Trisha Ping

Social Science

Sarah Z. Wexler

Interview by Trisha Ping

Go big or go home. He who dies with the most toys wins. There's no end to the figures of speech we've created to explain—or is it justify?—our growing belief that bigger=best. Sarah Z. Wexler, a resident of one of America's largest cities—New York City—traveled around the country exploring this idea in her new book, Living Large. From test-driving Hummers to getting a plastic surgery consultation to seeking out the world's largest ball of twine, Wexler chronicles her adventures with wit, humor and insight. She answered a few questions for us about the topic and the inspiration behind Living Large.

This is your first book—can you tell us a little about how you chose the subject?
I got the idea because one time I went back to Northern Virginia to visit my parents, and I noticed that more and more, small businesses were being replaced by big-box stores, perfectly nice houses from the 1950s and '60s were being bull-dozed to build identical McMansions, with a super-sized SUV in every driveway. It seemed like the norms were shifting, as they had in fast food, where a large is labeled medium, and XL is labeled large, etc, but with everything. I wanted to understand how all of these super-sized things about American life were connected, and why we were defaulting to XXL as the new norm.

There are moments in the book when you seem to be seduced by the larger lifestyle yourself—the Hummer chapter comes to mind! Did you expect to have that reaction?
Definitely not! My goal was to go into every chapter with an open mind and earnestly try to understand what people were getting out of super-sizing this aspect of their lives. But some chapters, like the Hummer, I had a difficult time putting my preconceptions aside and really struggled with it, since I had a lot of judgments about people who drive Hummers. That's why I was surprised that when I drove one myself, after getting over the initial terror of driving something that felt like a school bus, that I was seduced by the comfort, the feeling of safety and machismo and superiority. I understood the appeal–and I understood why I needed to get out of the car, stat!

Is there a time when bigger IS better?
The biggest ball of twine, or the biggest cow sculpture, those kinds of Big America roadside attractions, are just fun, wacky Americana. And there are times when bigger certainly feels better—like saving time when shopping at a big-box store and buying a T-shirt along with Windex and a gallon of milk, for example. If you'd asked me when I was trying on three-carat engagement rings at Tiffany's, or even trying on triple-D breast implants at a plastic surgeon's office, if bigger is better, I would've had to answer yes. But once I did the research about the impact of these choices, bigger consumption is rarely better—it rarely leads to us being happier, better off or more fulfilled.

Did researching the book change any of your own daily habits?
After spending time at the country's largest landfill, I became completely paranoid about how much trash I create, so I've tried to cut down on buying things with lots of packaging that goes straight to landfills. I got rid of my SUV and take public transportation. I also promised myself that whenever possible, I'd avoid shopping at big-box stores. Though you can save about 15% by shopping at a Wal-Mart, in communities where Wal-Marts have opened, the unemployment rate goes up, and participation in PTA groups and even voter registration goes down. The impact on my community is not worth it to me to save a few bucks on dish soap.

One of the things you investigated here is the backlash to the "more more more" stuff—like freeganism, a lifestyle you conclude is just as unsustainable. Can you tell us more about that?
Freegans were fascinating to me, because they live entirely on what the rest of us throw away. They're the antithesis of "living large." It's not that they're financially forced to do it—they're making a conscious choice and a political statement about waste and American excess, and most of them claim they live very well. But even if you can get over the idea of foraging for your dinner in the trash, freeganism is unsustainable for the majority of Americans, because if we all started living off the excess, there wouldn't be enough waste-makers to provide the excess. It's a fascinating ideology, and I learned a lot by Dumpster diving with freegans, but to suggest my mom or my grandma get her food or clothes that way would be completely unrealistic.

A lot of the people you talked to—from Tiffany's store owners to the manager of the MGM Grand—seemed to think that their luxury businesses were here to stay despite the recession. What do you think is the future of the "living large" movement?
Americans have short-term memories. Many Americans have had to downsize in the recession, especially those who lived large above their means; for example, eight times as many McMansions are in foreclosure as the national housing average. But as long as we continue to see living large as good, a sign of success, influence and prosperity, and downsizing as a punishment, when we have money again, we'll go right back to super-sizing. That's why I'm hoping that the silver lining of the recession is that some of us see that living with less doesn't have to be a negative thing—that a smaller house can feel just as, or even more, homey, or that a hybrid will get you there as well as a mega-SUV. Hopefully, this moment is a chance to hit the pause button on our rampant super-sizing—and that in the long run, we'll be able to find the right size, rather than just defaulting to the biggest because we assume it's best.

author photo by Andrea Volbrecht

Go big or go home. He who dies with the most toys wins. There's no end to the figures of speech we've created to explain—or is it justify?—our growing belief that bigger=best. Sarah Z. Wexler, a resident of one of America's largest cities—New York City—traveled…

Mystery & SuspenseSuspense

Dean Koontz

Interview by Trisha Ping

Describe your book in one sentence.
When he was 14, John Calvino killed the murderer of his parents and sisters, but 20 years later, as a homicide detective, he reluctantly comes to believe that the dead man's spirit has returned to murder John's wife and children.

What was your favorite book as a child?
Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. I identified intensely with Mr. Toad of Toad Hall. I still do.

What's the best writing advice you've ever gotten?
John D. MacDonald told me that most criticism a writer receives is about his style and his worldview, because the critics want you to write and think the way they do. A writer's unique style and worldview, he said, are the most important things any author has to sell and therefore he should diligently preserve them.

Have you ever been tempted to quit writing?
No. Writing talent is an unearned grace. I think it comes with an obligation to explore it and to polish the craft that supports it. I hope to die face-first in my keyboard—but only after I've written the last line of the book.

If you had to be stranded on a desert island with one fictional character, who would you want it to be?
Jeeves, the butler from the series of novels by P.G. Wodehouse. I wouldn't need a butler on a desert island, but if I'm going to be reduced to eating snakes and bugs to survive, I want to share the island with someone who can make me laugh.

What was the proudest moment of your career so far?
All the proudest moments are the same—those books of mine that delight my wife, Gerda. I trust her judgment. And just as I wrote love notes and poems to her when we were dating, I write each book primarily with the hope of enchanting her.

What are you working on now?
This interview. But as soon as I finish it, I'll return to a novel with the scariest premise I've ever had. I can't talk about it because I never talk about a book in progress. I learned a long time ago that talking about a book diminishes the desire to write it.

Describe your book in one sentence.
When he was 14, John Calvino killed the murderer of his parents and sisters, but 20 years later, as a homicide detective, he reluctantly comes to believe that the dead man's spirit has returned to murder John's wife and…

RomanceParanormal Romance

Carolyn Jewel

Interview by Trisha Ping

Describe your book in one sentence.
Fortunately, I am an experienced Twitterer and can do this. I think. I hope.

A hot demon assassin meets a punk ballerina and together they kick butt.

Name one book you think everyone should read.
Uh, the California State driver’s manual? Because if you come here, I want you to be a better driver than we Californians are.

