Q&A with Laurie Frankel

  

Photo by Natalia Dotto

 

 

Laurie Frankel is the author of the new novel Enormous Wings. Her other books include This Is How It Always Is. She is a former college professor, and she lives in Seattle. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write Enormous Wings, and how did you create your character Pepper?

 

A: When my grandmother first got sick with what we later learned was cancer, I was struck by how similar the symptoms were to those of early pregnancy (nausea, exhaustion, dizziness, brain fog, and a general sense of feeling off) and how much better, if weirder, news that she was pregnant would have been.

 

Like pregnancy, old age is a great – and much more unusual – lens through which to talk about issues of agency, choice, and bodily autonomy. These issues are such pressing ones, but we often only talk about them one way and through one lens, and that’s never good. 

 

Pepper really wrote herself. I kicked her off – I was very close with my grandmothers, and both of them are all over this book – but then Pepper really became her own person in the best way. It’s such a delight when that happens, and because the book really is about strength in people you least expect, it’s also especially apt. Pepper is a total asskicker.

 

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

 

A: Enormous Wings has this element of magic or unrealism at the heart of its conceit (77-year-old gets pregnant) but is otherwise realism. Even that element of strangeness is grounded in realism (there have been a number of women even older than Pepper who’ve gotten pregnant and given birth).

 

One day, trying to explain all this to my husband, I was using as a metaphor Gabriel García Márquez’s short story “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings.”

 

I love that story not only because of that interplay of genres (magic realism) but because it observes that human reaction to the miraculous is often, well, the opposite, which is some of what happens in my novel as well.

 

I also love the winged imagery of flight, folded strength, lifting up, and spreading over. The title appears a number of times in the book, all very different from one another. I always like when I’m reading and come upon the title.

 

Q: The writer Leila Mottley said of the book, “Laurie Frankel has written a masterpiece of humanity with just the right dash of weirdness. This is the ultimate interrogation of abortion access in a red state set in the most unexpected place: a senior living community.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: Isn’t that the most amazing quote? I am so grateful to Leila for those words. This book is definitely weird, which I hope is a compelling reason to read it. (Here’s to weird books!!)

 

I love books that tell a different story than the usual, especially about topics, such as abortion, where I think I’ve already heard it all before, so I’m thankful Leila saw all of that in these pages, and I hope other readers will as well.

 

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

 

A: I hope they’re entertained and amused and moved and inspired to call their grandmothers and/or to be or aspire to be badass grandmothers themselves. I hope they see, be, and look for strength in unexpected places. I hope they consider matters of agency and bodily autonomy and aging and love and sex and family from new and surprising angles. But especially the part about being amused and entertained. 

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: The next novel. Always the next novel. They take too long (at least, they take me too long) to take much of a break in between one and the next, and besides, when the real world is senseless, it’s nice to have one mostly in your control.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: Just that I’m grateful for this blog and these kind, smart questions. Thank you so much!

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Laurie Frankel.