I don't know that "Forrest Gump wins the lottery" works for me as a pitch. Call me crazy, but I think he already had won the lottery. He had enough money that he didn't have to worry about it (which is nice, because it's one less thing), had earned the love of a beautiful woman, and had fathered a child who loved him.
I realize it's a pitch, and Patricia Wood, in Lottery, her first published novel, wasn't writing about the fictional character Forrest Gump but creating her own -- based somewhat on her own family circumstances. I'm happy for her to have received a nice advance after struggling with novels that for whatever reason didn't make the grade. And I like the closing quote in the USA Today story: "I never in a million years would have predicted where I would be now. But there's an inevitableness about it. There's this strange familiarity I am where I belong."
Here's to another writer belonging.
No comments:
Post a Comment