Dan Blum LIVE: The Feet Say Run!
I am excited to announce that The Feet Say Run is now available! I met Dan maybe about a year ago on a poetry forum. First of all, he's an incredibly gifted poet and wordsmith. His poems tell stories with humor, great imagery, beautiful turns of phrase and--something the musician in me especially appreciates--a beautiful flow and rhythm.
Not surprisingly, we got to talking about writing, and he mentioned Lisa 33, a book he'd had published by Viking some time ago, a quickly written satire on modern society, set entirely in a chat room, written in the format of a chat room conversation. He'd also, he told me, written two more serious and far better works. I asked to read them.
I was amazed and impressed with both! I rarely have time for reading these days, and hate reading on a computer screen, but these books drew me right in and kept me hooked. What struck me about both books was their true to life capturing of real people, real problems, caught in situations beyond their control, and doing the best they can.
These are flawed characters, just like all of us, and I think they're powerful insights into human nature. Yet Dan writes with beauty and with great humor. The Feet Say Run is a tragic, horrible story in many ways--a boy growing up in the years just before World War II, in love with a Jewish girl, yet under pressure from many sides to join the Wehrmacht. His adult years are scarred by the consequences of his actions, the trauma of war, those he lost, the things he's seen, and in his final years--we learn as the story begins--he is shipwrecked on a desert island with six other survivors.
Tragic. Horrible. Awful. We see death, we see the worst of human nature. Yet we can't help but laugh as his fellow castaways continue to argue about politics, as one decides to become a nudist, as Hans talks about coping with his late wife's final illness.
I loved the book so much, and felt it was such good writing, and such a good story that deserved to be out in the world, that I told him about Gabriel's Horn. Last May, we moved ahead with starting publication.
I read The Feet Say Run three or four times more over the course of the publication process, and never got tired of it. I hope you'll love it, too! Dan has been featured on my blog in the past in his interview series, cleverly named here: Part One, Part Two, and Part Three.
The Book:
The Feet Say Run is the story of a life spent running--a literary novel that is also a suspenseful page-turner, a work at once emotionally gripping and darkly comic.
In his waning years, Hans Jaeger finds himself stranded on a desert island—the last island not mapped by modern GPS — with a small band of survivors. What is my particular crime? he asks. Why have I been chosen for this fate?
And so he begins the chronicle of his long life. He tells the tale of his life in Nazi Germany, the Jewish girl he loved, and his years fighting with the Wehrmacht. His war experiences are vividly individual—a struggle for survival in the most harrowing of circumstances—and yet also the broader story of the cruelty and absurdity of the Nazi regime, the madness of men, and of war itself. Hans’s story is the story of all the madness, irony and horror of the modern world--and the story of one man who finds redemption only when there's nowhere left to run.
ABOUT DAN:
The Giveaway, which has nothing to do with Dan's book--unless you want to write notes about Dan's book and how great it is in this notebook, which--really!--is a very good idea!
To be entered to win, just leave a comment on the blog post. Remember to leave me SOME way of contacting you if you are chosen as the winner!
Not surprisingly, we got to talking about writing, and he mentioned Lisa 33, a book he'd had published by Viking some time ago, a quickly written satire on modern society, set entirely in a chat room, written in the format of a chat room conversation. He'd also, he told me, written two more serious and far better works. I asked to read them.I was amazed and impressed with both! I rarely have time for reading these days, and hate reading on a computer screen, but these books drew me right in and kept me hooked. What struck me about both books was their true to life capturing of real people, real problems, caught in situations beyond their control, and doing the best they can.
These are flawed characters, just like all of us, and I think they're powerful insights into human nature. Yet Dan writes with beauty and with great humor. The Feet Say Run is a tragic, horrible story in many ways--a boy growing up in the years just before World War II, in love with a Jewish girl, yet under pressure from many sides to join the Wehrmacht. His adult years are scarred by the consequences of his actions, the trauma of war, those he lost, the things he's seen, and in his final years--we learn as the story begins--he is shipwrecked on a desert island with six other survivors.
Tragic. Horrible. Awful. We see death, we see the worst of human nature. Yet we can't help but laugh as his fellow castaways continue to argue about politics, as one decides to become a nudist, as Hans talks about coping with his late wife's final illness.
I loved the book so much, and felt it was such good writing, and such a good story that deserved to be out in the world, that I told him about Gabriel's Horn. Last May, we moved ahead with starting publication.
I read The Feet Say Run three or four times more over the course of the publication process, and never got tired of it. I hope you'll love it, too! Dan has been featured on my blog in the past in his interview series, cleverly named here: Part One, Part Two, and Part Three.
The Book:
The Feet Say Run is the story of a life spent running--a literary novel that is also a suspenseful page-turner, a work at once emotionally gripping and darkly comic.
In his waning years, Hans Jaeger finds himself stranded on a desert island—the last island not mapped by modern GPS — with a small band of survivors. What is my particular crime? he asks. Why have I been chosen for this fate?
And so he begins the chronicle of his long life. He tells the tale of his life in Nazi Germany, the Jewish girl he loved, and his years fighting with the Wehrmacht. His war experiences are vividly individual—a struggle for survival in the most harrowing of circumstances—and yet also the broader story of the cruelty and absurdity of the Nazi regime, the madness of men, and of war itself. Hans’s story is the story of all the madness, irony and horror of the modern world--and the story of one man who finds redemption only when there's nowhere left to run.
ABOUT DAN:
Dan Blum grew up in New York, received a BA from Brandeis University, and currently resides in Wellesley, Massachusetts with his family and cat. He writes novels, poetry and satirical pieces, many of which appear in his blog, The Rotting Post.
He has previously published a novel under a pseudonym. This is his first published novel under his real name. He enjoys hiking, tennis, chess, and word-games, and can peel an entire apple in a single motion without ever tearing the peel.
Dan says of his writing: In my own reading I am drawn to serious, “literary” writers - winners of the National Book Award, the Pulitzer, and so on. And many of these are fine books. Yet too often I am frustrated that our literature has become ponderous to the point where it neglects the basic art of storytelling: drawing in the reader, keeping the plot moving forward, making the reader smile or laugh or ache. Why, I thought to myself, can’t a book be poetic and intellectually stimulating, and still be gripping and fast-paced and intense? This is what I have tried to write, because it is what I like to read.
I am honored to call Dan, as a person and as such a gifted writer, a friend!
I truly hope you'll love his writing as much as I do!
To be entered to win, just leave a comment on the blog post. Remember to leave me SOME way of contacting you if you are chosen as the winner!
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