What book are you embarrassed NOT to have read?
I’m well beyond the embarrassment stage in my Have Not Read list. I knocked off a lot of them while I was in grad school where I realized it’s not possible to read all the books you’re supposed to have read. So, I freely and without embarrassment admit to the holes in my Life List of books. But here’s one: The Old Man and the Sea. (Except I’m not embarrassed by that. Possibly a bit sheepish, but not embarrassed.)

What was the proudest moment of your career so far?
So far, it’s being a RITA finalist for two books in 2010 (my historical Scandal and my paranormal My Forbidden Desire). It took a while to sink in, but it was, and remains, a personal validation that my writing probably doesn’t suck too badly.

If you weren't a writer, how would you earn a living?
The way I earn most of my living now. I’m a SQL Server database administrator in my day job.

What's your favorite movie based on a book?
Oh, unfair that you restrict me to one movie! I will cheat and say, Harry Potter.

If you had to be stranded on a desert island with one fictional character, who would you want it to be?
At first the answer to this seemed obvious: MacGyver, because we wouldn’t be stranded for very long since he would quickly build a submersible canoe from coconuts, woodshavings, a rubberband and some kelp. However, an alternate answer occurs: Eric Northman from the Sookie Stackhouse series. He can fly and I would immediately trade a small amount of blood and dry but witty jokes for a ride.

Describe your book in one sentence.
Fortunately, I am an experienced Twitterer and can do this. I think. I hope.

A hot demon assassin meets a punk ballerina and together they kick butt.

Name one book you think everyone should read.
Uh, the California…

Fiction

Bradford Morrow

Interview by Trisha Ping

Describe your book in one sentence.
Cassandra Brooks, the first woman diviner in a long lineage of patriarchs who practiced the craft, comes upon a hanged girl in a lonely forest in upstate New York while dowsing water for a developer, and in doing so inadvertently opens up a Pandora’s box of past secrets that threaten her very existence.

Name one book you think everyone should read.
The Diviner’s Tale? No, well, William Gaddis’ The Recognitions meant everything to me when I first read it. There are hundreds, though, really, as you know.

What book are you embarrassed NOT to have read?
Still haven’t finished, to my abject shame, Don Quixote.

What was the proudest moment of your career so far?
When my first book was accepted for publication, that was the proudest moment. Until my second book was accepted, and so forth. To write a novel and have the great fortune for others to believe in it enough to publish it, bring it into the world for other readers to experience it—what could be better? And when a reader connects with the book, I’m prouder and happier yet.

If you weren't a writer, how would you earn a living?
Either as a musician, my lifelong infatuation, or as a bookseller, an occupation that would surround me with what I most love in this world. Patti Smith was right on the mark in her National Book Award comment, “Please, no matter how we advance technologically, please don’t abandon the book. There is nothing in our material world more beautiful than the book.” So, a bookshop with music constantly playing, that would be pure heaven.

What's your favorite movie based on a book?
Werner Herzog’s version of Dracula is one of the most original films based on a book I’ve ever encountered. His direction is astonishing for its originality, its striking out from the core text in fresh and haunting directions, but also for its fidelity to Bram Stoker’s original. Plus, damn, does it get any better than Klaus Kinski when the dawn light strikes him, and he collapses, folding like a dying bat into his vampire death?

If you had to be stranded on a desert island with one fictional character, who would you want it to be?
Captain Lemuel Gulliver, because he seems to have an endless store of yarns that would keep me in high spirits, and an uncanny ability to escape the various islands, floating or otherwise, he gets himself stuck on in the first place.

Describe your book in one sentence.
Cassandra Brooks, the first woman diviner in a long lineage of patriarchs who practiced the craft, comes upon a hanged girl in a lonely forest in upstate New York while dowsing water for a developer, and in doing so…

Susan Elizabeth Phillips

Interview by Trisha Ping

Novelist Susan Elizabeth Phillips has been delivering hilarious stories of happy endings for more than 25 years. Her latest book, Call Me Irresistible, was our top pick for romance in February 2001 and follows a love triangle involving the grown children of three of her most memorable couples.

Describe your book in one sentence
Mr. Perfect meets Ms. Screw-Up and she does something that makes him really mad and he does a lot of things that make her really mad but she’s stuck in his town and now everybody’s mad at her and the only thing she can feel good about is that she would never ever fall in love with Mr. Perfect and he would never ever fall in love with her but then there’s some kissing and that only leads to more trouble and what’s the world coming to, anyway?!

Where do you write?
Not in my beautiful office, that’s for sure. Instead, I curl up with my laptop all over the house, from a beat-up La-Z-Boy to the screen porch.

If you weren't a writer, how would you earn a living?
Probably in my original career as a high school teacher. Or a rock star. I think I’d be good at that.

You revisit a lot of characters in this book. Which one were you happiest to be writing about again?
If I could only pick one—which is a totally unfair thing to ask me to do!—I’d probably say Ted’s mother, Francesca. As the mother of grown sons, I completely identify with her need to mess in their lives when they don’t want her to.

Name one book you think everyone should read.
I’m going to fall back on that old standby, To Kill a Mockingbird. It’s our great American poem.

What book are you embarrassed NOT to have read?
Not a single one. Any book I wanted to read, I’ve already read. Reading is pure joy for me, and I’ve never been influenced by “should haves.” Let’s face it. Most of those books are depressing as hell.

What are you working on now?
At the beginning of Call Me Irresistible, the hero’s bride flees her wedding and we never see her again. Now that’s hardly fair, is it? I’m halfway done with her book and am very much enjoying learning her story.

You can read an excerpt from the book on Phillips' website.

 
 

 

Novelist Susan Elizabeth Phillips has been delivering hilarious stories of happy endings for more than 25 years. Her latest book, Call Me Irresistible, was our top pick for romance in February 2001 and follows a love triangle involving the grown children of…

Fiction

Geraldine Brooks

Interview by Trisha Ping

Whether she’s imagining the history of an ancient manuscript, as in People of the Book, or an English town determined to survive the plague in A Year of Wonders, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Geraldine Brooks is a master at bringing history’s little-known but fascinating stories to life.

For her fourth novel, Caleb’s Crossing, she found inspiration close to home: the tale of a Wampanoag boy who became a Harvard graduate. Brooks first learned about Caleb after seeing a notation on a map. “I’m thinking [this happened in] 1965, the Civil Rights era, and when I found out it was 1665, my imagination started spinning,” she says during a call to her home on Martha’s Vineyard, which she shares with her husband, writer Tony Horwitz, and their two sons.

"Whenever anyone says, your women are ahead of their time, I tell them, go and read more 17th-century women!”

But that line on an old map of the island was one of very few records of Caleb Cheeshahteaumauk’s existence. “To tell you the truth, I had a hesitation about creating him too much in full, seeing that we know so little, and I wanted to respect that historical distance with him,” Brooks says.

Instead, she approaches the story through another character: Bethia Mayfield, a minister’s daughter with a hungry mind who has picked up her learning a piece at a time while eavesdropping on the lessons of her older (and less intellectual) brother Makepeace. Bethia meets Caleb while gathering clams on the shores of Martha’s Vineyard, near Gay Head. The daughter of a minister and the granddaughter of the island’s governor, both of whom pride themselves on their good relationships and just dealings with the native tribes, Bethia is less intimidated by an Indian boy her own age than the average colonial girl. When she speaks to him in his language, a friendship is born.

