THE GREAT NORTH AMERICAN NOVEL - Out July 10, 2019

This is from the opening of THE GREAT NORTH AMERICAN NOVEL, being released July 10, 2019. It will be released on Amazon, and there will probably be additional passages from it posted here in the weeks leading up to the book coming out (depending on how I feel). In fact, I should also add: I only ever publish if I feel like it’s necessary or if I have something to say. If I don’t feel like it anymore around July 10, literally ignore all of this.😂😂😂

INTRO / WARNING

This is for those of you asking, “What is this book about?” Don’t look for a traditional narrative here. Please don’t be put off by that; it’s not a difficult book at all, I hope it’s fun to read. It’s a lot less pretentious than it seems.

It’s a portrait of a very specific place and state of mind. North America as I recognize it personally. Wal-Mart, suburban plazas, parking lots, convenience stores, the internet, enclaves of North American life (or lack thereof). Stuff like that. It consists of short stories, sketches, moments, scenes, bits and pieces, dialogue, ideas, letters, etc. Fragments that hopefully create a bigger story. Random things that tie into the theme of North American people and culture in general.  If you could go on a long road trip and grab large handfuls of North American life at random and throw ‘em all into a blank book, this is hopefully the book that would result.

Some parts are connected to each other in some manner (even if it’s something really minor like a character appearing in two different stories). And some parts don’t connect to anything at all. That doesn’t really matter though; I tried to make the book enjoyable without the reader having to necessarily read it in order.

You know how people say that eight million stories thing about New York? This is kind of like that. It’s me trying to capture a moment by using a bunch of different moments. Instead of just one singular story, I guess. I wanted to make a novel without having to follow the rules of a normal novel; after awhile it gets boring to write if I’m just doing it the same way all the time.

Another main goal for me when I wrote this: I wanted to write a book that could not be adapted or turned into a film. For some time now I have heard the phrase, “The novel is dead,” and as a guy that wears glasses, buys books often, and visits the library weekly, I have to say: it hurts everytime I’ve heard that false utterance. So another goal for me was to kind of show what the medium of the novel is still capable of (that other forms of art may not necessarily be able to do). 

I was also interested in exploring the idea of, “What would the great North American novel look like if someone downloaded it off the internet using one of those weird torrent sites and it came all messed up?” I started asking myself all these questions:

-What does the great American novel look like in this era?

-How could I describe it, if someone were to ask me: what is North American culture?

-What can the novel still do that other forms can’t?

-How can I compete with shows and HBO and Instagram and all this other stuff people seem to be engaging with way more than traditional printed books right now?

In some ways, this is a book for people who dislike reading.

Thank you for your time so far, and with this book I hope I’ve added value to your life in some way.

Cheers,

Larry Singleton, April 2019.