Sometimes It Just Works

Christopher Barzak makes it look easy. (And of course we all know that it's not.)

Barzak's debut novel One For Sorrow begins with the protagonist Adam McCormick remembering this kid he knew in high school, Jamie Marks. We get five paragraphs about who Adam is, who Jamie is, and then we're hit with the following:

I suppose I should probably say a word or two about my mother and the rest of my family.

There it is: Backstory. Immediate blow-the-whistle, put-on-the-brakes, stop everything Backstory.

For two solid pages.

But it works. And I can't figure out why. I've been sitting here trying to come up with any other way Barzak could have told the same story, but I can't. It's backstory and it works.

I guess Barzak understands that what he's done in those first five paragraphs is strong enough for a two-page diversion. What he puts in that two-page diversion is good stuff, essential stuff. Again, I don't know how it works, but it does.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to read the rest of the book.