Molly Giles
On Friday Molly Giles graced Spokane with her presence and what a treat it was. I’m not going to lie I hadn’t heard of her, but I guess if you think of all the great books out there and all of the really horrible books, its kind of amazing any one author stands out at all. I had come across Giles’s Creek Walk and Other Stories in the local independent book store a few weeks ago. I read the blurbs on the back, which sounded complimentary, as to be expected and the cover was really intriguing. It was even resting on top of a staff pick sign but stupid me I thought about my quickly diminishing bank account and decided if I hadn’t heard of it I didn’t need to take a chance on a book because of the cover.
As the universe goes sometimes, I realized this week that Giles would be in town and that on more than one occasion I passed up picking up a copy of her book so I rode my bike to the independent book store and they were all out of copies. I went home to check if any of the chains stores in town would have a copy and they didn’t. I had no choice but to wait until Giles’s reading to get a c
opy.
Unfortunately, I had to go to the reading without reading anything the author had written and I hate that then pair that with having a, what was I thinking when I thought I could be a writer, days I got to the reading expecting to not be impressed. Man, was I wrong. Giles was beautiful, poised, articulate and funny. When the reading was through, and though I hadn’t read the book yet, I shyly asked her to sign my copy. We chatted politely for a while and she signed my book. Nothing fancy, simply, “With best wishes!” She closed my book and handed it back to me. Then she told me to just go ahead and read “The Writers’ Model,” that it was short and she winked at me. Okay she probably had dust in her eye, but in my fantasy that Giles and I shared a connection for a moment where she could see that I needed a bit of encouragement that maybe someday I could come close to what she had done. I went home for a while and read the story she suggested and a few others and they touched me in an odd way. The prose is tight, the stories are funny, tragic, thought provoking basically everything I could ever hope for in a story. I know it’s kind of lame to quote a book blurb but, “Wow! …This collection should be on every woman’s shelf. Men too….” (Ruth Moose, News and Record) All I can say is pick up a copy. You’ll be glad you did.
Carly, I’m so glad you wrote about this. I hadn’t read anything of Giles’s either and had the audacity to not only go to the reading, but also attend the workshop she did in the afternoon. I believe that you did have a connection with her when she signed your book, she’s the kind of person that connects with her audience. She was so gracious and so funny during her visit here—and filled with humorous and inspiring advice for writers. She’s one of my favorite visiting writers so far.
Someone mysteriously left a photocopy of a Molly Giles story in my mailbox at work today. I don’t know if it was misplaced or if someone’s trying to tell me something, but I have only good associations with her after last Friday. So I do plan to read it.
Maybe I will know who left it after I read it?