“I don’t remember who said this, but there’s a saying ‘learn another language and you gain another soul.’ I found that very true when I was studying Arabic,” Brooks says. “The way it’s structured and the way the root words have developed give you such insight into the thinking of people. So it was fun to sort of think about that at a time when the English were trying to put their very foreign stamp on the landscape and bring in foreign species and things like this, to think of the original names for things on the island.”

The understanding that Bethia and Caleb develop as a result of their friendship utterly changes their lives. Bethia is fascinated by the shaman of the tribe, Caleb’s uncle, whose rituals are considered the devil’s work by her father. Caleb is eager to adopt the ways of the colonists in order to level the playing field for his people.

Eventually Caleb comes to live with Bethia’s family so he can be tutored by her father; then the two (along with Makepeace and another Wampanoag boy, Joel) go to Cambridge. Their story is narrated by Bethia in a diary written at three different points in her life, though no actual journals by colonial women before 1750 exist.

“There were literate women, certainly,” Brooks says, “but they were just so damn busy! They were working from before sunup to after sundown, and you can imagine how fatiguing that all was. Also paper was very scarce, and the stress was on women reading the Bible but not necessarily writing, so it was a small population that would have found writing easy or pleasurable.”

Bethia, of course, is among that small number. Living in a time when being an intelligent woman carries few rewards, she struggles to match her desires with the role that society has set for her (even her name means “servant”). Though she is perhaps an unusual woman for her time, Bethia deals with her situation in a way that feels authentic to the period—as do the people around her, even those who love her. Her father’s pleasure in her learning, for example, “was of a fleeting kind—the reaction one might have if a cat were to walk about on its hind legs. You smile at the oddity but find the gait ungainly and not especially attractive,” Bethia muses.

Though Caleb is also seen as an oddity, his gender still gives him more privileges than Bethia, and though she’s proud of him she can’t help but resent this injustice, especially as her personal trials and tribulations mount.

“I think it’s a slightly arrogant view to imagine that it’s only in our lifetime that women have had the wit to see that their lot stank,” Brooks says, citing examples like the poet Anne Bradstreet as well as multiple court cases from the period that involve women speaking up for themselves “in ways that are very recognizable to second-wave old feminists like myself. So whenever anyone says, your women are ahead of their time, I tell them, go and read more 17th-century women!”

Readers will come away from Caleb’s Crossing with a new appreciation for this time in American history, and an interest in the Wampanoag people, who are going through something of a renaissance these days. Tiffany Smalley will be the first Wampanoag from the Gay Head Aquina Tribe since Caleb to graduate from Harvard later this month. And thanks to a MacArthur genius grant, Jessie Little Doe Baird has resurrected Wopanaak, the language of the Wampanoag, which had been lost for several generations. “When the tribe’s medicine man died the year before last, the language was heard on the cliffs at his graveside ceremony, probably for the first time in very many years,” Brooks says.

Perhaps we’ll get to hear that language in the film version of Caleb’s Crossing—though the novel hasn’t been optioned for film yet, Brooks is hard at work on a screenplay. “Previously I didn’t want to have anything to do with it, and I would just sling the option in the direction of the West Coast and not think about it anymore, but this one I felt very strongly about and I had such a strong visual sense of it. It just so happened that a friend of mine, who actually knows how to do this, was between projects, so we’ve been collaborating on it. Even if nothing comes of it, I feel that I’ve learned an immense amount from the process of doing it.

Brooks is also finishing up her selections as editor of Best American Short Stories 2011 (she was working on the introduction just before our talk). “I’ve got them all scattered at my feet now and I’m looking down and remembering what the very specific pleasures of each [story] were. It was a wonderful exercise, because I started it with a high heart and finished it in a complete state of moral collapse!” Reading 120 stories (she chose about 20 for the collection) also introduced her to new favorites. “I’m absolutely embarrassed to say I didn’t know Steven Millhauser before this!”

In a novel that so carefully dissects the joy and pain of learning, it seems natural to ask Brooks what she thinks about knowledge and its boundaries. Not surprisingly for a trained journalist, she doesn’t believe there should be any.

“I’m a big supporter of Julian Assange, let’s just put that out there,” she says laughingly of the WikiLeaks founder. “It’s not for anybody to tell anyone what they’re entitled to know. Put the information out there and let the chips fall where they may.”

Whether she’s imagining the history of an ancient manuscript, as in People of the Book, or an English town determined to survive the plague in A Year of Wonders, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Geraldine Brooks is a master at bringing history’s little-known but fascinating stories to…

Biography

Steve Coll

Interview by Trisha Ping

The events of September 11, 2001, changed the world—or at least, most Americans' perception of it. In his 2004 bestseller, Ghost Wars, Steve Coll put that event in context by detailing the history of foreign involvement in Afghanistan, explaining why it was the perfect place for Osama Bin Laden to pull together a radical organization like al Qaeda.

Now, Coll puts Osama Bin Laden himself into context with The Bin Ladens, a comprehensive look at a sprawling family tree. Not even Tolstoy had to handle this large of a cast—Osama is one of 54 children sired by Mohamed Bin Laden, though of course not all of them are introduced here—but readers will find their concentration rewarded with a new understanding of a dynasty that has strongly influenced the modern world.

The Bin Ladens is an incredibly dense and information-packed narrative. Did the topic ever overwhelm you with its complexity and depth?
It was very hard work. It was hard to track down the people who could help me understand the family as fully as possible—they were scattered literally all over the world. And it was hard to spread my research over time in a way that would support writing in depth about an entire century. My goal was to try to write something fresh and specific that was located in the history of Saudi Arabia—not just a narrative of the royal family, which has been done before. So that meant digging under a lot of rocks that had not previously been turned over.

If Americans could take away one lesson from your book about the rise of Osama Bin Laden and his influence in the Muslim world, what would it be?
I think it's important to see him as a modern figure, not as a medieval figure in a cave. He represents not only a reaction against the West and against globalization, but also an adaptation of Western ideas and technologies for anti-Western ends. These are the layers of complexity in his identity, his appeal and his actions that I think are too often neglected in analysis of Osama and Al Qaeda.

What would you identify as the key factor that radicalized Osama?
He was initially recruited by a Muslim Brotherhood gym teacher in his elite prep school in Jeddah. But in some way his early beliefs, while puritan and rigid, were rather orthodox in a Saudi context. His violence arose from his experiences in war in Afghanistan, where he met violence-minded volunteers from across the Islamic world.

Do you see Osama as a product of the Bin Laden family as a whole or an extreme departure from it?
Both. He is a Bin Laden in the sense that his talent as a leader and his understanding of border-crossing technologies, among other things, are derived from his membership in his own family, as was his wealth. He is not the only Bin Laden of his generation to have become deeply religious. But his embrace of violence and war against the United States and Saudi Arabia is an extreme departure from his family's interests and values—in the end, he declared war, in a sense, against his own family.

What is the one thing most people should know about the Bin Laden family, but don't?
The diversity of views and lifestyles within it. The Bin Ladens include some brothers and sisters of Osama who were as enthusiastic about America as he was hostile to it.

