Terese Svoboda, author of Black Glasses Like Clark Kent: A GI's Secret from Postwar Japan (Oct 19-30

Please welcome Terese Svoboda, author of Trailer Girl: and Other Stories and Black Glasses Like Clark Kent: A GI's Secret from Postwar Japan. Terese will be chatting on Librarything until October 30th.

I haven't read the book yet but it's on my list, but I have to tell you that I love the title. Are titles difficult for you? (They are for me!)

Dear Jessica,

Thanks for appreciating the title. That one wasn't too hard--what am I saying? Maybe titles are like childbirth and you forget each time how hard it is. It wasn't as hard as titling my new poetry book, Weapons Grade. It had another title (from one of the poems in the book) for six years and the editor insisted I find something else. I combed through the work, actually wrote a poem called Weapons Grade which didn't work and finally inserted a (fictional) Weapons Grade video game into one of the most important poems in the book. But back to Black Glasses. My uncle wore GI-issue black framed glasses all his life--like Superman whom he is compared to at the opening. I had to have the subscript: A GIs Secret in Postwar Japan because otherwise you wouldn't have the slightest idea what the memoir was about! So the answer is--I had the subscript before the title.

A Drink Called Paradise was for many years called Ghost Dance because it was about Polynesians fearing ghosts, especially those who have died from exposure to atomic fallout--and Polynesians dance all the time. The editor insisted I change it because although it was appropriate it wasn't evocative enough, and my agent agreed because he had a client who was bringing out a book with the same title. I combed the book for a phrase or idea, just the way I did for the book of poetry.

I'm very happy to be chatting this week. I've been putting to bed my fourteenth book and feeling like my head was going to explode. Who made sure all the characters in War and Peace were consistent? This book's about a little girl who's been lost in a bet by her father to an Indian--at least it starts that way. I don't really believe that people in other time periods think the same way we do, especially under such duress. Rationales had to be different. I mean, our parents can hardly explain what they did when they were young and so often resort to "you had to be there." Anyway, the book also covers several decades which assumes that the girl grows up and her rationales for her actions change. I'm not sure they do now that I've reached middle age. Certainly personal history impinges but most of the time I feel the same cheerful sort that I started out as and I know that the elderly often refer to the young person trapped inside. Any thoughts from the writer's perspective?

i dont know how can i read this books via online library???

It seems that my own poor timing has made me miss out on your author chat which is scheduled to end tomorrow; however, I want to go on record to thank you for writing Black Glasses Like Clark Kent: A GI's Secret from Postwar Japan. When David Cozy reviewed your book in the Japan Times, I rushed to get a copy but I'm sorry to say I haven't had time to give the book full attention yet. Through your uncle, you tackled a complicated, challenging, emotional, politically-charged subject, and I am grateful that you dared to try to sort out your uncle's secret.

From what I have read in this book, and remembering my own outrage at Abu Ghraib (i.e. abuse of US power), I am deeply moved by your uncle's pain and his ultimate self-sacrifice. My dad was a WWII veteran (US); my husband's father was also a veteran (Japanese) and a survivor of Russian POW camp in Siberia. We've always felt the need to review history, examine human nature, and teach responsibility and pacifism to our kids.

I can't wait to get some of my current obligations out of the way so that I can read your book carefully (and then your new book, too!)

LT's Author Chat is relatively new and I want to see it succeed, but sorry I wasn't ready for this one yet!

Best regards,
Julia

I'm afraid you'd have to order it on Amazon or from the publishers, either Graywolf Books
http://www.graywolfpress.org/index.php?option=com_phpshop&keyword=svoboda&am...
or the poetry book from U. of Arkansas

http://www.uapress.com/titles/fa09/svoboda.html

or else order it from your neighborhood library.

Good reading!
Terese

Dear Julia,

Thank you so much for responding. I was out of town for the last week and most of the time out of range of the internet so the timing for me was difficult too. Hopefully, this note will get to you!

Please let me know what you think of the book--leave a note on my author page and I will get to it. I very much appreciate your interest.

Terese