I Think You're Totally Wrong

October 27, 2014
Critic and writer Shields (Reality Hunger) and his former student Powell, once an aspiring artist, now a stay-at-home dad, spent four days together in 2011, conversing on a wide range of issues related to the artistic life. At the center of their quarrel is the push-and-pull between which is the best path: devotion to art or life experience? Shields concedes that Powell has traveled more, had more adventures, and raised more children, but Shields’s devotion to writing paid off in the form of published books, prestigious teaching positions, and engagement with the literary world. As a book-in-dialogue, the two freely discuss and dissect their debts to My Dinner with Andre and David Lipsky’s book-length interview with David Foster Wallace, Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself (2010). Shields and Powell keep waiting for “the flip,” or the moment when their roles in the interview will reverse, or one will convince the other he is right, but each is so full of complexity and contradictions that it’s difficult to imagine if such a flip is possible. Like any good belletristic conversation, the authors discuss dozens of literary figures, books, and movies, from novelists David Markson and Renata Adler to the movies Sideways and The Crying Game. And, like a true teacher, Shields is always pressing for the larger issue, questioning why art matters or how can suffering be alleviated. A worthy and important addition to the genre, this casual conversation pushes readers to rethink fundamental questions of life and art.

November 1, 2014
Two writers-one successful, the other still working on it-venture into the woods over the course of four days with one objective in mind: Argue so well that people will want to read about it.Years ago, before traveling the world and teaching ESL, Powell was a scruffy kid with long hair and a mustache sitting in Shields' writing class, mulling over a life of letters. Flash forward to today, and the same intellectual writer has become a stay-at-home father, but one who still earnestly cultivates his art. The older man, meanwhile, has quietly spent the intervening years maintaining a steady, successful course in academia. So, which one has suffered and sacrificed more for the written word, and which one is the more successful human, effectively managing to keep himself directly involved in the flow of life? The answer to that question represents the heart of the writers' multifaceted dialogue. Getting there, however, is just as interesting as the two men discuss everything from My Dinner with Andre to sports radio to George W. Bush. They also pepper their discussion with ruthless critiques of each other's works. While the intellectual discourse is largely dispassionate, it never comes across as bloodless, with both men subtly revealing profound aspects of their souls during the course of their galloping discourse. Of course, they delve deeply into stuffy literary criticism, as well, but that's balanced by a deep sense of how each man feels about fatherhood, friendship, mortality and women. Powell, however, is clearly the engine behind the endeavor, driven in part by the enduring desire for both a mentor's approval and his further instruction. He also reveals more about his past exploits, which include a harrowing life-and-death episode and an eye-opening adventure with two different amorous "transvestites," on more than one occasion. A stimulating intellectual interaction with lots of heart.

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January 1, 2015
This print equivalent of the 1981 film My Dinner with Andre is an often contentious and always intelligent dialogue between prolific author Shields and his Seattle friend, Powell, a writer, former student of Shields', and stay-at-home husband. Prepared but spontaneous, the two talk about what smart men often talk about (when they talk at all). They talk about sports, they talk about movies and books and authors, they talk about their families and earlier experiences, they talk about race (a concern for both) and politics, they talk about sex, and they talk a great deal about life and work (art/writing) as contrasting options. Shields, who has written on a variety of subjects, has devoted his focus, by design, to his work. Powell, though a writer, has focused more on his family. Shields at one point says, You don't solve questions first, then turn to art to embody the answers. The art is where you investigate the questions. They approach their topics with clarity and wit, they poke and prod, they agree and disagree. There is no connective tissue. It's all dialoguetwo interesting guys talking, not always interestingly but interestingly enough to keep us listening.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)

August 1, 2014

Shields, whose Reality Hunger was named a best book by more than 30 publications, loves his art but wishes he had a life. Friend Powell has published stories and essays, but with life intervening--he's now a stay-at-home dad to three girls--he can't commit to art. Here, they capture an art-vs.-life dialog they had on a retreat to a Cascade Mountains cabin. Look for the James Franco film.

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