From Aviles To Mingus To De La Soul, Author Daniel Alarcón Spins Three Favorites
The most recent novel from Daniel Alarcon, At Night We Walk In Circles, is funny, sad, and keeps you guessing until the last page. Set in unnamed, coastal South American country, it’s about a young actor named Nelson who joins a resuscitated theater troupe led by his hero, which tours around the countryside performing a subversive political play, called The Idiot President. Later there’s murder, intrigue, and lots of sad mothers and sad actors.
And for all these reasons, At Night We Walk In Circles, was named on many year-end best-of lists in 2013. The Peruvian-born, Alabama-raised, San Francisco-based author was also recently named among of the best 20 Writers Under 40 by The New Yorker. But he's also a music fan, and shares this three-song playlist of a few of his favorite tracks.
Daniel Alarcón's Pick Three
Oscar Aviles, "Cuando Llora Mi Guitarra"
"Aviles is an exponent of musica criolla, my parents' music. He's the finest guitarist of that tradition. And I wanted to be a musician when I was younger, guitar player, etc. But ignored this music because [I] was a young unsophisticated idiot. Years later, I get it, and it's beautiful. He's the best."
De La Soul, "Ego Trippin’ (Part Two)" from Buhloone Mindstate (1993)
"I guess I knew every De La Soul lyric by heart at one time, in particular Buhloone Mindstate. From beginning to end, it’s solid. It’s funny, which was an antidote to lots of hip hop in the early '90s. I listened to Nas, but I’m not from Queensbridge and it’s not a reality I can appreciate beyond a novelistic level. Illmatic is a novelistic description of a place I’ve never been and I can appreciate it. But you see the video for “Ego Trippin'” and you’re laughing, and that’s a very different way for someone who’s not from a hip-hop community to experience that kind of music."
Charles Mingus, "Pithecanthropus Erectus"
"Everything Mingus did with [Eric] Dolphy. I've always been fascinated by that relationship -- that of a composer with his virtuoso. Mingus would say that he wrote with Dolphy in mind, and when Dolphy died, he fell into a depression. I could spend the whole time talking about Mingus, easily."
