjoyed my chat with her. (She said she lives in Maine within a mile of the Canadian border and was delayed by the weather getting to Florida in time for her reading.) Some of them might read well enough to record their own works for sale, although probably not as well as professional actor would do.

Certainly none of them could do what Charles Dickens did. Because of his reputation as a novelist and his gift for public performance, he earned a significant amount of money with his reading tours. Near the end of his life he read more than he wrote and was a huge success, even though the strain probably contributed to his early death.

Whatever their skill as readers, I enjoy hearing writers, especially those I admire, read from their work. I hope that, as Claire Tomalin says of Dickens, it nourishes their spirit. It certainly nourishes mine.