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Is it possible to be a good writer without being a good reader? Only in rare cases; certain literary savants can do it. For the rest of, our relationship with the written word begins with and is nourished by reading. According to a report of the Independent Book Publishing Association, over five million American adults belong to reading groups. What, do you believe, is the basis for this country's love for literature and books? Book clubs and reading groups are the healthiest flowers in the contemporary literary landscape, and they have blossomed at a time when many were prematurely declaring the death of the book. They show that—even in a culture that favors speed, visual imagery, and the easy fix—people are literary by nature. Stories (and, odd to some, fiction even more than nonfiction) teach us about ourselves: how we live, how we feel, how others live and feel, how we might live. Narrative is how we make sense of the world. Also, few of us haven’t longed to live another life, at least temporarily; reading books gives us that. People want to understand their word, and books help. And books are great company: with a book you can be alone but not alone. They are always there, but you can clap them shut whenever you wish. Have you ever belonged to a reading group? I confess that I once belonged to one of the least successful book clubs ever: The Bombay Book Club. It was named for the gin, not the city. This was when I was living in San Diego. A few friends and I decided we’d all read the same book, then meet at a bar, drink Bombay (or whatever—I’ve never been a gin drinker), and discuss the book while shooting pool. The first meeting went fine. After that, I was the only person who read the books. I suggested that we drop the pretext, read whatever we wanted, and consider ourselves the Bombay pool-shooting club. As a writer, I have had the opportunity to visit many more successful reading groups, and I always enjoy it. It is a joy to answer the questions of people who have read, thought about, and discussed my work. I have to be prepared, though; the questions are so good. One of my favorite visits was to a book club that prepared food described in or otherwise relevant to the book. This was for my first novel, Hunger, which featured my favorite food (the mango), and someone had made a heavenly mango salad. What advice do you have for reading group members when it comes to selecting books for discussion? It would depend on the group’s composition, of course, but I think the best books aren’t necessarily the books the members would like best but rather those with some meat for discussion. There should be something to argue about. I also think the books should be worthy of being read and discussed by a group. Beach reads are great on the beach, but they don’t offer enough for a discussion. Perhaps because I’m a novelist, I favor fiction for reading groups. With nonfiction, it’s easy to divide over political or religious or other identity lines very quickly. Good fiction holds ambivalence and nuance and can lead to less predictable arguments and agreements. Of course I think reading groups should choose Grub, because it’s all about books and what gets written and published and how! What books are you reading now or do you plan to read? Last night I finished My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk. Next on my list is the new Nathan Englander novel and some short stories and poems that I’ll be teaching this fall. If you were stuck on a deserted island and could only bring one book with you to read, what would it be and why? Only one? How awful! I suppose I’d have to go with something expansive and full of smaller tales: the Odyssey or Don Quixote. If I was alone, I would bring The 351 Books of Irma Arcuri, by David Bajo, which is my husband’s forthcoming novel—both to have something of him with me and because it’s full of other books and retells parts of Don Quixote. If you could have dinner with three writers (dead or alive) who would they be and why? Cervantes, Flaubert, W. G. Sebald—to ask each about the revolutionary changes he made to the novel, why and how. Have you ever read anything you're too embarrassed to admit (except in this interview)? When I was a young teen, I stumbled across a bodice buster titled Captive Bride. Totally awful, but I read it through. Favorite book when you were a child? From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler and a large collection of poetry selected for children but not dumbed-down. If you have children, is this the same book you read to them? If not, what is your favorite book for your children? I did read from the poetry book to my daughter, frequently, and she read From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basic E. Frankweiler herself. Other favorites for her are Kira-Kira and My Side of the Mountain. Favorite heroine in literature and why? Beatrice in Much Ago About Nothing. She’s witty and smart and unconventional—a woman who finds happiness her own way, all the while delivering hilarious lines. Favorite hero in literature and why? Job. He’s the perfect embodiment of the struggling writer or artist or caring human being, because he continues to believe in that which appears to reject and punish him. Favorite first line from a book? “I am an invisible man.” From The Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison. Favorite last line from a book? It’s a long one, from The Rings of Saturn, by W. G. Sebald: “And Sir Thomas Browne, who was the son of a silk merchant and may well have had an eye for these things, remarks in a passage of the Pseudooxia Epidemica that I can no longer find that in the Holland of his time it was customary, in a home where there had been a death, to drape black mourning ribbons over all the mirrors and all canvasses depicting landscapes or people or the fruits of the field, so that the soul, as it left the body, would not be distracted on its final journey, either by a reflection of itself or by a last glimpse of the land now being lost for ever.” It’s great because it brings full closure to a wondrous and complex book that seems impossible to close until you read that line, which you immediately realize is perfect and brings all of Sebald’s many strands together. Suddenly you know what the book is about, and immediately re-read it with that knowledge, finding it even better the second time. Book that changed your life? My life changes every time I finish a book. Sometimes my interior life changes and sometimes my lived life, sometimes a little and sometimes dramatically, but every book changes my life and even who I am. Words to live by? “I’m not trying to tell you how to do it/ I’m only saying put some thought into it.” —the Staple Singers “Kill your Television.” —recently spotted bumper sticker
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