Auckland Writers Festival 2014: "An hour with Lloyd Jones"

Guest post by Blair, Readers Services, Central Library.

"They fuck you up, your mum and dad
They may not mean to but they do,
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you."

This Philip Larkin poem, as read by Peter Wells, set the tone for an engaging hour with Lloyd Jones. The subject of the discussion was Jones’s candid memoir, A History of Silence. Set against the destruction of the 2011 Christchurch earthquake, Jones’s book attempts to unearth the foundations of his family. The task was made difficult by his parents' belief that ‘you are what you make yourself’. In the Jones family the past was rarely, if ever, discussed.

Jones revealed that despite this ethos, his parents were clearly products of their troubled past. His mother’s extreme sensitivity, for example, was a direct result of her upbringing as an abandoned, illegitimate child. Jones’s grandmother, Maude, was vilified by her daughter. To Lloyd and his siblings, she became almost mythic - a caricature of an evil absentee mother. However, Jones discovered that Maude was far more complex than his mother believed. Her actions also stemmed from a troubled past, a past she too tried to bury.

Jones was an articulate and witty speaker, but the highlight of the event was his two readings from A History of Silence. His evocative, dreamy prose perfectly captured the themes of the book and was a real pleasure to listen to.

AWRF10 - "Somebody stole my game" with Chris Laidlaw

Barry O'Callaghan from Otahuhu Community Library feels he wuz robbed!  Read what he has to say about his event of choice at AWRF 2010.

I hate writers festivals. Hardly a soul under 30 present, let alone an under 30 male.  Writers festivals are strictly mature female territory, which is a shame. 

I used to like rugby, but not so much these days.  That's why I thought "Somebody Stole My Game", a discussion about the state of the national game with two of the country's most experienced commentators, would be a invigorating exchange of ideas about rugger.  But I was wrong.  You can't expect invigorating when you have Chris Laidlaw talking.  Surely one of the most boring men around.  His Scottish counterpart Gregor Paul was a bit more interesting but never really got that much time to speak.  Instead it was the very nice Lloyd Jones taking up all the time pitching his questions to the panellists.  But they all missed the point. 

Where was the in-depth thrust and volley of disagreement, instead of an insipid Chris waffling on about nothing we don't know already? What about rugby in the provinces, what about the thrill of Southland lifting the Ranfurly Shield for the first time in 50 years?  What about the lack of daytime rugby, the overbearance of Northern Hemisphere politics? 

For a while it got interesting. Chris mentioned how the rules are killing the game.  The man could see into the future.  I can see into the future as well and see that his forthcoming book, "Somebody Stole My Game" will incite much navel gazing about the game at present.  Me, I'd rather listen to Martin Devlin on the wireless.  At least he can work an audience, ask and answer the questions and be entertaining

AWRF 2009: Lloyd Jones's authors

I went to hear Lloyd Jones too and I appreciate that Ana covered it for Books in the CIty because she reminded me of some good points that I had already forgotten, events overload perhaps, or maybe the distraction Finlay McDonald was causing me whenever he would start fiddling with his ear. For the rest I think he did fine; I especially liked when Lloyd Jones confided punchily  "Reading kind of completes the book." I've always liked and remember, probably because I work in a library, the lines in Borges's famous lecture on poetry where he said that poetry is not in the books in the library, it is in the encounter of the reader with the books.

One last Lloyd Jones moment to savour:

Q: What books are magic for you?

A: I like Raymond Carver - his book Cathedral, Richard Ford, Chekhov, Mario Vargas Llosa, oh, and Calvino - The Baron in the Trees - an excellent example of imaginative risk. At a certain point the Baron slips out into the tree- you expect he's going to come back down and then he doesn't, ever! I imagine Calvino weeing himself with excitement: "I'm going to keep him in the tree!"

AWRF 2009: Lloyd Jones

Ana from the readers services team at Central Library captures the essence of her hour with Lloyd Jones:
Ok, just when you think it's safe to sit back, relax, along comes an author who dares you to push the boundaries, break all the rules and step outside the comfort zone into the uncertain world of imaginative risk.
 
"Aim for brilliance, find your voice - persuasive, seductive, enigmatic. Create your landscape of uniqueness. Think beyond narrative. Your aim is to go where no writer has ever been before. And then, the serious stuff starts..."
 
He continues to say that when you write with creative brilliance you surreptitiously become part of the essence of your creative reader's being, becoming (and he quotes Seamus Heaney) part of the "stitch-work of your DNA."
 
One must appreciate and savour his words on failure: "All those abandoned words, rejected manuscripts, are an invaluable and necessary experience on the path to greatness."
 
The author packed all this and much more in one hour; one hour in the company of our very persuasive and reductive Mr Jones. I am looking forward to reading other of his books. A very enjoyable hour.