CHIMACUM — The woman has a snappy retort for the question about her work.
Yes, it may seem like texting and YouTube are taking over, novelist Mary Doria Russell acknowledges.
So will we have any use, in 10 or 20 years, for a full-length novel?
She answers with an analogy: “In an era of snacks and junk food, what good is a well-cooked and beautifully presented meal? At the very least, it’s a welcome change of pace. At best, it’s nourishing and satisfying SEmD and maybe even memorable,” Doria Russell said .
The acclaimed novelist, who lives outside Cleveland, is coming to the North Olympic Peninsula on Tuesday to offer a talk titled “Confessions of a Book Junkie.”
Admission is free to the
6:30 p.m. lecture in the Chimacum High School auditorium, 91 West Valley Road.
Doria Russell’s speech is 2011’s Huntingford Humanities Lecture, an event named for the late Sally Huntingford, a teacher and mother who believed in the ways a library can enliven a rural community.
Huntingford helped establish the Jefferson County Library, which presents the lecture each year.
Praised for work
The writer, who joins Sherman Alexie and Nancy Pearl among those who have come to give Huntingford lectures, enjoys glowing praise for her creations.
The Sparrow was her debut novel; A Thread of Grace and Dreamers of the Day followed, and then Doria Russell was swept up by a gunfighter with a past.
John Henry “Doc” Holliday is known mostly for the shootout at the O.K. Corral.
But Doria Russell, after seeing Val Kilmer portray him in the movie “Tombstone,” discovered much more while reading his biographies.
“That boy was born with a cleft palate, surgically repaired in 1851. He and his mother were intensely close. She invented speech therapy for him,” she began.
“He played classical piano, and he graduated with the degree of doctor of dental surgery when he was only 20.”
Doc Holliday was 22 when he was diagnosed with advanced tuberculosis. He left Atlanta for Dallas, hoping the dry air would be better for his health, but arrived just in time for the depression of 1873.
“Anyone who’s graduated from college recently knows exactly what [Holliday] was up against. Careers that seemed bright and promising suddenly evaporate. You’ve got a shiny new business degree, and you’re lucky if you can get a part-time job at Starbucks,” said Doria Russell.
It was a living
“Doc turned to gambling because that was the only way he could make a living. Everything else required strength and stamina. He had neither, so he did the best he could.”
Holliday’s story became Doc, Doria Russell’s new novel, and critics didn’t hold back their praise.
Kirkus Reviews, for one, described Doc as “filled with action and humor, yet philosophically rich and deeply moving . . . a magnificent read.”
Doria Russell’s books are powerful discussion starters, added Meredith Wagner, associate director of the Jefferson County Library.
Her book group-read The Sparrow — a novel that raises big questions about religion and faith — and “we had one of our best conversations surrounding that book.”
Copies of Doria Russell’s novels will be available for purchase Tuesday night and are always available for checkout at the Jefferson County Library, 620 Cedar Ave. in Port Hadlock.
For information about the Huntingford Humanities Lecture and other library offerings, phone 360-385-6544 or visit www.jclibrary.info.
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Features Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-417-3550 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.