How does one follow up writing \u201cA Hell of a Book\u201d that wins the National Book Award? If you\u2019re Jason Mott, you write a sort-of, not-really, by all legal terms fictionalized \u2014 according to the forward \u2014 autobiographical story about what life is like a<\/p>\n
How does one follow up writing \u201cA Hell of a Book\u201d that wins the National Book Award?<\/a> If you\u2019re Jason Mott,<\/a> you write a sort-of, not-really, by all legal terms fictionalized \u2014 according to the forward \u2014 autobiographical story about what life is like as a semi-famous writer. <\/p>\n Or actually you write two viewpoints: one about a writer running away from his roots that seem to be choking the life out of him and the other about a writer running to help soothe the roots that made him.<\/p>\n The first, a middle-aged man who wrote said award-winning novel, is constantly misrecognized because writers, even award winning ones, don\u2019t have status like film stars. Sometimes he goes along with it and he agrees with them, for good reason; there is safety in being someone else. The second is a man who can\u2019t seem to outrun what it means to be American or a stalker who threatened to kill him, both showing up, often when least expected. This makes man No. 2 run not only from death and America but to seek out purchasing a gun, because his fame isn\u2019t able to protect him. <\/p>\n This novel, reminiscent of \u201cThe Invisible Man\u201d and the works of Colson Whitehead<\/a> and Ta-Nehisi Coates,<\/a> has an inquisitive stance on things like time travel, sea monsters, death of loved ones and guns, and what each can do to a man, especially those who seem to be the referential mouthpiece of what it means to be an American today.<\/p>\n One man meanders through Minnesota, offering support to the masses through speaking engagements. The other lands what seems to be a dream job in \u201cEuropeland.\u201d Through old memories, the drudgery of book tours, the never ending \u201cwhat\u2019s next\u201d endlessly questioning their creativity, both imagine what could be and what could have been. The flipping between the two men\u2019s viewpoints of the world and what it can offer is humorous one moment and tugs at the right heartstrings the next. <\/p>\n This roller coaster ride filled with quips and wordplay personalizes some of the most tragic moments in America\u2019s recent history. The tragedy and pain through this never ending climb to make sense of all that has come before, and all that will come after, is \u201clike Sisyphus, a man who never misses leg day.\u201d<\/p>\n Filled with highlightable quotes and moments that make you stop and look around to see if anyone else is experiencing what you\u2019re reading, Mott\u2019s \u201cPeople Like Us\u201d echoes the pain and mystery of where life leads, the choices it hands us and the hope and desire for change.<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n