July Book Club: ‘Preparatory Notes for Future Masterpieces’ by Maceo Montoya

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KQED

News, Politics, News Commentary

4.2 • 726 Ratings

🗓️ 22 July 2021

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

For our inaugural Forum Book Club, we’ve picked Maceo Montoya’s “Preparatory Notes for Future Masterpieces.” The book interweaves its narrative with drawings and scholarly footnotes to tell the story of an aspiring painter with grand ambitions. This would-be artist faces several roadblocks: he is coming of age in 1940s New Mexico with no economic means to support his dreams and, instead of painting, he writes long notes for future works of art. Montoya takes readers along the narrator’s quest to become a celebrated artist — a journey that takes unusual turns including runs in with Chicanx historical figures such as activist Reies Lopez Tijerina and writer Oscar Zeta Acosta. In this comical and satirical tale, Montoya takes aim at what it means to tell a Chicano story, which Chicano narratives are elevated and who gets to become an artist. We’ll meet on the air to talk with Montoya and hear readers’ comments, reactions and questions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:34.3	Thank you. From KQED. From KQED, From KQED Public Radio in San Francisco, I'm Mina Kim.
0:49.3	Coming up on form, it's our inaugural book club show.
0:52.3	Today we meet to discuss Maseo Montoya's novel
0:55.4	Preparatory Notes for Future Masterpieces, about an aspiring painter with grand ambitions
1:01.7	who, instead of painting, writes about the masterpieces he will one day create when the
1:08.7	conditions are right. Along his quest from the mountains of New Mexico,
1:12.7	our would-be artist runs into not only Chicanek's historical figures, but also confronts questions
1:18.4	about his sanity. Author Maseo Montoya joins our book club right after this news. Please. I'm Mina Kim, and welcome to our book club series, where we'll regularly delve into a book by a writer with California roots.
2:12.4	Today, we're going deep into Maseo Montoya's new novel Preparatory Notes for Future Masterpieces. It opens with a letter
2:18.9	from a man named Ernie to a Chicanex literature professor. Ernie has just inherited a manuscript
	...

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