Book Group Discussion Meeting, Saturday, November 2, 2019, 2:00 PM San Leandro Main Library

One Station Away by Olaf Olafsson

Synopsis: The story of a New York neurologist and the three women who change his life: An overlooked pianist who finally receives fraught success after decades of disappointment; an elusive dancer whose untimely death her fiancé is desperate to untangle; a mysterious patient who is comatose after a violent accident. Magnus, a New York neurologist—son to one, lover to another, and doctor to a third—is the thread that binds these women’s stories together as he navigates relationships defined by compromise and misunderstanding, guilt and forgiveness, and, most of all, by an obsessive attempt to communicate—to understand and to be understood, to love and to be loved.



Tracking the Elusive Ólafur Jóhann Ólafsson

Photo by Annelisa Leinbach

Compared to other authors we have read, there is very little to be found about the man himself on the internet. The biographical information is pretty much limited to his official bio everywhere you look:

Olaf Olafsson was born in Reykjavik, Iceland in 1962. He studied physics as a Wien Scholar at Brandeis University. He is the author of three previous novels, The Journey Home, Absolution and Walking Into the Night, and a story collection, Valentines. His books have been published to critical acclaim in more than twenty languages. He is the recipient of the O. Henry Award and the Icelandic Literary Award, was shortlisted for the Frank O’Connor Prize, and has twice been nominated for the IMPAC Award. He is the Executive Vice President of Time Warner and he lives in New York City with his wife and three children.

As I was putting this post together, I found an article in Bookpage where Olafsson talks about One Station Away and a little bit about his personal life. Among the interesting tidbits: His father, Olafur Sigurdsson, was an award-winning Icelandic author. You should probably click on the link and read the whole article as this is the longest discussion of the book by the author that I was able to find in any one article. I did find a slide show in the New York Times about his cozy little New York pied-à-terre.

It is easier to find information about his non-literary career. From the fount of all knowledge, I learned that Olafsson had worked for Sony, founding Sony Computer Entertainment at the time that the PlayStation was under development. He has worked on and off for Time Warner but left after the acquisition by AT&T. I was unable to find any in-depth reviews of One Station Away by any of the large periodicals. There are no interviews posted on YouTube either, so instead, I am posting a brief video of Vladimir Ashkenazy playing Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition." If you listen closely, it sounds just like Margaret Bergs.

Book Group Discussion Meeting, Saturday, October 5, 2019, 2:00 PM, San Leandro Main Library

An American Marriage by Tayari Jones

Synopsis: Newlyweds, Celestial and Roy, are the embodiment of both the American Dream and the New South. He is a young executive and she is artist on the brink of an exciting career. They are settling into the routine of their life together, when they are ripped apart by circumstances neither could have imagined. Roy is arrested and sentenced to twelve years for a crime Celestial knows he didn’t commit. Though fiercely independent, Celestial finds herself bereft and unmoored, taking comfort in Andre, her childhood friend, and best man at their wedding. As Roy’s time in prison passes, she is unable to hold on to the love that has been her center. After five years, Roy’s conviction is suddenly overturned, and he returns to Atlanta ready to resume their life together.

Introducing Tayari Jones

photo: Nina Subin

Tayari Jones was born November 30, 1970, in Atlanta, Georgia. She is a graduate of Spelman College, the University of Iowa, and Arizona State University. She was an A. D. White Professor at Large at Cornell University and is currently a member of the English faculty in the College of Arts and Sciences at Emory University.

Bibliography
Leaving Atlanta (2002)
The Untelling (2005)
Silver Sparrow (2011)
An American Marriage (2018)

Honors and Awards
Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for Debut Fiction
Lifetime Achievement Award in Fine Arts from the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation
United States Artist Fellowship
National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship[
Radcliffe Institute Bunting Fellowship
Silver Sparrow added to the NEA Big Read Library of classics in 2016.
Member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers

In February of 2018, Oprah Winfrey announced that her latest book club pick was Jones’ novel, An American Marriage. Winfrey said, “It's one of those books I could not put down. And as soon as I did, I called up the author, and said, 'I've got to talk to you about this story.'"

On June 5th, An American Marriage was announced as the winner of the 2019 Women's Prize for Fiction.

In the video clip below, Tayari Jones discusses An American Marriage on "CBS This Morning" with Gayle King, who obviously hasn't read the book.