Christopher F Reidy
Christopher Reidy
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The thoughts & Musings of Christopher F. Reidy*

NOTE: Apparently this webpage has some glitches. It tends to randomly switch out visual material.  Why?  Don't ask me.  So, if a pic doesn't match the text...it doesn't!  Rest assured I am trying to amend this problem.  When I get around to it.

*(may contain misuse of apostrophes, miss spellings, overabundance of semi-colons,  wrong word usage, etc.
Please pardon our appearance while we create a new blog experience for you!)

​ALSO: 
Please find a complete index of blog posts on the homepage, for your convenience!

AND YET ANOTHER NOTE:
The visual switcheroos on these blogs have reached a point where there's no way I can correct them all, so I'm just going to leave them be.  If they don't match the text, just think of them as whimsical funsies decorating the text.  I will continue to supply pictures; but I cannot guarantee their context: much like my mind.
Thank you for your patience!

A FURTHER NOTE:
I try to keep this website relatively free of anything truly morally reprehensible or obscene.  However, in the pursuit of honesty; I will be quite frank about sexuality; as I feel one should be.  To  wit: this website is not for children.  It is decidedly "adult"; although not necessarily not "childish."  I do not feel it is suitable, in some instances, for anyone below the age of 17.  Or maybe a very mature 16...or 15 even.  
THIS WEBSITE IS RATED: PG-15

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So, do you want long novels or what?

12/12/2020

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I just finished a really long novel.  I Know This Much is True by Wally Lamb.  I'd read online that Mark Ruffalo was going to star in an adaptation of the book.  I really admire Mr. Ruffalo so I thought I'd read the book (which happened to be in our library) first. I lugged it off the shelf and started it.  900 or so pages.  I was immediately drawn into the story.  Mr. Lamb wrote angry men as well as he wrote sad women.  I'd read She's Come Undone and like so many others thought the book had been written by a woman; so perfectly did it seem to capture a woman's point of view (this was back when #ownstories wasn't a twinkle in anyone's eyes).  And Oprah had given her stamp of approval on both (which is neither here nor there but I do like Ms. Winfrey's taste in literature). As I read, there turned out to be a book within the book.  A couple of hundred pages I guesstimate.  Which made the book proper around 700 pages.  That's still a really long book!  I liked the book.  I had some problems with it; namely, the book within the book.  I didn't read it.  My thought was, Mr. Lamb is already asking me to read a 700 page novel.  I'm sorry; but I'm not simultaneously reading a 200 page book purposely written in an amateurish style.  Besides, the narrator of the over-story kept telling me about the important plot points (which I suppose were subplot-plot points) so I didn't really need to read the second book.  Which is a long way of saying: I thought publishers didn't want long books. 
How many times have I read in online articles about getting published that NO ONE wants any book over 350 pages?
City on Fire by Mr. Hallberg. 927 pages.  That's like nearly 600 pages over!  That's like one and half novels over! And Mr. Hallberg received several million dollars in advance.  Isn't that simply the rewarding of bad behavior?  The Goldfinch by Ms. Tartt. 784 pages. Infinite Jest: 1,079. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay: 639.  Any book by Mr. Franzen: you're not going to get out at under 500.  That's 250 turns of the page.  The god-damned Harry Potter books.  Not a one less than 600 pages!!!
I have no problem with long books.  I love to spend months in one (I'm an "exacting" reader); enjoying being in that world.  In the act of reading.  That MAGIC act.  I have a tendency to write in Franzenian lengths myself.  So, I guess my question is: if so many bestsellers, modern classics, film-makeable tales and publishing phenoms are upwards of 500 pages (even debut novels--The Secret History anyone?) why do I keep coming across this decidedly UNMAGIC number of 350?  Besides, isn't it the job of editors to whittle down mammoth manuscripts into easily digestible amounts of words.  I mean, what exactly got cut out of I Know This Much is True?  I know this much is true: it wasn't much.
So please, whoever keeps dropping that three-hundred-and-fifty; please stop.  I'm even willing to pay you $350.00 if you will.  Just leave a bid in the comments box.  I'm negotiable.
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    AUTHOR
    Christopher Reidy is from the Boston area.  He attended Boston University where he studied TV and film which eventually led him to Los Angeles.  There he did the Hollywood thing (which he wasn’t particularly good at) and eventually met his partner Joseph.  He was one of the co-founders of the short lived Off Hollywood Theatre Company which staged several of his original plays.  83 In the Shade is his first novel.  He also dabbles in screenplays, toys with short stories, and flirts with poetry.  Life brought him to bucolic Southwest Virginia where he now resides and is very active in community theatre. It may interest you to know Chris is officially an Irish citizen as well as an American. He also enjoys drawing and painting and looking after a passel of 
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    housecats and two turtles.

     

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