Dying for Dyer
Multi-talented novel- and non-fiction writer Geoff Dyer was the latest guest in the Centre for New Writing's Literature Live series on a very cold 10 December.
The writer, who has published three novels as well as six works of non-fiction and an array of journalism, read a short but suspenseful account of a New Mexico car journey, which had recently been published in the writing periodical Granta.
Entitled White Sands, it began by describing the stark serenity of the stretch of desert bearing that name near El Paso. The calm which Dyer and his partner experienced there was shattered however when they picked up a hitchhiker on their way home, shortly before a road-side sign warned them of nearby detention centres and the dangers of picking up passengers.
The Doors' Riders on the Storm on the radio served only to increase the tension in the car, and the hitcher's assertion that his crimes were in the past did little to assuage the travellers' fears. The piece finished with Dyer and his partner speeding away from a petrol station with the hitcher left behind in the toilets; their elation and relief soon giving way to concern that they may have been unjust and judgemental.
Questions from the audience after the reading covered such subjects as the importance of travel to Dyer's writing, the meaningfulness of boundaries between fiction and non-fiction writing ("all just writing", in his view) and the impact of writing about one's self, family and friends. His frank descriptions of sexual experiences and drug use were also discussed, along with the way his approach to both has changed during his writing career.
Geoff Dyer proved a popular guest and an admired writer, with the queues at the post-event bookstall and signing table even longer than those at the wine stall!