Thursday, November 10, 2011
Books Pick of the Day: Nick Flynn at Vanderbilt
Posted by Steve Haruch on Thu, Nov 10, 2011 at 5:14 AM
Nick Flynn
Where: 114 Furman Hall, Vanderbilt
When: 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 10
As book titles go, Another Bullshit Night in Suck City certainly catches the ear — vulgar and funny at the same time, kind of like its subject matter. And it says something about Nick Flynn that he chose this not as the title of some complaining, dystopian novel, but rather, as the title of his memoir.
Like the best writers, Flynn — whether telling the story of his father’s years as a homeless transient, or in sturdy, contemplative poems — can keep both the garish and the mundane in a constant dance with each other. Literate but unpretentious, well-crafted without being cumbersome or writerly, Flynn’s writing intensifies the things it describes, extracting meaning from even the simplest moments and making them indelible. At this event, sponsored by the Vandy creative writing program, Flynn will read from his poetry.
