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September 12, 2013
Book Notes - Claudia Zuluaga "Fort Starlight"
In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book.
Previous contributors include Bret Easton Ellis, Kate Christensen, Kevin Brockmeier, George Pelecanos, Dana Spiotta, Amy Bloom, Aimee Bender, Myla Goldberg, Heidi Julavits, Hari Kunzru, and many others.
Claudia Zuluaga's Fort Starlight is one of the year's most assured and confident debut novels, a powerful and compelling book steeped in its South Florida locale.
Publishers Weekly wrote of the book:
"Zuluaga’s absorbing, expertly written debut explores the intersection of dreams and reality in the bizarre wilderness of Florida’s wetlands."
Stream a Spotify playlist of these tunes. If you don't have Spotify yet, sign up for the free service.
In her own words, here is Claudia Zuluaga's Book Notes music playlist for her debut novel, Fort Starlight:
Fort Starlight is about a young woman's struggle to find herself in a half-built house in an unfinished housing community. She is isolated, alone, and surrounded by heat and silence. If only she had something on which to play music, she could soothe her soul. These are the songs I hear when I feel the heat and longing and hope and despair in Fort Starlight.
"The Boom Boom Bap" – Scritti Politti
OK, don't knock it until you try it. I was never a fan of Scritti Politti, back when they were cool, but Green Gartside's voice is a breathy butterscotch to my ears. This song, from 2006's White Bread Black Beer feels like the inside of my head, the loud sort of quiet that you hear when your head is pressed against the pillow and your heart is beating in your ear. This song is Ida when she is alone in the house in Fort Starlight, but when she is optimistic, when she is most capable of coping with being alone, when there seems to be something important in the sound of her own heartbeat.
"Anything" - Mark Eitzel
A quiet subplot in Fort Starlight is Ida's search for her brother, Robert, who left home when she was still in high school and never looked back. Their family home was a dead end for a kid trying to grow and become, and so his leaving was understandable. What she can't accept is that he left her behind without looking back. She doesn't know if he has created a happy life for himself without her or if something more sinister has happened. He doesn't know that she got out, too, and it hurts that she can't share it. Because she doesn't know what became of him or where to find him, to Ida, Robert is both a hero and someone to mourn.
I am a long-time fan of Mark Eitzel, formerly of American Music Club. "Anything" is a sad lament to a friend about that friend's overwhelming sadness, but it was re-recorded, up-tempo and with happy, Greek instruments. The bazouki (I'm guessing – I don't know Greek instruments) plays along to Your mother always said you'd be a sad old maid, alone and sour as a glass of lemonade and You're not alone, you should know that by now, I'd give anything to be where you are. Ida would give anything to be where Robert is, wherever that may be. He has crossed over to something that must be better than all that came before it.
"Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence" – Ryuichi Sakamoto
"Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence" begins with just a piano, and it is calm and meditative until the strings come in. The sounds build, the strings get percussive, and all becomes animated and purposeful, like a wild animal waking up and searching for prey. I see it most clearly in the conscience of Peter, a billionaire's son who lives in a self-built tree house, hidden within the forest hammock. Peter's obsession is the sounds of nature here, the wildlife and the wind. He records the sounds and wants to put the sounds together and create something bigger than the sub of its parts. He wants to make nature come alive.
"Sleeping Rough" – Paddy McAloon
This is music for the place, the wilderness as it reasserts itself over the attempt at civilization. Paddy McAloon is the voice of Prefab Sprout, and one of my favorite voices. There is something Peter and the Wolf narrative about this song, and I see the land rejecting the building and the infrastructure and taking itself over again, needing nobody, wanting only to be left alone. I'm lost. Yes, I am lost. I'll grow a long and silver beard, And let it reach my knees. And duty will not track me down, asleep among the trees.
Claudia Zuluaga and Fort Starlight links:
the author's website
excerpt from the book (at The Collagist)
excerpt from the book (read by the author)
Late Night Library interview with the author
TNBCC's The Next Best Book Blog essay
also at Largehearted Boy:
Book Notes (2012 - ) (authors create music playlists for their book)
Book Notes (2005 - 2011) (authors create music playlists for their book)
my 11 favorite Book Notes playlist essays
100 Online Sources for Free and Legal Music Downloads
Antiheroines (interviews with up and coming female comics artists)
Atomic Books Comics Preview (weekly comics highlights)
Daily Downloads (free and legal daily mp3 downloads)
guest book reviews
Largehearted Word (weekly new book highlights)
musician/author interviews
Note Books (musicians discuss literature)
Shorties (daily music, literature, and pop culture links)
Soundtracked (composers and directors discuss their film's soundtracks)
Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and full album streams from the week's CD releases)
weekly music & DVD release lists
