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LITERATURE Critics embrace Ashland author's 'quirky' style Victor Lodato's short story is published in New Yorker Comment By John Darling for the Tidings DailyTidings.com By John Darling for the Tidings Posted Nov. 5, 2015 at 12:01 AM By John Darling for the Tidings Posted Nov. 5, 2015 at 12:01 AM » Social News The subject of Ashlander Victor Lodato’s second short story in the New Yorker magazine, “Jack, July,” is a meth head coming down off his drug, as seen from inside his head, but told in third person. Lodato's first novel, “Mathilda Savitch” was published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux and lauded in the New York Times. He just finished his second novel, “Edgar and Lucy,” which will be published by St. Martin’s Press in 2017. Lodato, 45, a full-time writer, Rutgers graduate (theater, psychology) and native of Hoboken, N.J., will be doing a book reading and signing at 7 p.m. Thursday at Bloomsbury Books. He moved to Ashland two years ago from Tucson when he found this town had a university, locally owned bookstore and a food co-op. “It doesn’t get more livable than this," he said. "... and these are turning out to be the most productive years of my life.” Lodato’s lively, quirky, surreal style is immediately evident the New Yorker story, which begins: “The sun was a wolf. The fanged light had been trailing him for hours, tricky with clouds. As it emerged again from sheepskin, Jack looked down at the pavement, cursed. He’d been walking around since ten, temperature even then close to ninety. The shadow stubs of the telephone poles and his own midget silhouette now suggested noon. He had no hat, and he’d left his sunglasses somewhere, either at Jamie’s or at The Wheel, or they might have slipped off his head. They did that sometimes, when he leaned down to tie his shoes or empty them of pebbles.” Though Lodato has never experienced meth, he says he saw enough of its users in his Tucson neighborhood as they staggered about and muttered. He also portrays the rationalization going on in the head of Jack, as he praises the supposed up-side of meth and, recently evicted, looks for a place to crash. “It’s a road trip through the mind of a meth addict,” he says. “I understand mania. I have a manic personality sometimes,” he says, over his tea at Noble Coffee House. “I’m a playwright (produced at Magic Theater in San Francisco and Vineyard Theater in New York) and I’m always comical with a lot of tragedy. I’m interested in creating high stakes for the characters, putting them in difficult situations to see if they can find some sense of grace and solace.” Lodato says he doesn’t go for “huge, complicated plot lines ... but I’m never satisfied until there’s a good dramatic arc.” Readers talk a lot about finding likable characters in a novel, but Lodato notes, “We’re in trouble if we look for that. I try to get inside of people who aren’t like us ... and explore the character of a person that’s not been examined before.” The New York Times called his first book “a Salingeresque wonder of a first novel.” It was rated a Best Book of the Year by the Christian Science Monitor, Booklist and the Globe & Mail. It won the PEN USA Award for Fiction and the Barnes & Noble Discover Price. Lodato is a Guggenheim Fellow and won fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Camargo Foundation of France. As a playwright, he won the Weissberger Award for “Motherhouse” and the PEN USA Award for “Arlington. Other plays include “Wildlife,” “Dear Sara Jane” and “The Bread of Winter.” Lodato’s “Jack, July” is included in the book, “Best Short Stories 2015.” It is at www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/09/22/jack-july . John Darling is an Ashland freelance writer. Reach him at [email protected]. By John Darling for the Tidings DailyTidings.com By John Darling for the Tidings Posted Nov. 5, 2015 at 12:01 AM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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