Monday's Muse - Chopsticks: A Novel by Jessica Anthony and Rodrigo Corral

I discovered Chopsticks a few months ago, when I was browsing the teen section of the bookstore, looking for titles to recommend to the teen book group that I moderate there. Right away, I was sure that it would be something different and interesting that could lead to a great discussion. So I was glad when the teen readers picked the book for the June group, that met on Thursday, the 28^th.

The book was published in February by Razorbill, the innovative young adult and middle-grade imprint of Penguin Group that also published one of my favorite teen novels – Thirteen Reasons Why, by Jay Asher. It’s a unique collaboration by Jessica Anthony, who also wrote the adult novel, The Convalescent (McSweeney’s/Grove, 2009) and artist Rodrigo Corral, the creative director at Farrar, Straus & Giroux and graphic designer of the covers of many well-known books, including John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars; Jeffrey Eugenides’ The Marriage Plot; Jeannette Walls’ The Glass Castle; musician Patti Smith’s poetry book Woolgathering; as well as several novels by Chuck Palahniuk, Junot Diaz, and Roberto Bolano.

It’s not just a traditional book to be read, but a story to be experienced – I would best describe it as a visual and interactive novel. It tells its story not just with words but also with photographs, drawings and paintings; computer instant messages, letters and postcards; news articles; CD playlists; video links; and recurring motifs. There’s a website, www.chopsticksnovel.tumblr.com, with photos and some video links, and even an app for the Apple iPad, iPhone or iPodTouch. And a lovely trailer on Youtube, featuring actors Rachel Fox and Ben Getz, as Glory and Frank, the story’s main characters. http://youtu.be/T4j55yz_iZg

  

And the story is so interesting – it opens with the mysterious disappearance of Glory, a seventeen-year-old piano prodigy, who is the only child of Victor, a piano instructor, and Maria, a wine importer who died when Glory was eight years old. After her mother’s death, Glory’s father raised her to become a magnificent young pianist, who has played at Carnegie Hall and around the world. But, at the story’s start, Glory has been institutionalized for exhaustion at a “rest facility” for musical prodigies in the Bronx, where she and her father live. News outlets report her disappearance, after obsessively playing the piano waltz “Chopsticks” for several hours in a practice room.

The tale then backtracks to eighteen months earlier, when Glory has just performed a sold-out show at Carnegie Hall, where she wove in fragments of contemporary rock music, of bands such as Pavement and Wilco, as well as “Chopsticks,” into her repertoire of classical music by composers such as Prokofiev. But her father keeps her to a strict home-schooled schedule, and she is lonely.

She becomes intrigued by Frank, a teenage boy whose family just moved in next door. She befriends him, and learns that he’s from Argentina and is an artist and an aspiring videographer. He is having a hard time fitting in at his private boys’ school, but connects with Glory right away. Soon they are spending all their free time together, photographing themselves; sharing mix-CDs and videos; instant-messaging each other; trading gifts of sheet music and paintings; and falling in love.

But as Glory and Frank grow closer, her father intervenes by arranging her to go on a year-long European tour, and to also study in Italy. Glory and Frank keep in touch via instant messages and postcards, but both teens suffer from the separation. Frank has even more trouble at school, and Glory repeatedly slips into playing “Chopsticks” during her recitals. But is she doing it as a rebellion against her father’s control? Or is she starting to lose her mind?

With each artful image and word, more and more of Glory’s mysterious and compelling story is revealed. And it’s up to the reader to decide what is real, what is imagined, and what, ultimately, has happened to Glory.

At the teen book group meeting, we had a lively and fun discussion about the book, its format, and its meaning. Many of us had read the book over and over again, pondering its images for clues. And the group was evenly divided in their opinions of what they thought about the ending. We talked about our favorite images and interactive links, and nearly all agreed that we’d look forward to reading more visual and interactive books. I’m glad that the group enjoyed the book as much as I did.

I really liked Chopsticks, not just as a reader, but also as a writer. I’ve gone through the book several times since I first bought it, and I’ve listened to its songs and have watched its video links. And each time I get more and more from it. I love the recurring images of dandelions, wine, and sea creatures – they add to the intrigue of the story.

It was also great to be able to listen to Glory and Frank’s favorite songs, like “Us,” by Regina Spektor, and “Dandelion,” by the Rolling Stones, and “Coney Island Baby,” by Tom Waits; and to watch the links to the videos that they shared, such as Feist performing “1234” on David Letterman; the piano duet scene from Tim Burton’s animated film The Corpse Bride; and Tom Hanks’ and Robert Loggia’s dance-duet of “Heart and Soul” and “Chopsticks” on the giant floor piano in the movie Big. 

And I’ve changed my mind about the ending several times – I think the authors purposefully left it ambiguous and open-ended so each reader can come up with their own explanation and interpretation of the story. I think that’s cool.

I greatly admire Jessica Antony and Rodrigo Corral for all of their work in creating this book – I can only imagine all the hours and painstaking attention to detail that it must have taken to create the story, from initial concept to published book and interactive content. It’s one of the most inventive books I’ve ever experienced.

And Chopsticks has inspired me to think about all the different and creative ways to tell a story – and to possibly tell my stories. I know that several publishers are interested in interactive and enhanced books – the Wall Street Journal profiled the concept in a recent article, “Blowing Up The Book,” that featured Chopsticks as an example of the multi-media format. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204468004577169001135659954.html  And several authors, especially of young adult titles, are now adding interesting things like music playlists to their books’ websites.

But I would never try to write a multi-media or interactive book just to follow a possible trend. I’ve heard many agents and editors speak at conferences and all say the same thing – never chase a trend, because most of the time, those writing attempts end up seeming contrived and lacking authenticity. And they rarely get published, because by the time they are submitted, the trends have passed and moved on to something else.

Besides, I’m not a good enough artist or photographer to be able to include visuals in my stories. However, my boyfriend Ian is a photographer, and I have talked with him at times about doing some kind of creative collaboration of my writing and his photos – we just haven’t found the right time or subject or story for a project. But, maybe someday…

In the meantime, I’ll keep inspired to think creatively to broaden the scope of my stories. I can make up music playlists – especially for my novels that feature music or characters who are musicians – like Stephenie Meyer did for her Twilight books, and like my friend Kimberly Sabatini did, for her upcoming teen novel Touching the Surface (to be published in October, by Simon Pulse). Kim has also introduced me to Pinterest.com – a cool website where users can create online visual bulletin boards of images for any topic that interests them. Kim has created Pinterest boards for Touching the Surface, as well as her current work in progress, The Opposite of Gravity. http://pinterest.com/kimsabatini/touching-the-surface/

I’ll also seek out other visual, interactive and multi-media novels and non-fiction books, to enjoy as a reader and as a writer. Hopefully, I’ll find some more that will inspire me and my writing as much as Chopsticks has.