Corey Mesler you know as the owner of Memphis’ longest-running book
store: Burke’s, now in Cooper-Young. You also know him as the novelist
who wrote Talk. He’s a poet too, as Grit, his collection
earlier this year, showed. In the short-story department, go to
Mesler’s “Shadow Work.” It appears in the spring issue of the U of M’s
literary journal, The Pinch. And as a book reviewer, see his
contributions to the Flyer‘s semiannual look at the latest in
books.
How, though, to describe Mesler’s new book, Listen (Brown
Paper Publishing), which he’ll be signing at Burke’s on Thursday, May
7th? Let the author, in his subtitle, answer that: He calls it
“Twenty-nine Short Conversations” – “short” meaning each piece
runs a few pages; “conversations” meaning just that: narrative told
totally in dialogue.
“How did I arrive at dialogue narrative?” Mesler asked himself after
the Flyer put the same question to him.
“What I always said about Talk was that I had these voices in
my head, and I realized I should write some of them down. Doing that
was like opening the floodgates. Soon the voices were nearly constant.
It took about a year of ‘listening’ to shape a narrative out of
them.”
Narrative delivered through dialogue alone wasn’t unique to
Talk and it isn’t unique to Listen. Playwrights do it.
And, as Mesler pointed out, so have novelists Henry Green, William
Gaddis, and Donald Barthelme.
What won’t you find in Green, Gaddis, and Barthelme? How about “My
Continued Conversation with the Ghost of John Lennon”? Or “My Continued
Conversation with Insomnia (and TV, a slight return …)”? Or “My
Continued Conversation with the Ghost of My Father”? They’re all and
more in Listen. They’re all unique to Corey Mesler.
Corey Mesler reading from and signing “Listen,” Burke’s Book Store,
Thursday, May 7th, 5-7 p.m. (278-7484).
