Q&A with Anne Shaw Heinrich

  

 

 

Anne Shaw Heinrich is the author of the new novel House of Teeth, the latest in her Women of Paradise County series. She is also a journalist and communications professional. 

 

Q: House of Teeth is the third in your Women of Paradise County series--what inspired the plot of this new novel?

 

A: House of Teeth has been a great opportunity to throw open the windows and let readers see how deeply the characters from the first two novels in the series (God Bless the Child and Violet Is Blue) are connected to one another and Poulson, the fictional town where they find themselves living, loving, hating, surviving, and simply being human.

 

The primary arc of this book’s story follows a young man named Jules Marks and his five younger sisters as they adjust to living with their Uncle Larry and Aunt Sally, who swooped in to give them the safe and secure existence they’ve never had.

 

It’s a welcome saving, but none of the characters go riding off into the sunset. Not everyone in town thinks the Marks kids deserve all the good that has come their way. I thought that this very nuanced aspect of small-town life, of the ups and downs of being human, was worth exploring more deeply.

 

Q: How was the book’s title chosen, and what does it signify for you?

 

A: House of Teeth’s title alludes to one of the primary conflicts that crops up when the town’s only dentist decides quietly to help Jules and all five of his sisters take care of one of the last remaining signs of their stinking origins: their rotting teeth.

 

Not everyone approves of the gesture. For some, it’s a bridge too far.

 

The Marks kids, all six of them, have settled into one of the largest, nicest homes in town, thanks to the unexpected generosity of old Margaret Burns, who knows a thing or two about being from Shakey’s Half. The town is still getting used to the idea of a pack of scroungy kids living in such a nice place, when news about the generous dental care lands.

 

Delving into the complicated backlash is a chance to explore themes of generosity, envy, class division, and the gritty truths of gaps in privilege that we cannot seem to shake.

Q: How would you describe the relationship between this novel and the two earlier books in the series, and would you need to read those before turning to this one?

 

A: The good news about The Women of Paradise County series is that each book can stand on its own. Of course, the full story is richer and more challenging if you read the first two books before House of Teeth.

 

The entire series is presented in multiple, staggered points of view, and there are a lot of memory sequences and playing around with past and present, so this makes  the larger story of the full series fluid.  

 

Some of the characters are connected deeply to one another, and others only in very tangential ways. What ties all the characters and the books is the world of Poulson, a fictional town in a fictional Paradise County.

 

None of it is real, but it could be, and I think that’s why readers are drawn to this kind of storytelling. It allows us to examine ourselves and where we stand in the world, but to do so from a safe distance.

Q: What do you hope readers take away from the book?

 

A: I would consider it a win if readers walk away from House of Teeth, and the other books in the series, remembering that we all have the capacity to be empathetic, that villains probably love someone and have a favorite kind of ice cream and those we consider heroes harbor dark thoughts and regrets. The binding agent for the full spectrum of humanity is we are made to love and to be loved.

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I am very deep into writing Unfettered, the fourth and final book in The Women of Paradise County series. It’s this stage of writing that I find the most satisfying!

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: I think it’s really critical that authors and readers remember that we didn’t invent storytelling. It’s a primal, instinctual pull that distinguishes us from animals.

 

Storytelling helps us remember that others were here before us, living and loving, laughing, and crying just like we do. And long after we’re gone, others will stand where we stood, doing all the same things that make us human.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Anne Shaw Heinrich.