{"id":26266,"date":"2020-10-09T22:51:05","date_gmt":"2020-10-10T03:51:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kjagradio.com\/themic\/?p=26266"},"modified":"2020-10-09T22:51:09","modified_gmt":"2020-10-10T03:51:09","slug":"parkinsons-blues-gifted-storytellers-journey-with-parkinsons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kjagradio.com\/themic\/parkinsons-blues-gifted-storytellers-journey-with-parkinsons\/","title":{"rendered":"Parkinson\u2019s Blues: Gifted Storyteller\u2019s Journey with Parkinson\u2019s"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n

Gifted Storyteller\u2019s Journey with Parkinson\u2019s and Other Challenges of a Long Life<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boston, MA, Sept. 24, 2020<\/strong> \u2014 When Parkinson\u2019s disease descended like a dense fog on master storyteller John J. Clayton, he was forced to pivot his perspective, change his expectations and write from a place he calls \u201c\u2026 both alive and not alive. Like a kind of ghost \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parkinson’s Blues: Stories of My Life<\/em> begins with the arrival of the dark unexpected. In a Monty Python skit, someone in a drab living room complains about being nagged by questions. \u201cI didn\u2019t expect the Spanish Inquisition,\u201d he complains. Suddenly Michael Palin, in red 16th<\/sup> century costume, bursts into the room. \u201cNobody Expects the Spanish Inquisition!\u201d he shrieks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who expects the onset of Parkinson\u2019s? Or cancer? Or stroke? Or the loss of a child? The terrible surprise\u2014the life we didn\u2019t expect\u2014isn\u2019t limited to Parkinson\u2019s. It\u2019s the existential condition of everyone\u2019s life. In fourteen sketches, John J. Clayton links the experience of PD with the experience of childhood sickness, family battles, the struggle to make a good life out of a painful life. The sketches express the hope that we can grow spiritually in the midst of the terrible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through 14 eloquent stories \u2014 all of which underscore that Clayton\u2019s gift and spirit remain fully intact \u2014 Clayton links the onset of Parkinson\u2019s disease with other unexpected, and challenging experiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parkinson\u2019s Blues <\/em>explores the anticipated pain and unexpected comedy of Parkinson\u2019s in a manner that is deep, graceful and dignified.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Author John J. Clayton has published nine volumes of fiction, both novels and short stories. His collection of interwoven short stories, Minyan, <\/em>was published in September 2016; his collection Many Seconds into the Future <\/em>in 2014. Mitzvah Man<\/em>, his fourth novel, arrived in 2011. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clayton\u2019s stories have appeared in AGNI<\/em>, Virginia Quarterly Review<\/em>, TriQuarterly<\/em>, Sewanee Review<\/em>, over twenty times in Commentary<\/em>, in Notre Dame Review<\/em>, Missouri Review<\/em> and The Journal<\/em>. Two personal essays have been recently published in Jewish Review of Books. <\/em>His stories have won prizes in O.Henry Prize Stories, Best American Short Stories<\/em>, and the Pushcart Prize <\/em>anthology. His Radiance, <\/em>a collection of stories, was a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clayton grew up in New York City; received his B.A. at Columbia, his M.A. at NYU and his Ph.D. at Indiana. For much of his career he taught modern literature and fiction writing as professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He has also written two books of literary criticism: Saul Bellow: In Defense of Man <\/em>and Gestures of Healing<\/em>, a psychological study of the modern novel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more information, please visit www.johnjclayton.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gifted Storyteller\u2019s Journey with Parkinson\u2019s and Other Challenges of a Long Life Boston, MA, Sept. 24, 2020 \u2014 When Parkinson\u2019s disease descended like a dense fog on master storyteller John J. Clayton, he was forced to pivot his perspective, change his expectations and write from a place he calls \u201c\u2026 both alive and not alive. Like a kind of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-video","category-nws","post_format-post-format-video"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjagradio.com\/themic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjagradio.com\/themic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjagradio.com\/themic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjagradio.com\/themic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjagradio.com\/themic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26266"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kjagradio.com\/themic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26266\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26327,"href":"https:\/\/kjagradio.com\/themic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26266\/revisions\/26327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjagradio.com\/themic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjagradio.com\/themic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjagradio.com\/themic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}