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Is it possible to be a good writer without being a good reader? I don’t think so. But then, I can’t imagine a writer who doesn’t love to read. It would be like a musician who doesn’t listen to music. One thing I love about writing is being able to immerse myself in the books that I read and write. Every writer I know feels the same way. 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? I think there is a universal need to be told a story, particularly to hear stories within the context of a community, which is what I think book clubs are doing and why they have gained in popularity. I’m not saying anything new by stating how fast the world has become, and while this has opened up virtual communities that span the globe, there is still a basic human need to come together with members of our community and process what we, or others close to us, are going through. I think it is also the reason that the reading series I produce, Spoken Interludes, has had great audiences since I started it in 1996. It is the same premise: a group of people come together and listen to stories, or parts of a novel, and discuss them with the writer. Reading is such a solitary act. But when I finish a book, I immediately want to talk about it with someone because it’s fun, but also because it helps me to understand and reinterpret my world. Literature does that in a way that no other art form can because we have to bring our own lives and selves to the creation of it. It isn’t complete just on the page, it absolutely requires a reader in a way that film doesn’t require a watcher, so I think the act of reading is by nature more cathartic than watching a film. Have you ever belonged to a reading group? Yes, and I loved it. It was a wonderfully diverse group of people. One of the members made a time line and a world map and all of our selections jumped around on one or the other. It did exactly what I hoped it would. It introduced me to people and worlds I never would have met, and it changed, or at least opened, my mind about a vast number of people, places and things in the process. What advice do you have for reading group members when it comes to selecting books for discussion? Read what you love and what you think you won’t love. Pull out the Western canon and alternate one from that list with a contemporary novel. I have always been a voracious reader, but until the age of 17, I had only read 20th century work. My understanding of the novel changed when I started reading Dickens, and Flaubert, and Trollope, so I loved that books club I was in exposed me to more of that. But it should also be a fun night with a glass wine, yummy food, and connecting lives! What books are you reading now or do you plan to read? A whole stack. Lush Life by Richard Price, Beautiful Children by Charles Bock – I love both of them. Yeardley Smith’s upcoming young adult novel, I, Lorelei, The Mud Letters, Christopher Rice’s last novel, Robert Crais, The Watchman, and I can’t wait for the new Michael Connelly – can you tell I love mysteries?? Thomas Hardy’s The Floss on the Mill – slowly! And my cousin André’s newest – The Garden of Last Days. If you were stuck on a deserted island and could only bring one book with you to read, what would it be and why? I would take the complete works of William Shakespeare because he wrote every story that there is, not to mention that Hamlet is my favorite play, but I would also sneak in the complete works of Raymond Chandler. Since he didn’t write very many novels, I might get away with it! If you could have dinner with three writers (dead or alive) who would they be and why? First, Tennessee Williams because the characters and the world he wrote about are the ones I know from growing up. Also, he was good friends with a friend of my momma’s – they used to drink together in New Orleans, no surprise – and Jimmy used to regale me with stories about Ten. Oh, to time travel to those nights! Second, Anton Chekhov because he is my hero. His plays are absolutely perfect, as are his stories. He never judged his characters or apologized for them. He let them be real people and let the audience or reader feel how they felt about them. I was an actor for many years, and I learned everything I needed to know about plot, dialogue, and character development by performing his plays Third, Flannery O’Connor because not only did she write about the same foreign country I grew up in, the South, but she was a female writer at a time when not as many women were doing that as there are today. And she lived at home with her momma on their peacock farm, and battled lupus and still produced fearlessly searing work. Have you ever read anything you're too embarrassed to admit (except in this interview)? I don’t think any book should fall in that category. But I guess if there were one, it would be a book I read the summer that I was thirteen. It was the mother’s of a darling little girl I was babysitting. She was named Wren, after the bird, and she and her mother lived in an apartment building near the school I attended. While Wren napped, I would read this novel called, Goodbye, Ruby Tuesday, which at first intrigued me because of the similarity to the Rolling Stones song – I was a huge fan! – but then I got hooked by its steaminess. I guess it was what my mother would have called trashy, but I think there is a place for those. Favorite book when you were a child? As a very young child, it was Mr. Rabbit’s Dinner Party which was about a rabbit who realized that he had lots of nice food, so he invited all of his friends over for dinner and cooked for them. I made Momma read it to me over and over again. The funny thing is that that is basically what I do with Spoken Interludes every month, so I guess I have always adored dinner parties! 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 read it to my sons, and they love it, too. But since they are a 4 year old boy, and an 18 month old boy, they are more interested in Curious George, or work trucks, or baby animals! Favorite heroine in literature and why? The heroine in Kate Chopin’s the Awakening. Not that I agree with or would have chosen the ending she chose for herself, but for the date and time that she lived - late 1800’s New Orleans - her desire and insistence to live an emancipated life as a woman who incredibly shocking and brave. Favorite hero in literature and why? Phillip Marlowe. I love a great mystery! If anything untoward happens to me, send him! Favorite first line from a book? From The Moviegoer by Walker Percy. Favorite last line from a book? From a short story by Gabriel Garcia Marquez called The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World. His work is so incredible. I adore him. Book that changed your life? Peace Is Every Step by Thich Nhat Hanh. He is a Buddhist monk who was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1967 by Martin Luther King. He has written many beautiful, powerful books, but this one is my favorite. You can just feel the serenity and compassion and love emanating from the pages. It’s a series of short sections that can be read in a few minutes, and they make peace a doable and tangible experience in your life. It is a real touchstone for me. Words to live by? Practice, not perfection.
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