Thursday, December 16, 2010

Author Event: Colm Tobin on Henry James

Two weeks ago I attended a talk by Colm Toibin at The Tenement Museum  - I was so fortunate to be able to make it to this event!  As I have mentioned on this blog before, Colm Toibin is a favorite author of mine so I jumped at the chance to hear him talk.  He did not disappoint - his comments were insightful and he peppered his talk with a signature Irish wit.

All a Novelist Needs: Colm Tóibín on Henry JamesThe focus of his talk was the author Henry James.  Toibin is a scholar of James and in addition to a writing a number of essays and literary criticism pieces about the author (now collected in All a Novelist Needs: Colm Tóibín on Henry James),  made him the subject of his novel The Master which is a fictionalized account of James's life.  As I mentioned in my review of the Master, the novel is a beautifully written and Toibin deftly weaves fiction with the facts about Henry James.  It is no surprise that the book was shortlisted for the Booker.  In the talk, Toibin referenced James's reported homosexuality which he worked very hard to conceal his entire life.  In fact, it was only after James's death and upon reading his letters and his contemporaries' journals that scholars concluded James was a closeted homosexual.  Toibin made the point that in many of James's works there is a theme of things being "hidden" or held beneath the surface which he connects with the author's attempts to conceal his sexual orientation.

In answer to a question about how he balanced the facts of James's life with a fictional storyline, Colm Toibin provided an insightful answer - he said, in essence, that every author puts their own stamp on a story and reveals as much about themselves as about the subject of their novel.  He posited that he could provide everyone in the audience the same research and material about Henry James and we would each write a different novel about his life because we would all view the material through the lens of our own experiences and life story and that would be reflected in what we wrote.  I thought that was an excellent way of describing the art of writing and what an author shares each time they write a work and provide it to us to read -  they truly share a piece of themselves.

About the Venue
The Tenement Museum in New York City celebrates the immigrant experience from a unique vantage point - the inside of 97 Orchard St which was once a tenement apartment building on the Lower East Side.  They offer guided tours of apartments recreated to look like the apartments inhabited by the many immigrants who lived on the Lower East Side in the 19th century.  It is a great experience and I definitely recommend it to any NYC visitor.  Throughout the year, they host Tenement Talks, such as the one I attended with Colm Toibin.

Have you read anything by Colm Toibin and/or Henry James?


12 comments:

  1. Thanks so much for posting this - what a marvelous event! I'm a big fan of both Colm Toibin and Henry James, but have never gotten around to reading The Master. Hope to change that soon.

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  2. I'm ashamed to say I've never read anything by Toibin or James. This talk looks really good though -- I actually found out about it after the fact, and was a bit sad I hadn't gone.

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  3. @ JoAnn - glad you enjoyed the post and definitely read the Master especially if you also like James.

    @Jenny - the events there are quite good (although space is limited so get there early) - I went to Pete Hamill on Tuesday night.

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  4. Ahhh I've been wanting to go to the tenement museum for a while now! I didn't make it this last trip because I wanted everything to be "christmas-sy". Def. wanna go though. And I still need to read Brooklyn!

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  5. Have you actually been through the museum itself? It's super-cool. The reall sad thing is, when I went there, I kept thinking, "what, this isn't that bad. I'd rent it. You know, if they put in a bathroom." Of course I'd consider it an apartment for 1 person, not for 6, but really for a girl who lived her firts year is a badly renovated 1-room basement out near Riker's Island, the "tenement" seemed fairly luxurious.

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  6. I bet this was a fascinating event! I read The Master for a class (on the heels of The Aspern Papers by James and Felony by Emma Tennant) and found it to be beautiful. I'd like to read more Toibin and have Brooklyn actually on my shelf waiting for me. He is a lovely writer.

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  7. Wow- this sounds like a terrific event. I definitely have to make time to see the Tenement Museum. My sister-in-law took her daughters to see it and said it was wonderful.

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  8. Sounds like a wonderful event. I've not read Toibin but James' PORTRAIT OF A LADY is one of my favorites.

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  9. I've read Toibin's Brooklyn, but wasn't exactly bowled over. I seem to be in the minority, though.

    And if I ever make it back to NY, the Tenement Museum is on my list of things to do.

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  10. @ Carin - yes I have been to the museum -your comment about thinking it didn't look too bad made me laugh. You are right, though, there are some pretty abysmal apartments in the city today too!

    @jenny @softdrink and @diane - definitely go to the museum - they offer many different theme tours so each visit can be a little different - and they have a great bookstore/gift shop!

    @ Marie - I am opposite to you - have read Tobin but not James!

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  11. V interesting post, both on the talk and the museum, which I would love to visit someday. With regards to James, I read Wings of the Dove in college (forever ago) and didn't much care for it, and then read Turn of the Screw last year, and thought it good but maddening! Brooklyn is on my list for 2011.

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  12. i've read some henry james but it was waaay back in college. haven't read toibin but just saw his name on a list that showed how to properly pronounce the names!

    the tenement museum is terrific and we usually take our students every few years. glad you got to see this author and listen to his lecture. i haven't been to an author reading or anything since i saw jk rowling, john irving, and stephen king at radio city a bunch of summers ago.

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