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Is it possible to be a good writer without being a good reader? Reading is how writers fall in love with the possibility of telling stories. The two go hand in hand in the early formation of a writer’s career. Reading fuels the passion to write, and there has to be passion. It makes no sense to spend so much time in a room alone writing year after year, often for no money at all, unless passion is driving the boat. It’d be easier to make money as a plumber; and much quicker to become famous as a murderer. (By the way, fame is about as valuable as knitting swimming trunks for frogs). On the other hand, when a novelist is working, it’s difficult to read other things since it can infiltrate his/her voice. I personally read other writers’ work to help me solve a particular technical or stylistic problem and for inspiration 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? Reading Groups thrive on our desire to share intimate experience. And there is nothing more intimate than the emotional journey of reading. Each reader is unique in his/her response to a story. We are all touched in different ways, according to our own life experiences. And yet, good literature addresses universal themes. So reading together brings us together and creates a most satisfying bond. Great lifetime friendships are born in reading groups. Have you ever belonged to a reading group? I have belonged to several reading groups and recently wrote a weekly newspaper column for four years that worked like a book club. I led my community in the discussion of one book over several weeks, analyzing it from my viewpoint of a novelist. I began the column a week after 9/ll when a lot of us felt that reading the classics would provide comfort and a way to collectively grieve. What advice do you have for reading group members when it comes to selecting books for discussion? I am drawn to literary novels, for they provide the opportunity to grow emotionally. Great novels are few and far between, and the novelists who are great stylists remind us of what language can do. They inspire us and exercise the old brain and give the imagination muscle a work out. I find it difficult to settle for a book that does less. What books are you reading now or do you plan to read? I read almost everything Philip Roth brings out. His trilogy about America are the greatest novels written in my lifetime. He is moving the novel form forward and teaching the rest of us what it can do. I read some current novels that are considered “hot,” but when I feel a need for something that can really stick to my ribs, I return to Tolstoy and reread parts of all his novels. I don’t think any writer writing for children comes close to what Carson McCullers accomplished in A Member of the Wedding. It is as true today as it was decades ago—truly universal. If you were stuck on a deserted island and could only bring one book with you to read, what would it be and why? It would be a toss up between American Pastoral and Anna Karenina. If you could have dinner with three writers (dead or alive) who would they be and why? Well, if I were going to eat with three novelists, dead or alive, I’d have to invite those who have written the books I’d most like to be stuck with on a deserted island or in my cell on death row. I don’t know about his table manners, but I’d have to break bread with Tolstoy, and I’d like to have a cookout with Phillip Roth. Dessert would be with George Elliot. And I’d also be tempted to ask Hemmingway to do the dishes, but I know he’d pitch a fit, so I’m gonna skip it. Have you ever read anything you're too embarrassed to admit (except in this interview)? Nope, I’m embarrassed to say I’m not embarrassed to admit I’ve read anything I’ve read, except rejection slips. In workshops that I teach, I read a ficticious one that I, myself, wrote for the Bible: “Dear King James, we are returning your manuscript forthwith. I’m sorry to say we find it simply has too much violence, not enough sex, and just who in the world do you think would ever believe this?” Favorite book when you were a child? My favorite books as a child were The Black Stallion and Little Women. I took my kids to see the movie, The Black Stallion. I was too tired to read aloud. Favorite heroine in literature and why? Jo in Little Women was my favorite character, probably because she wanted to be a writer. Plus, she’s gutsy. When I lived in Boston for eight years, I visited the house Louisa May Alcott grew up in, numerous times. I count it among the most inspirational places I’ve ever been. Imagination is still on the wing there. Favorite hero in literature and why? Well, there’s only one man in all of literature who does it all, i.e. touches as from a child’s viewpoint, excites us from a woman’s viewpoint, and makes us wish we could rescue him from widower-hood: Atticus Finch, that old Gregory Peck Stud-muffin. Favorite first line from a book? Favorite first line: From A Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers. “It happened that green and crazy summer when Frankie was twelve years old.” Favorite last line from a book? Favorite last line: The end of The Red Pony by Steinbeck is magnificent. But the last sentence in The Great Gatsby isn’t shabby: “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” Book that changed your life? Book that changed my life: A Member of the Wedding because I was a college student when I read it and eager for my life to change. Words to live by? Words to live by: “Eternity is here and now,” by Joseph Campbell. As well as, his reminder: “Stories don’t tell us the meaning of life, they tell us how to live in the world.”
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