You note that although Saudi Arabia makes up less than 2 percent of the world's Muslim population, it has had a pervasive influence on Muslim thought. Do you see that trend continuing in the future? Or will another nation usurp Saudi Arabia's role?
Oil wealth, and the centrality of Mecca and Medina to the Islamic world, will ensure that the kingdom will continue to have influence greater than the size or proportion of its population. But I do think that there will be—and may already be—a gathering backlash in the Islamic world itself against the extreme religious and political beliefs that emanate from the kingdom's most conservative clerics.

You write that in the late 1990s, The U.S. intelligence community simply did not know very much about the Bin Laden family, and an important aspect of what it claimed to know was wrong. Without these intelligence failures, do you believe we could have prevented the 9/11 attacks?
If the U.S. intelligence community understood the family and Osama's wealth better than it did, it might have helped shape a more intelligent, more effective campaign to cut off Al Qaeda's resources and restrict its operations, but I don't think it would have prevented the 9/11 attacks.

What ties, if any, currently remain between Osama and the rest of the Bin Ladens?
The main branch of the Bin Laden family says that all ties are completely broken. His mother and one of his stepbrothers visited him in Afghanistan as recently as early 2001. Osama's wives have left him behind since the 9/11 attacks. But he has more than 20 children and some of those seem to still be in exile and perhaps some of them are in contact with him from time to time.

What do you foresee for the third generation of the Bin Laden family?
There are so many of them—hundreds—and it will be a challenge for them to develop the leaders and the cohesions to continue the extraordinary business success of their parents' generation. But I think they are generally a more worldly generation than their parents, more comfortable with the West and all of its pressures, and so many of them may be able to enjoy fully the success and wealth they have inherited.

Do you feel Osama continues to play a crucial role in the world of terrorism? Or is he a figure of the past?
Al Qaeda has revitalized itself along the Afghan border and its leadership plans and supports attacks in Europe and elsewhere from that sanctuary. Osama himself is surely more isolated within Al Qaeda than he used to be, but he remains an important media spokesman and source of visibility and, for some, at least, a source of inspiration. He is not a figure of the past—not yet.

What are you working on next?
I have the kernel of an idea about American foreign policy that I intend to work on, but I'm in the very early stages and it will be another long research road ahead.

The events of September 11, 2001, changed the world—or at least, most Americans' perception of it. In his 2004 bestseller, Ghost Wars, Steve Coll put that event in context by detailing the history of foreign involvement in Afghanistan, explaining why it was the perfect place…

NonfictionMemoirLiteratureArts & Culture

Nina Sankovitch

Interview by Trisha Ping

In October 2008, Nina Sankovitch launched a year-long project: She would read one book a day, every day, for a year. The idea was to give some structure to her life after the tragic death of her older sister. In addition to reading the books, Sankovitch also committed herself to reviewing each of them on a website she created, ReadAllDay. As word of her task spread, her audience grew—and, once the project was completed, Sankovitch wrote a book of her own about her experience, Tolstoy and the Purple Chair, an "affectionate and inspiring paean to the power of books and reading." We had to ask Sankovitch a few questions about this ambitious project. Her answers just might inspire you to increase your reading goals!

Even people who read a lot might find the thought of reading a book a day daunting. How did you do it (and have any kind of life!)? 
By reading wherever and whenever I could! I'd started my year with a plan to read while the kids were away at school (treating my reading project like a job—the best job I could ever imagine!) but life quickly intervened in the form of sick children, needy cats, curious friends, and a few unexpected twists and turns. Then I realized that I could fit in so much reading by pushing out unnecessary preoccupations, like folding laundry (what's wrong with a clean pile for foraging?) or watching TV or going online (no need to change Facebook status: "reading" just about covered it). 

Reading a book a day didn't take away from "having a life"; it made my life better, richer, fuller, more satisfying. And there was never, ever a day never a day when I woke up and thought to myself, "Oh darn! I have to read a book today." On the contrary: I was eager to get out of bed every morning because I knew I had something new waiting for me: a new landscape to explore, new characters to meet, a new plot to lose myself in and new lessons to learn. 

Have you always been a reader? When did you fall in love with reading? 
I have always loved books. One of my earliest memories is of going to the local bookmobile: how the three steps up seemed so huge to me and how good it smelled when I got inside the cramped, dusty space crowded with books. I was too young to read but I could pick out books for myself and look through them on my own at home or have my mother or sisters read them to me. Once I started to read for myself, I always had books around me, next to my bed, piled on the kitchen counter, in my school bag—and I still live that way! I cannot imagine a day without reading or a home without books. 

What was your favorite read of the year? 
I read too many wonderful books to have one favorite out of 365 books read. On my Readallday site where I posted my daily reviews, I kept a list of "Great Books," books I'd particularly loved. By the end of the year, I had more than 90 books on that list. 

Was there a book you read–or reread—that surprised you?
Every book I read during my year was new to me—one of my self-imposed rules was no re-reads! But I read many books that surprised me because they were from authors I had not known before: it is such a lovely experience to discover books written by someone new, offering something different than anything I'd read before. Ruins by Achy Obejas, The Curriculum Vitae of Aurora Ortiz by Almudena Solana, The Book of Chameleons by Jose Eduardo Agualusa, The German Mujahid by Boualem Sansal, The Sun Field by Heywood Braun are just some of the gems I discovered. 

How did you make your selections?
I went through the stacks of my local library or the stacks at book stores, and looked first for books about an inch or so thick, which translated to about 250 to 300 pages. That was the optimal number of pages for a day of good reading. Then I looked through the book, read the first few pages, and if everything clicked for me, I added it to the pile in my arms. Friends gave me books, visitors to my website offered recommendations, and even my kids chimed in with the books I "had" to read. 

On top of reading a book a day, you wrote a review of it. Did you enjoy writing the reviews?
I loved writing the reviews, although the more I'd enjoyed a certain book, the harder it was to write a review: how could I do justice to the beauty, the wit, the creativity of the author, or the magnificence of the book? Whenever I got stuck, I said to myself "What did you love about this book? Just be honest!" and the words would come. By writing about each book I was able to reach deeper into the book and into my own reactions about it, and thus I pulled out even more from the experience of reading. I also was sharing my reviews with other readers and getting responses back, further deepening both my understanding of the book and my experience of it. 

What did your family think of your reading obsession?
They saw how restorative the experience was for me, and how much I was flourishing under the daily reading and writing. It was such a pleasurable regime for me that the good feelings spread throughout our house, mellowing everyone and energizing us all, at the same time. 

What would you say to a person who tells you, "I don't have time to read."
Always carry a book with you and you will discover that there are moments that build into significant time for reading. And the more you find the time, the more you look for it, because reading is such a pleasure, a stimulation and an escape. 

Why should people make an effort to incorporate reading into their lives?
Because of all that books offer: wisdom, humor, company, comfort, and pleasure. My advice to people is that they find books they like to read—what is enjoyable for them, not what someone else dictates as a "must read"—and indulge in the pleasures found there. And don't worry about how many books you read or if the books are "important" enough: every book is worth reading if it brings pleasure, escape, comfort or wisdom, and the number of books matters less than the everyday experience of reading. 

