Book Spotlight & Giveaway: A Loaded Gun by Jerome Charyn

We think we know Emily Dickinson: the Belle of Amherst, virginal, reclusive, and possibly mad. But in A Loaded Gun, Jerome Charyn introduces us to a different Emily Dickinson: the fierce, brilliant, and sexually charged poet who wrote:

My Life had stood—a Loaded Gun—
…
Though I than He— may longer live
He longer must—than I—
For I have but the power to kill,
Without—the power to die—

Through interviews with contemporary scholars, close readings of Dickinson’s correspondence and handwritten manuscripts, and a suggestive, newly discovered photograph that is purported to show Dickinson with her lover, Charyn’s literary sleuthing reveals the great poet in ways that have only been hinted at previously: as a woman who was deeply philosophical, intensely engaged with the world, attracted to members of both sexes, and able to write poetry that disturbs and delights us today.

A Loaded Gun Excerpt One:
http://lithub.com/neither-mad-nor-motherless-on-emily-dickinsons-self-creation/

A Loaded Gun Excerpt Two:
http://blog.longreads.com/2016/03/15/a-loaded-gun-the-real-emily-dickinson/

Jerome Charyn's Web Site:
http://www.jeromecharyn.com/

Jerome Charyn's Twitter:
http://twitter.com/jeromecharyn

Jerome Charyn's Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/53408.Jerome_Charyn

A Loaded Gun's Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/SecretLifeOfEmilyDickinson/

A Loaded Gun's Twitter:
http://twitter.com/emilysecretlife

A Loaded Gun's Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24796140-a-loaded-gun?from_new_nav=true&ac=1&from_search=true

Tribute Books Blog Tours Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tribute-Books-Blog-Tours/242431245775186

A Loaded Gun's blog tour site:
http://aloadedgunblogtour.blogspot.com

Jerome Charyn was born and raised on the mean streets of the Bronx. He graduated cum laude from Columbia College. He has taught at Princeton, Columbia, Stanford, Rice, was Distinguished Visiting Professor at the City University of New York and is currently Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the American University of Paris. Charyn is a Guggenheim Fellow and has twice won fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts. His stories and articles have appeared in The Atlantic, Paris Review, Esquire, American Scholar, New York Review of Books, New York Times, Ellery Queen and many other publications. Charyn's most recent books are The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson, I Am Abraham and Bitter Bronx: Thirteen Stories. His latest book is A Loaded Gun: Emily Dickinson for the 21st Century.

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Book Review: The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson by Jerome Charyn

With The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson: A Novel, award-winning author Jerome Charyn dares to dig deeper into the life of a woman who has captivated readers for generations.

Inspired by Dickinson's letters and poetry, this novel blends fact and fiction in a seamless way that allows the reader to believe every word Charyn has written is how it occurred.

The book opens in 1848, with a young Emily Dickinson as a seminarian at Mount Holyoke, where she falls in love with a fictional handyman known as Tom. Her fixation with Tom would follow her through much of her her life, despite the attention paid to her by other men.

Dickinson serves as the narrator of this tale, and Charyn emulated her voice to tell the story. The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson is not a book you will race through. While daring and bold, it's best to be treated like a cold glass of water after a strenuous activity--sipped, rather than gulped.

Some may be opposed to the liberties Charyn took in portraying the "Queen Recluse," but I found he painted a fascinating picture of one of my favorite poets. Admittedly, the book held additional charm to me because I live not far from where Dickinson grew up in Amherst and I attend a writers conference at Mount Holyoke every year. To see names, places, and publications I am so familiar with, made me feel at home when reading the book. It also inspired me to delve further into Dickinson's real life.

The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson portrays a passionate, witty woman who lived life fully, despite the confines of the society and times within which she was born and lived.


Title:  The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson: A Novel
Author: Jerome Charyn
Publisher:  W.W. Norton and Company

Paperback
Price: $14.95
ISBN: 9780393339178
Pages: 352
Release: February 14, 2011

Hardcover
Price: $24.95
ISBN: 9780393068566
Pages: 348
Release: February 22, 2010

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Read an excerpt at Amazon!

Jerome Charyn (born May 13, 1937) is an award-winning American author. With nearly 50 published works, Charyn has earned a long-standing reputation as an inventive and prolific chronicler of real and imagined American life. Michael Chabon calls him “one of the most important writers in American literature.”

New York Newsday hailed Charyn as “a contemporary American Balzac,” and the Los Angeles Times described him as “absolutely unique among American writers.”

Since the 1964 release of Charyn’s first novel, Once Upon a Droshky, he has published 30 novels, three memoirs, eight graphic novels, two books about film, short stories, plays and works of non-fiction. Two of his memoirs were named New York Times Book of the Year. Charyn has been a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. He received the Rosenthal Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and has been named Commander of Arts and Letters by the French Minister of Culture.

Charyn was Distinguished Professor of Film Studies at the American University of Paris until he left teaching in 2009.

In addition to his writing and teaching, Charyn is a tournament table tennis player, once ranked in the top 10 percent of players in France. Noted novelist Don DeLillo called Charyn’s book on table tennis, Sizzling Chops & Devilish Spins, "The Sun Also Rises of ping-pong."

Charyn lives in Paris and New York City. Visit him online at:

Website: http://www.jeromecharyn.com/

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/jerome.charyn

Twitter: http://twitter.com/jeromecharyn

The book's Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/SecretLifeOfEmilyDickinson

The book's Twitter page: http://twitter.com/EmilySecretLife

The publisher's website: http://books.wwnorton.com/books/detail.aspx?ID=17221






I received a copy of this book through Nicole at Tribute Books and the author. This review contains my honest opinion, for which I received no monetary compensation.