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Is it possible to be a good writer without being a good reader? Reading is essential to writing. I’ve been writing since I was a teenager, and my writing is strengthened and fueled by the books I am reading now. I read to be inspired by the art that other writers create. When I read a great book, it makes me want to write more, write better. Have you ever belonged to a reading group? My reading is usually done alone, but I do discuss books with other people, particularly with my wife and my eldest daughter, both of whom are huge readers. My daughter and I usually love the same books; my wife (who is also a writer) and I usually have different reading tastes, and we like to talk about why. What advice do you have for reading group members when it comes to selecting books for discussion? Choose what you want to read. Yes, be adventurous, but books shouldn’t go down like unpleasant medicine. I never feel obliged to read to the end of a book that isn’t appealing to me. They are so many books out there that will excite me, and I’ll never get to read them all. I don’t want to waste time on the books that don’t speak to me. What books are you reading now or do you plan to read? When I’m in the midst of a novel, often much of my reading is research for my story. But after Someone Knows My Name came out, I got to read a lot, especially while I was traveling. The book I can’t stop talking about is Bel Canto, by Ann Patchett. That’s one that my wife and I could agree on! I’ve recommended Bel Canto to every reader I know, and I’ve bought so many copies to give as gifts. I even gave it to the person who cuts my hair. If you were stuck on a deserted island and could only bring one book with you to read, what would it be and why? One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It’s such a beautiful and involved story that it lends itself to being read many times. Its magical qualities might allow me to think I was somewhere else. If you could have dinner with three writers (dead or alive) who would they be and why? I would love to have dinner with Ann Patchett to talk about lyricism in narrative voice, with Langston Hughes, so I could tell him how his work led me to become a writer, and with John Kennedy Toole, author of A Confederacy of Dunces, who killed himself before the book was published, and never got to see it win the Pulitzer Prize. I’d like to tell him what a fabulous book he wrote and that I wish he were around to write more. Have you ever read anything you're too embarrassed to admit (except in this interview)? No. I don’t believe that people should be embarrassed by what they read. Favorite book when you were a child? My mother read me the poem “Disobedience’ by A.A. Milne over and over. She will still quote it to me sometimes. When I started to read on my own, I loved the Henry Huggins series by Beverly Cleary. If you have children, is this the same book you read to them? If not, what is your favorite book for your children? I have five children and books are a big part of our household. I read A.A. Milne’s “Disobedience” to my eldest daughter, Genevieve Aminata (who is now an adult herself, and for whom I named the character in Someone Knows My Name), just the way my mother read it to me. I just finished reading Kate DiCamillo’s spectacular book The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane to my youngest daughter, Beatrice. The story has such heart, such simple beauty, and the power to speak to both adults and children. Favorite heroine in literature and why? Hagar Shipley from Margaret Laurence’s classic novel The Stone Angel. Like Aminata, Hagar looks back on her life from the vantage point of old age. Laurence makes her so real, so unflinching. Favorite hero in literature and why? I have two: Yossarian from Joseph Heller’s Catch-22, because he is so insanely funny and spirited in his refusal to capitulate to bureaucracy and Asher Lev in My Name is Asher Lev, by Chaim Potok, for having the courage to explore his passion and talent even though it brings him in conflict with his faith. Favorite first line from a book? “When the lights went off the accompanist kisser her.” (from Bel Canto, by Ann Patchett). Favorite last line from a book? "In the world according to Garp, we are all terminal cases." (From The World According to Garp, by John Irving.) Book that changed your life? The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Alex Haley. I read it when I was a teenager and just figuring out who I was and how I would identify myself, being the child of a mixed race couple. This book forced me to look at one man’s journey in and out of racial hatred. It challenged me to develop my own views of myself and the world.
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