Sheely's second coming
by Vince Darcangelo
Recent political events have once again showcased the
uniqueness of Boulder, bringing the People's Republic back to the national
spotlight as a safe home for radicals, rioters and the free flow of ideas
(unless you're on the bad side of the CU regents, that is). In a progressive,
well-educated town where Ward Churchill and Salman Rushdie gave lectures
earlier this month, truth can, indeed, be stranger than fiction.
And in Rob Sheely's Boulder, the fiction inspired by this
strange truth can be entertaining—and enlightening—as hell.
Since 2002, Sheely has captured the city's majesty, mishaps
and quirkiness in People's Republic, a weekly fiction column he writes for the
Boulder Weekly. Incorporating real locales and timely local issues with
fictional characters and elements, the People's Republic offers a surreal
snapshot of the town we call home. In 2003, the B-dub published the first run
of Sheely's collected installments in what would become the area's No. 1
best-selling fiction book that sold out soon after hitting the shelves. Now
Sheely's back with The People's Republic, Vol. 2, a witty and poignant
warts-and-all look at a city so outside the norm that it's come to be known as
the People's Republic of Boulder.
"These are bite-size stories about the different types of
people that live in Boulder," says Sheely. "There is no one Boulder. There are
many Boulders. I think it's fun when they collide."
Collide they do in The People's Republic, Vol. 2. While
featuring many of the self-contained, one-off "snapshot" stories made famous in
the first volume, Sheely's second coming chronicles the unlikely collision of
the plucky Mandy, recently crippled in a rock climbing accident; Ellen, her
sudden roommate and confidante; Randy, the duo's neighbor and recovering
alcoholic, recently returned to Boulder a clean man to reclaim his family; and
Joan, Randy's opiate-addicted ex-wife, prostitute and mother of two.
While staying true to the comedic tone of the first
installment, with Vol. 2 Sheely digs deeper into the lives of Boulder's
inhabitants. Consider Vol. 1 a friendly visit to the city; in Vol. 2 you're
moving in.
"I wanted to do some stories that had some meaning, that
weren't just cute," says Sheely. "It goes deeper into trying to develop
characters. I got a chance to stay with the humor but to go into the stuff that
people care about."
In fleshing out his characters, Sheely experimented with a
traditional format made famous by Charles Dickens: serial fiction. While the
serial pieces may seem easier to write than the snapshot stories due to the use
of established characters and plot lines as opposed to thinking up new ones
from scratch each week, Sheely says that the serial pieces are actually more
difficult to write due to the permanence of each week's action.
"It's a strange discipline to look at what happened a month
ago and trust that it was right," he says. "You can't go back and change it."
Another challenge is keeping the casual reader in the loop
without constantly rehashing previous installments and driving away weekly
readers.
"I'm thinking in two ways," says Sheely. "How will the
reader who doesn't always pick it up keep up with what's going on, but how to
do it so it won't be redundant for the book reader."
To that end Sheely succeeds brilliantly in The People's
Republic, Vol. 2. Are we at the B-dub biased? Hell, yeah, we are. But just like
the thousands who read the People's Republic each week in the newspaper, we
can't wait ourselves to see to which corner of our homey little hamlet Sheely
will take us next.
We suspect it's the same for Sheely himself. He recounts an
exchange with an adoring clerk at Barnes and Noble when he was bringing Vol. 2
in for display.
"She said, 'Oh, you write People's Republic? It keeps me
sane,'" says Sheely. "I'd say that's what it does for me, too."
The People's Republic, Vol. 2 is available at Boulder Book
Store, Borders Books, Barnes and Noble and McGuckin Hardware. On Tuesday, Feb.
22, at 7:30 p.m., Sheely will read from and sign The People's Republic, Vol. 2
at the Boulder Book Store, 1107 Pearl St. For more information, call
303-447-2074.
Rob Sheely reads from and signs The People's Republic, Vol.
2 at 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 22, at the Boulder Book Store, 1107 Pearl St.,
Boulder, 303-447-2074.
Respond: letters@boulderweekly.com
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