Q&A with Mary Jones

 

 

Mary Jones is the author of the new story collection The Goodbye Process. Her work has appeared in a variety of publications, including Electric Literature's Recommended Reading. She teaches fiction writing at UCLA Extension, and she lives in Los Angeles.

 

Q: Over how long a period did you write the stories in your new collection?

A: The stories in The Goodbye Process were written over the course of about 13 to 14 years or so, I would say. During that time I was also doing other things, of course. But I think because they were written over such a long stretch of time, they embody a range of experiences of a life lived. I think it’s a richer collection because of that.

 

I knew it was complete when I felt like I’d touched upon a wide range of the significant losses people encounter as they make their way through life.

Q: How was the book’s title (also the title of the last story) chosen, and what does it signify for you?

A: I was working on (what ended up becoming) the title story and, in that story, a character says to the narrator, “You have to release your feelings... it’s a very important part of the goodbye process.” My titles often come from lines in the story, and as soon as this character said this line, I knew it was the title of the story.

 

Soon after, I understood that it was also the title of the collection. It became clear to me that letting go and saying goodbye were what all the stories I had been working on for a long time were really about.

 

When people think about loss, I think what usually comes to mind is the death of a loved one, but there are so many other things we have to let go of, and say goodbye to, along the way—relationships, youth, health, homes, innocence, life as we know it.

 

I think we experience grief through all these different types of loss, whenever we lose something that is significant to us. This book explores all the different types of loss we face and how we survive it.  

Q: The writer Jill McCorkle said of the book, “Mary Jones’s delightful story collection is full of surprises...sometimes funny, often heartbreaking, always memorable.” What do you think of that description, and how do you balance humor and heartbreak in your stories?

A: I think Jill McCorkle is one of the greatest living short story writers, and I was extremely honored to get this beautiful blurb from her about the book.

 

I use humor to cope in my real life; it is often how I get through bad things, and that comes through in these stories. Sometimes when something awful happens, right there next to it—if you are open to seeing it—is a funny way to look at it.

 

This sort of humor is a dark humor, yes. But I think if you are able to go there, it can be a momentary relief and even a comfort. I think I go there in moments in these stories, and, in a way, I think this relieves the tension for the reader when dealing with serious subject matter.

 

I also find that there is a certain humor that occurs simply when something rings true. I think that’s where a lot of humor in these stories comes from.

 

So in most cases, there are no lines written with the intention of being funny, no jokes. I think the lines can just read as funny if something is described in such a particular and accurate way that the reader knows exactly what I’m talking about and feels in on the observation. 

Q: How did you decide on the order in which the stories would appear in the collection?

A: A lot of time went into deciding the story order, both individually on my end, and then also with my editor.

 

I had a giant poster board that had index cards with each story title on it, and I moved the cards around like puzzle pieces to figure out which stories went where.

 

I had two goals in mind as I did this. The first goal was to create balance: of stories with female and male narrators, of longer and shorter stories, of lighter and darker stories, and of real and surreal stories. The second goal was finding connections between the stories so that they would expand and complicate each other in interesting ways.

 

In all the (many) versions of the collection that existed during this time, the first story “From Outside I Could See,” and the last story “The Goodbye Process” never moved. Throughout the process, everyone always agreed that those two stories needed to be the first and last stories in the collection. 

 

Q: What are you working on now?

A: I’m working on a novel. Also, a novel-in-stories.

Q: Anything else we should know?

A: Just that I hope this collection will bring readers hope that there’s another side to grief, and comfort in knowing they are not alone: grief is something that unites us all.

 

There’s a quote by Jamie Anderson that I love, “Grief is just love with no place to go.” I’m hoping this collection will give readers a place to go; that it will open up a space for them to think about, and maybe talk about, the different kinds of loss they’ve endured and how they survived it.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb