Minnesota book events, a review of Daniel Kraus's novel "Whalefall"
Book of the week
'Tyrants and Rogues': Understanding the Declaration of Independence' by Robert Parkinson
Friends and readers: Since our first two Threads of July fall in the weeks of our nation’s historic semiquincentennial birthday, I am bringing you two terrific books about American history over the next two weeks and nudging the mstery character down a bit. You’ll find it on Friday, July 17.
Today, let’s time warp to Philadelphia on July 2, 1776. Morning rain showers are sweeping through the city and delegates to the Continental Congress have begun to scratch out words Thomas Jefferson wrote and find new phrases for the draft of the Declaration of Independence.
As historian Robert Parkinson, writes in his new book, "Tyrants and Rogues: Understanding the Declaration of Independence": “Other than a few minor style changes to the preamble, the words we remember today are almost entirely Jefferson’s.”
But as Parkinson reveals, the delegates had plenty to say about the grievances that make up the core of the declaration and that’s what we’re talking about today. Those grievances were, as Parkinson writes, ”a catalog of criticisms and negations.”
And they reveal a lot about who we were and who we are today.
Email sstroozas@mpr.org to have your literary event added to the list.
🤔 What's the newsroom reading?
Recently, I found myself facing a long flight home, bookless. I hightailed it to the Anchorage airport’s excellent indie bookstore where I wandered, dazed by options, debating what I was in the mood to read on a plane.
Daniel Kraus's novel "Whalefall" grabbed my attention. Who could resist the cover image of a scuba diver about to be swallowed by a whale? Or the parade of accolades by NPR and other organizations calling it the best book of the year for 2023.
Talk about a propulsive read.
The whole story takes place in about two hours, starting as 17-year-old Jay Gardiner sets out on a secret scuba dive. His plan is to scour the spot where his father drowned himself the year before and return with some remnant of his body. It’s a way for Jay to assuage his guilt over the way he’d treated his overbearing father. But Jay’s dive goes sideways fast when — in a beautifully written series of events that Kraus takes pains to make believable — Jay is swallowed by a massive sperm whale.
This is no Pinocchio or Jonah tale. The science and the fiction of this sci-fi are so good. Every detail about scuba diving, marine life, and whale anatomy felt authentic. The writing is immediate and poetic, deftly moving between present-moment action and memory in short-burst chapters whose titles never let us forget just how much air Jay has left in his tank.
Jay’s struggle to come to terms with his father feels as immediate as his challenge to survive. I can’t wait to see the film version when it comes out in theaters Oct. 16.
— Emily Bright, newscaster and host of Ask A Bookseller
📰 Bite-sized Minnesota book news
The creator of the Rebel Loon, a Minnesota logo that became popular during the ICE surge, launched a kickstarter that ended on Wednesday to create "The Rebel Loon Archive: A Book of Protest Art." The book includes 265 artists from Minneapolis and across the globe.
If you think we’re living in the age of grievance politics, have you seen the Declaration of Independence? Historian and professor Robert Parkinson takes a deep dive into the grievances of America’s forefathers.
Are you ready to believe a few impossible things? If so, Sue Zumberge of SubText Bookstore in St. Paul recommends the novel “Enormous Wings” by Laurie Frankel.
Her best-selling novel, "Before I Let Go," is being adapted into a streaming series on Peacock, and her latest book, "Score," follows a woman with bipolar disorder who reunites with her college sweetheart while making a film about the Harlem Renaissance. She's aware that some people are dismissive of her genre, but she attributes some of that to "patriarchy and misogyny."