Since completing the challenge of reading a book a day for a year, have your feelings toward reading and books changed at all?
Through my year of reading, I now understand how reading connects me to so many other people. I may read alone but in that reading I am in great company! I remember riding in a cab with a Nigerian driver during my year of reading. He and I began to discuss Chinua Achebe and Buchi Emechata, two writers I had just read. We had a great time talking and when the ride was over, we shook hands good-bye. Two strangers, from opposite sides of the world, and we connected over books. Those connections forged by reading have made me more addicted to reading than ever. The great thing about being addicted to books is that there is such an abundance of books! I will never run out of the stuff that feeds my need to read. I might run out of chocolate, but I can always find books on my shelves, new ones yet to discover or old favorites to enjoy.

 

In October 2008, Nina Sankovitch launched a year-long project: She would read one book a day, every day, for a year. The idea was to give some structure to her life after the tragic death of her older sister. In addition to reading the books,…

NonfictionLifestylesArts & Culture

Elaine Sciolino

Interview by Trisha Ping

What do you think of when you hear the word "seduction"? Whatever it is, get ready to expand that definition after reading La Seduction, an insightful and timely exploration of French culture through its most enduring success strategy. New York Times Paris correspondant Elaine Sciolino has been living in France for nearly 10 years. She took time to answer a few of our questions about the way the concept of seduction informs just about every area of French life.

Your book is not the first to explore or explain French culture. How do you feel it fits alongside books like French Women Don't Get Fat and Sixty Million Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong? 
Don’t Get Fat is an impressionistic, light—and delightful—guide by a Frenchwoman to help other women become beautiful, thin and balanced in the French way. Sixty Million is a very solid, durable and readable primer on France and French life.

La Seduction is an examination of the importance of seduction in all aspects of French life. The tools of the seducer—anticipation, promise, allure—are powerful engines in French history and politics, culture and style, food and foreign policy, literature and manners. The book draws on years of reporting on and living in France. It includes interviews with Presidents and politicians; business executives and bureaucrats; writers, actors, students, professors, merchants, farmers, etc. My conclusion is that seduction is more than a game; it is an essential strategy for France’s survival as a country of influence.

One thing that struck me about the book is its even-handedness. What do you think America could learn from France's "seduction" strategy? what do you think that France could learn from America?
We Americans can learn to embrace what the French call plaisir—the art of creating and relishing pleasure of all kinds. The French are proud masters of it, for their own gratification and as a useful tool to seduce others. They have created and perfected pleasurable ways to pass the time: perfumes to sniff, gardens to wander in, wines to drink, objects of beauty to observe, conversations to carry on. They give themselves permission to fulfill a need for pleasure and leisure that America’s hardworking, supercapitalist, abstinent culture often does not allow. 

The French can learn American efficiency that leads to getting results. They can learn to acknowledge and embrace ethnic, religious and racial diversity.

"It is almost a civic duty to seduce." 

What is the biggest difference between the French and American worldviews?
The United States tends to resort to hard power, the use of force to resolve disputes—whether in Iraq or Afghanistan. The French were pioneers of soft power, the art of influencing others at the negotiating table and on the ground through attraction (translated into French as séduction). 

France’s capability to use force to subdue others disappeared long ago. It has had to rely more on powers of persuasion, learning how and when to woo the wider world. France is too weak an economic and military power to counterbalance the United States but too strong and too strong-willed to take orders from it. In a permanent wound to its pride, it has lost one of its most powerful weapons—the supremacy of the French language, which used to be the language of diplomacy and educated elites around the world. English is now the language of international business, the Internet and even diplomacy.

In recent months, however, the United States and France seem to have switched roles. Take Libya, for example. France took the lead in using military force to try to stop Colonel Kaddafi’s brutality against his citizens; it pushed through a strong resolution in the Security Council. The United States lagged behind.   

You write, "I'm convinced that American-style feminism has prevented me from easily absorbing" the reality of French culture. How would you describe French feminism? Do you think most Frenchwomen would call themselves feminists?
France is having its Anita Hill moment. When Anita Hill testified before a Senate committee in 1991 that her former boss Clarence Thomas had sexually harassed her, he denied everything and was elevated to the Supreme Court. But the hearings were a turning point. Women suddenly said that the "Mad Men" style of behavior they had put up with for so long at work—the leering, the inappropriate touching, the sexual banter—was not acceptable. Legislatures expanded laws about sexual harassment, and businesses began enforcing strict codes of conduct covering sexual relations in the workplace.

France, where powerful men have traditionally treated sex as a right and used it as a weapon, is now embroiled in its own battle of the sexes, involving a powerful man who could have been President and a single mother who works as a hotel maid. Dominique Strauss-Kahn has denied the charges against him. But suddenly, some French women have begun to speak out about an atmosphere that condones sexual behavior that crosses the line and may even be criminal. Women in politics have been particularly vocal in deploring a culture that tends to treat women as objects. 

But the conversation will be long and torturous. The French tend to blur the line between what is acceptable—and even desirable—in the workplace and what is not. For them, flirtation and much that is forbidden in post-Anita Hill America, is part of ordinary interaction. And it doesn’t matter whether French women use the term “feminist” to describe themselves. 

Regarding appearance, you say that in France, "the sin is not the failure to meet a standard of perfection but an unwillingness to try." This sounds somewhat similar to the American obsession with physical perfection. How do the ideas about what is achievable differ in the two countries?
[In France] It is almost a civic duty to seduce—or if one cannot appear seductive, at least not to take a prominent spot on the public stage. By no means does everyone play along, but what is striking is how many people do. During the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal in the United States, both men and women in France questioned Bill Clinton’s judgment. That he was sexually aroused by a woman other than his wife was less of a shock than the fact that Monica Lewinsky was not especially attractive—and seemed to lack style and elegance. Men in public life, too, may be judged on their physical appearance. One reason that Barack Obama appeals to the French is his beauty. I was surprised that men—straight and gay alike—appreciate his good looks even more than women do.

The paradox is that the American quest for perfect looks is often viewed with disdain in France. A too-put-together look is a turn-off, a sign that someone is insecure and has tried too hard.

After so many years as a Paris correspondent, do you consider yourself "seduced" by France?
It depends on the day! I still get exasperated by the rigidity of so much of French life—the demand for still another obscure document to complete a dossier, the   compartmentalization of jobs that may make it necessary to be visited by three different repairmen before an oven can be fixed; the inclination to i"t’s-not-my-jobism" rather than how do I get a job done.

But I never, ever have taken living in Paris for granted. There has never been a day when I haven’t reveled in its beauty, or felt fortunate to live here. So in a sense, perhaps I have been seduced. I love to quote a character in a play by the 19th-century poet and playwright Henri de Bornier: “Every man has two countries, his own and France.” 

In my years living here, I have tried to make the country our own, even though I know that will never entirely happen. I will never think like the French, never shed my Americanness. Nor do I want to. And like an elusive lover who clings to mystery, France will never completely reveal herself to me. Even now, when I walk around a corner I anticipate that something pleasurable might happen, the next act in a process of perpetual seduction.

