The perils of proofreading + cinemas I have known

Author Abroad S2:E5

Yikes! Where did May go? This month’s belated edition of Author Abroad takes a look at the challenges of proofreading your own work, returning home—if I can still call it that, and some of the books I’ve enjoyed recently.

Writing

Exciting news—my debut novel The Golden Land will be re-released in September by the University of Nebraska Press with a new cover, new font/typesetting, and a set of book club questions at the back! Those of you who’ve been following Author Abroad from the get-go know what a rollercoaster the publishing process has been for me, so I’m thrilled for The Golden Land to have a second chance.

Over the past two weeks, I’ve been busy reviewing the final proofs of the novel. While the publisher oversees the editorial process, including initial rounds of editing, authors are often the only ones to read the final page proofs in their entirety, which means it’s up to us to catch any last-minute typos, line drops, or other inconsistencies that might have occurred when transferring the manuscript into the publishing software—or in this case, from the previous publisher’s software to the new publisher’s software. Reviewing final page proofs requires a clear mind, a significant time commitment (skimming doesn’t cut it), and in my case, at least, a good deal of restraint.

I don’t know what it’s like for other writers, but I could honestly keep rewriting forever. Anytime I write a sentence, no matter how good or bad that sentence might be, I see countless ways I might rewrite it. Sentences are like little puzzles to be solved. Except unlike my favorite NYT puzzles (Wordle!, Connections!), there’s no right answer. Each tweak presents a new set of possibilities and meaning that can vary according to my mood, time of day, and level of fatigue. I might move a comma in the morning only to move it back later that evening. Not a great use of time!😵‍💫

In this particular instance, however, I was issued strict instructions and a limit of 50 corrections max. In the words of my editor, “changes should be limited to those necessary to correct typographical errors, factual errors, and editorial inconsistencies….This is not an opportunity to revise or rewrite the text.” So, not only did I have to behave, I also had to weigh each potential correction against the next to determine which was most important. It was tedious, but I think I caught most of the errors and managed to refrain from rewriting the entire novel, however tempted I was. Stay tuned for the cover reveal and preorder link in my next newsletter!

Reflections from Abroad

You might notice that I changed the title of this section from Life Abroad to Reflections from Abroad. There’s a reason for that. Since my last newsletter, I made somewhat agonizing decision to move back home—to the US, that is. I tried to make it work in Bangladesh, and under different circumstances, I might’ve really enjoyed my time there, but with my kids and other family here in the US, it was too hard. After 30 years abroad, it was time to come back to this place called home. Although, the truth is, I called those other countries home too.

So now here I am, settling into a new life and new job in a not-so-new country that, in many ways, feels more alien to me than any of the other places I’ve called home over the years. I left the US for my first posting abroad in 1994, when I was 26 years old. Needless to say the country has changed a lot since 1994—as have I. I’m sure there will be more to say about this in the coming months. In the meantime, I’m enjoying being in this beautiful new/old destination, surrounded by friendly locals, and able to communicate freely in my mother tongue. I’m guessing this section will become a mashup of reflections on returning home and recollections of all the other places I’ve lived.

View from the cinema parking lot

The other day, I went to see a movie with a friend (Wicked Little Letters—so good!). I used to love going to the cinema, but for a variety of reasons, the pastime fell away during my time abroad. I recall seeing some great Bollywood flicks in Dar es Salaam during my junior year abroad in Tanzania, 1988-89, but have no recollection whatsoever of going to the cinema in The Gambia, Angola, Mozambique, or Malawi.

In Rome, most English-language films are dubbed into Italian, which I find disconcerting (the dubbing, not the Italian), especially when the timing is off, which happens more often than you’d think. There was a dedicated English language cinema at one point, but it closed down shortly after we moved there. Occasionally, other cinemas would hold special screenings of films in original language, and we’d make sure to go.

When we first arrived in Myanmar, the only cinema with English language films was the Naypyitaw theatre downtown. I went once or twice. Instead of popcorn, the Burmese like to nibble on sunflower seeds, dropping the shells onto the floor. As a result, the theatre was reportedly infested with rats, so you had to keep your feet up and watch your snacks (although my daughter tells me there no rats, and she went more often than I did). Whenever we went to Bangkok for doctor or dentist appointments, we took the opportunity to see a film or two. The cinemas in Bangkok are very nice—the only peculiarity there is that everyone in the theatre must stand for a dedication to the king before the movie starts!

Over the course of our stay in Yangon, new malls and cinemas began to open up as part of the investment boom that came with democratization, but by that time, I was out of the habit. I wonder what happened to those fancy new malls since the 2021 coup. Speaking of which, since I last wrote, there’s been some good coverage in the New York Times here, here, and here about what’s happening in Myanmar. I wonder, too, whether Tanzania, The Gambia, Angola, Mozambique, or Malawi now have state-the-art cinemas, or if Rome finally got the dedicated English-language cinema so many were lobbying for. Living a nomadic lifestyle like I have, you only ever know each place in a given time; they’re like an old friend who remains forever in your memories the way they were when you last saw them.

Reading

The Morningside: A Novel by Téa Obreht (Random House, 2024), audiobook narrated by Carlotta Brentan

This remarkable new novel tackles issues of immigration and climate change, as well as the complexity of mother-daughter relationships. After fleeing from country to country, 11-year-old climate refugee Sil(via) and her mother move into the Morningside, a once luxury building in futuristic Island City, aka Manhattan, now mostly submerged in water. They are beneficiaries of the government’s Repopulation Program, which aims to rejuvenate the dying city with able-bodied workers from poor, war-torn countries like the one Sil and her mother hail from. But Sil’s mother refuses to talk to her daughter about where they came from or what they were running from, leaving Sil to rely on myth, imagination, and whatever scraps of information she’s able to piece together as she tries to make sense of their strange new world. A clever and thought-provoking novel, The Morningside and its quirky characters will stay with you long after you close this book.

Oh William!: A Novel by Elizabeth Stout (Random House, 2021)

Booker-prize finalist Oh William! features the quirky and much-loved Lucy Barton, who Strout also wrote about in My Name is Lucy Barton, Anything is Possible, and Lucy by the Sea (though you don’t have to read those other books to enjoy this one). Now 70 and remarried, Lucy reflects on her relationship with her ex-husband, William, whom she divorced decades earlier. What I liked most about Oh William! is Strout’s way of exploring complex questions of love and marriage through the simple, often meandering, but always spot-on worldview of Lucy Barton:

“But when I think Oh William!, don’t I mean Oh Lucy! too? Don’t I mean Oh Everyone, Oh dear Everybody in this whole wide world, we do not know anybody, not even ourselves!

Except a little tiny, tiny bit we do.

But we are all mythologies, mysterious. We are all mysteries, is what I mean.

It’s hard not to love this endearing narrator. An intimate look at why people fall in love and what makes one relationship work and another fail, Oh William! will make you laugh, scream and shake your head along with Lucy Barton.

That’s it for this month. Let me know what you think in the comments below. I love hearing from you!

💕 Liz