Willa Goodfellow is the author of the new memoir A Gritty Little Tourist Town: Bar Tales from Costa Rica. She also has written the memoir Prozac Monologues. She is an Episcopal priest, and she lives in Ireland.
Q: What inspired you to write A Gritty Little Tourist Town?
A: The answer is in the first story. For many years, I spent several weeks in a little beach town in Costa Rica. One day an exceedingly hungover neighbor got into a shouting match with a mynah bird. I walked over to my sister’s bar, the Pato Loco, and told the story to a friend. She found it as hilarious as I did. So I walked home and made notes to remember it.
That began a practice. Whenever I went to the Pato Loco, I listened for other stories to record.
In 2020, these notes became my contribution of refreshment and joy to my writers’ group. I turned them into full stories. And the group encouraged me to turn them into a book.
Q: How was the book’s title chosen, and what does it signify for you?
A: My publisher and I went back and forth on this one. My original title was Bar Tales of Costa Rica, which she didn’t care for. She came up with a list, including the title of the first section of stories, “A Gritty Little Tourist Town.” That phrase was my wife’s originally. It was how she described Playas del Coco to family who were coming to visit. The original title became the subtitle.
While I struggled at first to move off from the working title that I had used for so long, it finally occurred to me that what had started as a collection of bar tales had grown. The book is about the town as well as the bar. I want to preserve my memories of that gritty, yet delightful, place.
Q: The author Kim Danielson said of the book, “Willa Goodfellow made me feel right at home in a faraway place; she reminds us that this big world of ours isn't so big after all.” What do you think of that assessment?
A: Yes, Kim captures what a welcoming place the Pato Loco is. It takes its visitors as they are, with all their quirks and foibles. Because I didn’t polish off any rough edges, the characters in GLTT feel real. Readers tell me that they feel they know these people, that they could sit down at the table and join the conversation.
Q: What impact did it have on you to write the book, and what do you hope readers take away from it?
A: Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie talks about the “tyranny of one story,” how one version of a person, place, or culture can limit our understanding. While writing A Gritty Little Tourist Town, I came to understand the “poverty” of one story.
I began with one version of my mother, my sister, and also the place, Playas del Coco. As I wrote subsequent drafts, as I turned the stories over and the book expanded, I realized how limited my understanding had been, especially of my mother. I have a deeper respect for her now than when I began.
I also gained an appreciation of storytelling itself, as I witnessed the community that formed around the Pato Loco. I hope that readers become storytellers in their own circumstances, and committed to deepening their own communities.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I have moved to Ireland, to another small town like Playas del Coco, on the Dingle Peninsula. It also has a rich culture of storytelling. People urge me to do the “Pub Tales of County Kerry.” But then they add, “Don’t put me in it!” I play with the idea of switching genres and writing a fictionalized version of a local historical mystery.
As well as an author, I am an Episcopal priest, working for the Church of Ireland. I write on Substack. In “On the Way” at wgoodfellow.substack.com, I publish daily meditations on trying to follow the Way of Love, based on the assigned Scripture readings for the day.
In “What’s Next?” at willagoodfellow.substack.com, I write about my fourth quarter, moving to Ireland, life as an immigrant, and aging with a sense of adventure, intending to “leave it all on the field.”
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: GLTT is my second book. The first, Prozac Monologues, is also a memoir, a comedic account of misdiagnosis and information about the bipolar spectrum. It begins in Costa Rica and ends with the pathophysiology of bipolar! – in language that entertains a general audience.
My website is willagoodfellow.com.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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