 

 

What do you think of when you hear the word "seduction"? Whatever it is, get ready to expand that definition after reading La Seduction, an insightful and timely exploration of French culture through its most enduring success strategy. New York Times Paris correspondant Elaine Sciolino has…

NonfictionBiography

Robert K. Massie

Interview by Trisha Ping

It could be a fairy tale: a young German princess from a small principality is swept from obscurity to marry the heir to the Russian throne.

Crowned Grand Duchess of Russia, showered with gowns and jewels, 15-year-old Sophia is renamed Catherine and baptized in the Russian Orthodox church. Despite having no blood claim to the throne, she eventually rules Russia for more than 30 years, amassing a remarkable art collection, bringing advancements in medicine and science, winning important military victories and raising questions about slavery that few leaders at the time—in any country—were willing to confront.

Yet behind that glittering facade lay a lot of hard work and more than a little bit of luck. Pulitzer Prize winner Robert K. Massie chronicles this tooth-and-nail climb to power and the resulting achievements in mesmerizing detail in Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman, his beautifully written biography of the much-maligned ruler. True to its subtitle, the book reveals Catherine the individual as well as Catherine the Empress.

 “In writing biography, you want the reader to feel that he or she is standing at the elbow of the subject,” says Massie, who was reached by phone at his home in Islington, New York, where he lives with his wife, former literary agent Deborah Karl, and two of his children. “In other words, getting the full flavor of the person you’re writing about. I felt that way about Catherine.”

Catherine the Great is Massie’s first biography with a female subject as its main focus, and he relished the idea of telling a woman’s story. “I have six children, four of whom are daughters. I've been married twice, so some of them are grownups who have their own children, and some of them are still being homeschooled downstairs,” he says. “But all of them have been brought up, either by their education or their own searching, to read books about young girls becoming women. And here was a lesson about what it was like to be a brilliant—or at least very bright; exceptional might be a better word—young woman in a situation which didn't offer much opportunity for exceptional young women.”

And from an early age, Catherine the Great knew how to seize an opportunity. “Even as a little girl, in an obscure royal family, lower nobility, she was ambitious,” says Massie. Her willingness to be betrothed to Peter was not because of his stellar personality or good looks (he had neither), but because of his political position. As she wrote in her Memoirs, “the title of queen fell sweetly on my ears.”

“She was a woman who, by her own initiative, courage, intelligence, took charge. Stood up against men, stood up against situations, environment, the past.”

Still, in no way was Catherine in line to be anything but a consort. She had been brought to Russia “just to be a mother,” and continue the Romanov dynasty, explains Massie. “She was popped into this dreadful marriage with this creep, who—I still can't get into five or six words the character of Peter. He didn't have an easy life. I tried to present that in all its complexity, but he didn't want to be [in Russia]. He wanted to go back to Germany. He was petty, selfish, blah blah blah. And then he had this physical defect that made it impossible for him to have sex. Catherine marries this guy when she was 16, and for nine years lies in the same bed with him. He won't touch her, and the Empress Elizabeth and the court blamed her for not producing a child.”

At 25, Catherine finally had a son, although whether or not Paul was a Romanov is highly debatable. Elizabeth immediately “snatched Paul away literally from the birthing bed,” says Massie, initiating what would be a lifelong rift between mother and son. Catherine was crowned empress eight years later, in 1762, after her husband’s brief reign ended under murky circumstances. That the Russian people accepted a German princess as their ruler is evidence of how much respect Catherine had won during her 18 years as a crown princess, adopting their culture, language and religion as her own.

A devotee of Enlightenment philosophy, Catherine corresponded with the likes of Diderot and Voltaire (upon Voltaire’s death, she purchased his library, which is one of many treasures she collected that are still in the Hermitage today). She tried to improve the lives of subjects, although her biggest move, an attempt to abolish serfdom—the Russian brand of slavery—failed. “I don't remember any of the first half-dozen men who became presidents of the United States even trying,” quips Massie.

It is clear that, after eight years spent writing and researching Catherine the Great, Massie feels a bit protective of his royal subject, who is perhaps best remembered for things she didn’t actually do. Especially when it comes to her romantic life. “This was a concoction by her enemies,” he says, pointing out that during her early life and reign, Catherine sustained lengthy, monogamous relationships. Early favorite Gregory Orlov, who was her consort when she became Empress at 33, held that standing for 12 years. “That's a pretty long stay in America these days,” Massie laughs. “Then there was Poniatowski, who really did love her all his life. And there was Potemkin, who she may have married.”

Later, Catherine took a succession of younger men as royal favorites, sending gossips in Russia and around world into an even bigger frenzy. “I bristle at this,” Massie says. “I mean, Louis XV, who ruled France for half a century, had a training ground at Versailles to bring up teenage girls for his bed. . . . No one thinks that's at all disgraceful. Augustus the Strong of Saxony had 300 children, several by his daughter. That's not a story that goes around. But let a woman become empress, and need somebody in various senses, and it's lights out, or whatever metaphor you want to use.”

Massie first became interested in the Romanov family when his oldest son, Robert Massie Jr., was diagnosed with hemophilia in the late 1950s. As the Massies struggled to manage Bobby’s illness (a time chronicled in the memoir Journey, co-written with Massie’s first wife, Suzanne Massie), they reviewed case studies of the most famous hemophiliac, Tsarevich Alexis. Massie became convinced that Alexis’ disease, and the resulting need for secrecy and dependence on Rasputin, was a larger contributing factor to the dynasty’s downfall than it had been considered previously. This research turned into Nicholas and Alexandra (1967), which he wrote over nights and weekends while working as a journalist. “My advance was $2500,” he remembers. Published during the Cold War, the book (and subsequent Hollywood film) was a hit, allowing Massie to write full-time.

Over the course of his lengthy publishing career, Massie has worked with some of the best editors in the business, including Robert Gottlieb (on Peter the Great) and Bob Loomis, to whom Catherine the Great is dedicated. Still, his genius is his own. Massie has the rare ability to shape a life story into a compelling narrative, and he puts his larger-than-life figures into historical context. At the end of a Massie biography, the reader will not only have an in-depth knowledge of its subject, but also an understanding of their world. “I know a whole lot more than the reader knows,” he says of his extensive research, which often results in delightful asides, like a memorable passage on the guillotine in Catherine the Great.

Massie doesn’t feel attracted to the idea of writing about any 20th-century Russians. When Si Newhouse, the owner of Condé Nast, once suggested Massie write about Stalin, “I shivered. . . . I have to feel something other than just a shiver [when I think about a biography subject].”

The only shiver that Catherine’s remarkable story might inspire is one of awe. “She was a woman who, by her own initiative, courage, intelligence, took charge. Stood up against men, stood up against situations, environment, the past,” Massie says. But Massie’s achievement in Catherine the Great goes beyond listing her accomplishments as a ruler—he has resurrected her humanity. “I was simply trying to make the contemporary reader realize that this was a woman we could all understand,” he says. With compassion, intelligence and meticulous research, he has realized that goal.

 

It could be a fairy tale: a young German princess from a small principality is swept from obscurity to marry the heir to the Russian throne.

Crowned Grand Duchess of Russia, showered with gowns and jewels, 15-year-old Sophia is renamed Catherine and baptized in the…

Animals

Marty Becker

Interview by Trisha Ping

 

Dr. Marty Becker, "America's Veterinarian," is the popular veterinary contributor to ABC-TV's "Good Morning America" and the resident veterinarian on "The Dr. Oz Show," where he is also the only veterinary member of the Dr. Oz Medical Advisory Board. He is also the lead veterinary expert for VetStreet.com and the author of a brand new book, Your Cat: The Owner's Manual. In it, he explains some of the most common feline mysteries and teaches cat owners what they need to know to keep their pet happy and healthy with advice on everything from treats to toys to litter box mishaps.

BookPage editors Kate Pritchard and Trisha Ping took the opportunity to ask him a few questions about their own cats' more unusual habits. 

 

Trisha: Sometimes when my cats (Walter, 3, and Willie, 7) groom each other, the licks turn to ear bites and a little bit of wrestling. Why is that? I thought mutual grooming was a sign of affection.
Cats are easily overstimulated, and some have more of  hair-trigger than others. We’ve all known cats who turned “mean” during a petting session, especially when tickled on their bellies. The reaction is fleeting, typically: They grab with teeth and claws but often never press in to hurt. It’s more of a “Wow! Stop that! It tickles!” reaction, and I suspect that’s part of the interaction between your cats. 

 

 

Trisha's cats, Willie and Walter

 

Trisha: Walter has been known to occasionally spend his evenings running around the house like a wild thing, emitting weird noises and periodically climbing the doorframes or bouncing off the sides of furniture. Why does he do this? Is there a way to prevent this behavior, or should I just sign him up for Parkour classes?
Classic Kitty Crazies! Cats are night hunters, equipped with senses that allow them to track rodents in low-light conditions (cats don’t need goggles for superior night vision: They are born with it!). Dusk and early evening is when the mousies come out for dinner, and that means cats do, too. With no mice around to stalk, your cat still has energy to burn.

 

Walter burns off some energy

 

Channel that energy into activities that are fun for you both, such as playing an interactive toy such as a “fishing pole” or a laser pointer.  Cats aren’t endurance runners; they’re sprinters. Once your cat gets the crazies out of his system, he’ll be into his next cat nap.

Trisha: I have heard that it is not healthy to play with one cat while the other is watching and doing nothing. Do you agree with this assessment? If so, do you have any suggestions for how one person can play with two cats at the same time? Should I shut Walter in a different part of the house when I play with Willie, and vice versa?
It depends on the cats. Some cats share and some cats don’t. If yours don’t mind sharing you while you play, they’re no harm.  If play sessions lead to fights, though, then it probably is best to separate for play sessions.

 

 

Kate's cats, Worthington and Chesterfield

 

Kate: My husband and I have two cats, both male. Worthington is nine years old and Chesterfield is not quite two. We introduced them slowly, but a year and a half later they still have the occasional serious-sounding fight. Worthington, who is a little high-strung, is almost always the aggressor. I don’t believe they have ever really injured one another, but the fights worry me. What can we do?
Given enough time, most cats will eventually learn to at least tolerate each other, but there will always be some who won’t. For the cats who won’t interact, it’s perfectly fine to allow them to establish their own territories with separate food, water and litter-box arrangements. It’s not even uncommon to do so: I’ve known more than a few cat-lovers with “upstairs cats” and “downstairs cats.”

Other cats will happily share space as long as they don’t have to share litterboxes—general guidelines say one litterbox per cat, plus one more to avoid messy conflicts over potty space. Other resources such as food can additionally be a source of conflict.

Yours may be as blended as they will ever be, or you might be able to fully integrate them by backing up a little.  Before you start, take them to your veterinarian to be sure there are no physical issues in either cat. Illness can make anyone cranky, and you’ll to resolve and health problems before you deal with problem behavior.

 

Worthington doesn't seem too happy with his sofa companion!

 

To ease the stress levels, add Feliway to your home environment. This pheromone mimics the soothing smell given off by nursing mothers, and it’s so effective that we used it for the cover shoot of Your Cat: The Owner’s Manual to help our feline models relax and get along. I use so much Feliway when working with cats in practice that my family jokes that it’s my most popular aftershave! For your situation, try it in a whole-house diffuser.

You should also establish separate areas for litter box, food and water, and sleeping. These may need to be permanent.

Allow your cats to avoid each other or interact as they choose, with no forcing them together.  When they seem to have settled into their territories, you can experiment with moving their dishes slowly and gradually closer together, or by playing active games such a with a cat “fishing pole” or laser pointer. The idea is that sharing good experiences makes the cats more likely to enjoy being with each other.

Your cats may never interact like a closely bonded pair, but they likely will be able to cohabitate with little conflict if they’re more relaxed and comfortable. Beyond that, time will tell. If you find the situation getting worse or just plain intolerable, check in with your veterinarian for a referral to a behaviorist.

Kate: For the hour or so immediately preceding breakfast and dinner, Chesterfield will not stop chirping and meowing loudly and plaintively for his food. It’s making us crazy, especially in the mornings. I feel fairly certain that we are feeding him an adequate amount of food. How can we get him to keep quiet as mealtimes approach? We’re about to have a baby, so this question has taken on extra importance!
Switch to food puzzles! It’s not natural to eat twice a day (or worse: To have an open Kitty Buffet leading to obesity) for cats and dogs. These are animals designed to spend their waking hours finding their own meals, and working for their food. 

You can turn your cat back into the hunter he was born to be by purchasing a variety of a new generation of toys that are designed to be filled with food that a pet can’t get to unless he works out how with his brain and his body. Introduce your cat to these puzzles by showing how to roll or otherwise manipulate them to get kibble out, and then may the game harder by placing them in gradually more difficult places, such as in the cubby of the cat tree.

Your cat will be mentally and physically more satisfied because of these challenges you’ve introduced, and the pestering should end because your cat is no longer relying on you to “dish it out.”

Kate: Chesterfield has suddenly discovered that the kitchen counter is where the food comes from, and he now jumps up there regularly. We chase him off and sometimes spray him with a water bottle when we catch him up there, but so far nothing has deterred him. How can we stop him from getting up on the counters?
Teach yourself to keep food off the counter, at least while you’re raising or training your cat. If your cat gets rewarded with a nibble every few times he gets on the counter, that reinforces the behavior very strongly. So first, remove the rewards.

 

Chesterfield enjoys perching on the sink as well

 

 

With the rewards gone, turn the countertop into an unwelcome environment by putting cardboard covered with double-sided tape, sticky side up. Cats hate to have their paws stick to anything, and they’ll avoid an area that’s sticky.

Don’t punish your cat in any way that associates you with the penalty—it can damage your relationship with your pet. Use a squirt bottle in a sneaky way, so your cat associates the counter with the shot of water, not you.

If you’re patient and consistent, your cat should eventually decide the counter just isn’t a great place to be.

 

 

 

Dr. Marty Becker, "America's Veterinarian," is the popular veterinary contributor to ABC-TV's "Good Morning America" and the resident veterinarian on "The Dr. Oz Show," where he is also the only veterinary member of the Dr. Oz Medical Advisory Board. He is also…

Fiction

Emma Straub

Interview by Trisha Ping

In an engaging first novel, Emma Straub tells the story of a small-town girl who hits the big time in 1940s Hollywood. We asked Straub a few questions about being a first-time novelist and the double-edged sword of fame.

Was there a particular Hollywood star who inspired Laura?
I first had the idea for the book after reading the obituary for actress Jennifer Jones, so yes, in that sense, absolutely. I stayed away from Jones’ films and biography, though, because I wanted Laura to be purely fictional. There are other characters in the book who are modeled on real figures—Laura’s friend Ginger has a lot in common with Lucille Ball, for example—but I wanted to make sure that my characters were my own, and not flimsy reproductions of historical figures.

Publishing a first novel might not be as glamorous as starring in a blockbuster, but it’s a big deal. What was your reaction when you found out that Laura Lamont would be published?
I burst into tears. My husband burst into tears. I’m pretty sure my cats burst into tears. When Riverhead made their pre-emptive offer, I was sitting in a gorgeous room at the Breakers in Palm Beach, just after speaking to my mother-in-law’s book club. There was a pianist playing nearby. I’ll never forget that day, never.

Your descriptions of Door County make it sound idyllic, but Elsa can’t wait to escape. You grew up in New York City—have you ever longed to chuck it and go for the small-town life?
On a daily basis! I lived in Wisconsin for three years, and I miss so much about it. The post office! The grocery store! Everything is so much easier. But I am a city girl at heart, and I’m afraid I wouldn’t know what to do with myself if I left for good. 

Elsa finds fame and fortune as “Laura,” but is increasingly torn between who she was and the star she has become. Do you think she would have to make the same sacrifices in Hollywood today?
Well, right now we’re in the wake of the Kristen Stewart/Robert Pattinson cheating debacle, and so, yes! I think actresses, and people in the public eye, are still very much forced to behave in odd, unnatural ways. If anything, it’s harder now. I think Laura would have had to make many of the same sacrifices, and some additional ones. I don’t envy famous people, that is for sure. I think it’s a very difficult life, having people watch you all the time.

"I think it’s a very difficult life, having people watch you all the time."

Do you have any celebrity obsessions or fascinations?
How much time do you have? I love the movies, and movie stars, and gossip magazines, all of it. I read all the gossip websites, even though I know it’s a horrible invasion of privacy. I can’t help it—the stories are just so good, you know? And my favorite thing to do in the middle of the afternoon is to go to the movies. I don’t care whether it’s a high school dance movie or a restored classic at the Film Forum, I love them all.

Would you rather hang out with your favorite author or your favorite Hollywood actress?
Hmmm, that’s hard! Can I have a dinner party with Jennifer Egan, Lorrie Moore, Nicole Holofcener, Lisa Cholodenko, Lena Dunham, Catherine Keener, Brit Marling and Julianne Moore instead? I think we’d have a grand old time, and probably drink too much, and all give each other excellent book recommendations.

RELATED CONTENT
Read a review of Laura Lamont's Life in Pictures.

In an engaging first novel, Emma Straub tells the story of a small-town girl who hits the big time in 1940s Hollywood. We asked Straub a few questions about being a first-time novelist and the double-edged sword of fame.

Was there a particular Hollywood star…

FictionHistorical Fiction

Karen Engelmann

Interview by Trisha Ping

In her debut novel, The Stockholm Octavo, Karen Engelmann creates not only a convincing world and memorable characters, but a fate-changing card game. Mrs. Sparrow, the proprietress of one of Stockholm's most exclusive gaming salons, lays the Octavo for only the most special of customers—until her sixth sense informs her that a humble customs official, Emil, might play a pivotal role in the kingdom's fate. We asked Engelmann a few questions about cards, writing and the number eight.

The Stockholm Octavo is a puzzle novel, the kind of satisfying mystery where a reader can really revel in putting the pieces together page by page. What is it like to write this type of novel? Did its structure come first, or the story?
I let the novel reveal itself over a long period, which was both a puzzle and a mystery for me! Eighteenth-century Stockholm, folding fans, the assassination of Gustav III and the number 8 served as inspiration and main components. The real writing started with the fictional characters (backstory, personal details, a pivotal event in their life), most of which did not make it into the novel. The storyline emerged from these characters inserting themselves into history, and the structure came last. Everything changed dramatically during the various revisions, and keeping track of the details made me (and the editing team) crazy at times. With patience, hard work and a ream of sticky notes, it eventually came together. 

You have a degree in the visual arts, and have worked as a book designer. How involved were you with the physical design of the book—and the cards that make up the Octavo?
My only part was to create the Octavo diagrams and the timeline for the front matter. I was consulted, of course, by the Ecco design team, who created the splendid design for the U.S. edition, which I absolutely LOVE. The Octavo cards are a 16th-century German deck that I discovered doing research on gaming. They fit Mrs. Sparrow’s philosophy perfectly, and the drawings (by Jost Amman) speak volumes about human nature. I wish that I had drawn them!

Have you actually laid an Octavo for anyone? Do you believe in divination?
I have not laid the Octavo and would decline if asked; reading cards (like any other skill) requires a special interest and ability, and takes years of study and practice (I have the interest but none of the rest.) As for divination, I do believe there are people with intuitive abilities who can sense and decipher energies that others cannot—but there are very few of them out there. To me, this is not dissimilar from people who compose, sing, do higher mathematics, or anything else at an advanced, professional level. It takes tremendous talent and rigorous training. 

This novel explores many of the myths and legends that surround the number eight. Has this always been a significant number for you?
Absolutely! I was born on the 8th, into a family of eight children. I have carried a brass key ring stamped with an eight since college. I was told by a numerologist that my soul’s urge was eight, and it’s a beautiful number besides so it appeals to my design sensibilities. It symbolizes good fortune in China, but is rather ignored in Western culture. Maybe that’s about to change.

The French Revolution had an amazing ripple affect across Western Europe, and arguably did as much for other countries as it did in France. Do you think revolutions can be contained?
I am not a historian or scholar, but my response would be that revolutions spread—sometimes the ideas and intent rather than physical acts of rebellion. These revolutionary ideas can inspire likeminded action (with or without the upheaval and violence) or cause a reactionary backlash. That’s happening right now in the Middle East, isn’t it?

What did you learn about 18th-century Stockholm that surprised you?
Despite the geographical isolation, late 18th-century Stockholm was an incredibly lively and diverse city, full of culture, beauty, drama and fascinating characters. It’s not what one imagines when the topic of Swedish history comes up in conversation.

What are you working on next?
In an attempt to pull myself out of the shadows of the 18th century, I am working on a novel much lighter in tone, set in a more recent century (20th). This book also focuses on cards—but greeting cards this time. I am very interested in the juncture of art and commerce, and also the combination of text and image in books (although it’s not a graphic novel). The work (so far) has been gleeful, but is far from finished. Thanks for asking!

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Read a review of The Stockholm Octavo.

In her debut novel, The Stockholm Octavo, Karen Engelmann creates not only a convincing world and memorable characters, but a fate-changing card game. Mrs. Sparrow, the proprietress of one of Stockholm's most exclusive gaming salons, lays the Octavo for only the most special of customers—until…

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