The more I think and write about Michael Chabon’s won­der­ful nov­el Won­der Boys and the movie by the same title, the more I feel infect­ed and, for that mat­ter, inflict­ed by his protagonist’s embar­ras de richesse – flood­ed with grandiose ideas, tren­chant quotes and high­fa­lutin inten­tions. «The only part of my world that car­ried on, inal­ter­able and per­ma­nent, was Won­der Boys. I had the depress­ing thought, cer­tain­ly not for the first time, that my nov­el might well sur­vive me unfin­ished», says I‑Narrator Grady Tripp.
But unlike him I am deter­mined to gain the upper hand. After all, it is Michael Chabon him­self who (sup­pos­ed­ly) said: «You need three things to become a suc­cess­ful nov­el­ist: tal­ent, luck and dis­ci­pline. Dis­ci­pline is the one ele­ment of those three things that you can con­trol, and so that is the one that you have to focus on con­trol­ling, and you just have to hope and trust in the oth­er two.» And, luck­i­ly, I am not work­ing on a nov­el – this time.

Siehe auch den Beitrag «Ver­wirrung durch Über­fülle».