The (Tipsy) Fairies’ Midwife
Though hardly the first person to
reinvent popular notions of fairies,
Martin Millar takes a charming, clever
view of the fey folk in his slyly titled
novel The Good Fairies of New York
(Soft Skull Press, 2006; $13.95). The cen-
tral fairies are not all that good (though
they certainly try), nor are they of New
York. Punk rock fans Heather
MacKintosh and Morag MacPherson are
Scottish thistle fairies, part of a group
that stumbled into New York after a seri-
ous bender. They wander through the
window of Dinnie MacKintosh, a bitter,
overweight fiddler with very little going
for him even before he has hungover
fairies vomiting on his floor. A spat sends
Morag across the street to the home of
kind, lovely Kerry, who suffers from
Crohn’s disease and is working on a
Celtic flower alphabet in hopes of beat-
ing out her disappointing ex for the the
East Fourth Street Community Arts
Association Prize.
With their human friends, Morag and
Heather get caught up in a tangle with
New York’s own fairies (of several na-
tionalities); a homeless woman named
Magenta, to whom meaningful objects
are mysteriously drawn; the fairy king of
Cornwall, whose kingdom is on the verge
of an industrial revolution; the fierce
MacLeod sisters; the rest of the lost
British fairies, who woke up in Central
Park; and the ghost of New York Dolls
guitarist Johnny Thunders, whose guitar
— and guitar solos — are of no small im-
portance. Millar’s funny, enticing novel
brightly evokes a New York City of a
decade or two ago, and manages to
touch on some serious issues — home-
lessness, chronic disease, racial tension
— without ever losing its fairy-dusted,
magical feel (except when you stumble
across one of a handful of punctuation
errors). For its gently magical approach
to very real ideas and for the delicious
characters of sassy, tipsy Heather and
Morag and purposefully too-good and
too-sour Kerry and Dinny, Millar’s unique
tale is definitely worth a read. If you
need further convincing, just take a peek
at Neil Gaiman’s glowing introduction.
— Molly Templeton
New Conference,
Astounding Authors
I read more than 400 books in 2005
in an all-out sprint to try to win
Oregonian columnist Steve Duin’s book
page contest (I was soundly trounced by
a George Fox student, alas!). But my sore
eyes aside, the point is that one of the
top books for me that year was Manuel
Luis Martinez’ Drift (2003), a stun-
ningly powerful novel of a young man
trying to figure his way to maturity in
San Antonio and L.A. Sex, responsibility,
family, violence and dealing with a ma-
jority-white world all play into the novel.
And damn, is this book beautifully writ-
ten. It’s available at the Eugene Public
Library — check it out! Then, thanks to
the UO’s New Writing, New Thinking
Conference, you (and I) can actually go
up to Martinez to give him compliments.
The conference, which runs Feb. 5-9 and
was put together by Jonathan Wei, coor-
dinator of the UO’s Nontraditional
Student Programs, brings to Eugene five
authors whose focus on the experiences
of immigrant and first-generation writ-
ers of color will shape the discussions.
Martinez, poet Patrick Rosal (My
American Kundiman, 2006),
novelists Katherine Min
(Secondhand World, 2006)
and Jessica Hagedorn
(who’s also a poet and a play-
wright; Dream Jungle, 2003)
and journalist David Wright
(Fire on the Beach, 2001) host
a packed schedule of read-
ings, presentations and panel
discussions from Monday
through Friday. The final
event on Feb. 9 is “Spit and
Slam,” a student open mic
with conference participants
as judges. This looks like just
about the coolest conference
ever at the UO, and thanks to
many conference sponsors, it’s free.
Check out the conference website at stu-
dentlife.uoregon.edu/programs/nwnt/in
dex.htm to find the full schedule of
events. Me, I’m just going to be honored
to be in the same room as these tal-
ented, thoughtful authors.
— Suzi Steffen
Go to the Birds
It’s February; it must be time to pick
up a book. A particular book, that is
(we’re firm believers in picking up books,
oh, constantly): Chris Chester’s
Providence of a Sparrow, this year’s
Readin’ in the Rain selection. Readin’ in
the Rain kicks off at 6:30 pm Friday night
at the Downtown Library with a presenta-
tion by educators from the Cascades
Raptor Center and “Nature Translated,
From Nest to Page,” a talk by Melissa
Hart. Book discussion groups abound
throughout the month, and Chester
comes to town
for a free talk and
reading at the
Hult Center on
Feb. 21. Chester’s
book is a memoir
about how a tiny
sparrow, fallen
from the nest
outside Chester’s
Portland home,
changed his life
in ways big and
small. Chester’s
prose falls some-
where between
anthropomor-
phism and sci-
ence, the emotional and the observant,
as he records the effect B, as he and his
wife Rebecca call the bird, has on his exis-
tence. For more on Providence of a
Sparrow, see the EW review online at
w w w 2 .e u g e nwe e k l y.co m /
2002/09_12_02/special.html
— Molly Templeton
Book Notes: Martha Gies speaks on “Where Imagination Meets the World: The Role of Research in Fiction and Nonfiction,”
6:30 pm 2/1, Baker Downtown Center. $10; Willamette Writers members free. Readin’ in the Rain Umbrella Opening: meet the
birds of the Cascades Raptor Center, 6:30 pm; talk by Melissa Hart on “Nature Translated, From Nest to Page,” 7:30 pm 2/2,
Downtown Library. Reading and book release party for Joseph Millar’s Fortune, 5 pm 2/3, Tsunami Books. Red Sofa Poets read-
ing and CD release party, 4 pm 2/4, Tsunami Books. Poet and translator Clayton Eshleman discusses “Translating Vallejo,” 5:30
pm 2/8, 112 Lillis, UO.
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FEBRUARY 1, 2007 29