Sigrid Nuñez
Interesting, this is the word that comes to mind when one thinks of Nuñez’s speech. Interesting is a weak word, one that a high school student would use to describe an event. Similarly, Nuñez’s speech was weak, one that a high school student could have delivered. Any high school student could have gone up to a podium and began reading a novel to the audience. Similar to what teachers do with their kindergarten class, just read them a novel to entertain them. It was not so much that she read her novel, but rather that she read too much of it. A snippet of the novel would have been better than a chapter of it. However, one cannot butcher her writing, because through her novel A Feather on the Breath of God she illustrates her mastery of the language and her creation of a hybrid genre and the novel she read, The Last of Her Kind, was entertaining and luminous. Yet, her public speaking skills were lacking and she was unable to keep the audience entertained even with the use of her novel. Furthermore, her responses to the questions were evasive, but this was more the audience’s fault for not asking direct and solid questions. Out of all of the questions posed, there was one that was direct and solid, which added a memorable moment in the event.
During the question and answer period a student asked Nuñez if she had truly done acid. Her response was the highlight of the event. She declared to the audience that she had done “acid and many other kinds of drugs”. As a result, she removed an eerie tension that filled the room, allowing the audience to relax and the event to blossom. Thus, the audience opened up more, wanted to ask more questions, and began to enjoy themselves, ending the event favorably.
In all, there is not much else to say about the event. Nuñez is a brilliant writer and her novels are captivating. For these reasons one expected more from the event. Simply reading one of her novels and declaring that she does drugs was not enough to satisfy the audience. Perhaps she is just not a great public speaker and this is not her fault, we cannot all posses the innate craft and skill of Samuel Freedman and Angela Brown. No matter how hard we try.