April 21, 1816: Charlotte Bronte born.
Sunday, April 21, 2013
Saturday, April 20, 2013
Q&A with authors Bob Levey and Jane Freundel Levey
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| Jane Freundel Levey |
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| Bob Levey |
Jane Freundel Levey and Bob Levey are the authors of Washington Album: A Pictorial History of the Nation's Capitol. Jane Freundel Levey, a public historian, is director of heritage and
community programs for Cultural Tourism DC, and served as editor of Washington History magazine. Bob Levey, who also has written two other books, worked for The Washington Post for 36 years, including 23 years writing the column "Bob Levey's Washington."
Q: What are the biggest "myths" about Washington,
D.C., history that you found to be untrue?
JFL: a. D.C. was built on a swamp.
b. Benjamin Banneker designed the city.
c. Buildings cannot be taller than the Capitol.
BL: That there isn’t any pure D.C. cultural history and
there never has been. There ALWAYS has been.
Q: Why did you decide to write a history of D.C., and how
was it to work together on a project?
JFL: Bob was working at the Post, where he had been covering
the city for many years. I was (and am) a historian specializing in the history
of Washington, D.C. The book editor at the Post, Noel Epstein, knew us both
well and approached us to do a “popular” history of D.C. to commemorate
Congress’s arrival in Washington in 1800. The book was delivered in time for
the 200th anniversary of Congress’s arrival. It was great to work on this
together. Bob found it weird to have to rewrite, but he came around. We agreed
easily on the topics and photo choices. He wrote the text, and I wrote the
captions. I did most of the research; Susan Breitkopf supplied some of it, as
did Suzannah Gonzalez and Lynn Ryzewicz.
BL: Jane is far too gentle here. We are about as
diametrically opposed as two people could be in our basic orientation toward
doing a book. I wanted it to be just a longer newspaper column…. write it,
tweak it, don’t fret over it, call it done, pour another coffee, move on to the
next mountain. Jane wanted (and still wants!) to research, research, research.
Q: What surprised you the most that you discovered in the course of your
research?
JFL: I think it was the indifference of the citizens of the
United States to the aspirations that George Washington and other early leaders
had for their nation’s capital. But that indifference helps explain why we
still don’t have voting rights as well as why D.C. was so slow to develop in
the 19th century.
BL: That D.C. was so slow to become a real city, with basics
like sewers, paved streets, streetcars that went more than a few miles.
Q: If you were to write an update, what would you choose to
include from the past decade of D.C. history?
JFL: If I were going to write an update, I’d want to add
even more to the older history! But for the past decade I would highlight the
demographic changes that have ended the African American dominance of the city
as well as the enormous reinvestment in the oldest sections and the
long-awaited restoration of the 1968 riot corridors.
BL: I’d like to add lots of material about the late 1940s
and 1950s, a period when D.C. underwent immense racial change (and
blockbusting). From the last decade, I’d include the (re)emergence of U Street,
the surge of big-time professional sports (Nationals, Wizards, Caps) and the
ferment over the D.C. public schools (under one of my least favorite humans,
Michelle Rhee).
Q: Are you working on another book?
JFL: Not yet. I have a project based on my master’s thesis
that I’d love to see through . . . one day!
BL: Jane and I have discussed a book about blockbusting in D.C.,
but no action or traction yet.
Interview with Deborah Kalb
Friday, April 19, 2013
Q&A with writer Darin Strauss
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Q: What are you working on now?
Q: Anything else we should know?
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| Darin Strauss |
Darin Strauss is the author of the memoir Half a Life, and three novels, More Than It Hurts You, The Real McCoy, and Chang and Eng. He is on the faculty of New York University's creative writing program, and is married to journalist Susannah Meadows.
Q: You said in a Newsweek interview that "all my books
are about the limits of intimacy and how well you can know somebody." Why
has this been a theme of your work?
A: I don't know. I could think about it, but that would risk
demystifying -- and thus ending -- it. Saul Bellow once said something like:
"I don't want to go to therapy, because I don't want to know why I write
what I do." So, I'm going to keep that counsel.
Q: Why did you decide to write the memoir Half a Life, which
recounts an extremely traumatic experience [an accident at age 18 that took the life of another high school student], and how has writing this book
affected you?
A: Many things turned me off about doing an accident
memoir—not least my distaste for America’s indulgence of those who turn
misfortune into high-yield entertainment. I never thought I would.
But, as I say in the book, my decision finally to write
about the crash wasn’t a fluke. There was double-barreled starting-gun,
comprised of new fatherhood and the calendar. I was 36 when Susannah
became pregnant. Kids of my own were coming soon, and the accident had been
exactly half my life ago. That gut sense of how hard it would be to lose
a child; and that other, more brain-centered sense that I was avoiding
something. That's why I wrote about it. First for myself. I wasn't going to publish
it. But as soon as I did, I realized it was a book I wanted out there.
Q: How did you come to write about Chang and Eng Bunker, the
conjoined twins who are the focus of your first novel?
A: My first novel was a while ago now (I'm finishing up book
5, and starting book 6), so I can't say for sure. Something about not wanting
to write the kind of first novel everybody expected me to write
(auto-biographical). Something about wanting to get as far from the accident
story as possible (conjoined Asian twins born in Siam, in 1811). Something
about the accident itself, and being tied to the girl who died: the unbreakable
connection between these twins, the fact that the girl's mom said: you have to
live your life for two now. Who lives a life for two more than conjoined twins?
(This reason was something I didn't realize at the time.)
Q: You have written two novels involving historical figures,
one novel set in the present time, and one memoir. Is there a particular type
of writing that you prefer, and if so, why?
A: No, I don't like to get dogmatic. I just sniff around for
a good story. It's hard to find one that'll keep your interest for 300 pages.
So if I get ahold of something good, I'm not going to poo-poo it.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: David Lipsky and I collaborated on a YA adventure story.
That's almost done. And I'm writing a novel of my own, too.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: I play guitar? I'm bad at everything but writing -- and
sometimes even that?
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
Q&A with author David Grann
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| David Grann |
David Grann, a staff writer for The New Yorker, is the author of The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon, and The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession.
Q:
Your book The Devil and Sherlock Holmes is a collection of non-fiction
mysteries. Is there one that you found especially intriguing, or that stays
with you more than the others?
A:
In some ways, “Mysterious Circumstances: The Strange Death of a Sherlock Holmes
Fanatic,” the title piece. It taps into many themes that are part of the other
stories, particularly the blinding, maddening struggle to make logical sense of
things.
Another story that has stayed with me is that of the French imposter
who posed as a missing kid from Texas; after awhile, he began to wonder if he
was the one being conned.
But, in terms of the themes, “Mysterious
Circumstances” probably stays with me the most. There’s a quote in that story
from the main character’s sister, who says that we have to learn to live without
answers. That phrase applies to many of the stories.
Q:
You write, “Reporting, like detective work, is a process of elimination.” Was
there a consistent pattern to how you reported the stories in The Devil and Sherlock
Holmes?
A:
Generally in reporting you develop certain habits of investigation that are
similar from one story to another. It’s not all that glorious; you’re chasing
document trails, chasing sources. At its best it can feel like a treasure hunt.
Clues lead to other clues, some of which turn out to be dead ends and some of
which turn out to be incredibly illuminating. The people, the cultures, the
documents might vary from story to story, but the general process of reporting is
extremely similar.
Q:
Your first book, The Lost City of Z, is a journey on two levels: the explorer Percy
Fawcett’s journey, and your own journey. Did you intend all along to structure
the book that way, or did it develop as you were writing?
A:
It really developed to some degree. When I researched the story originally, I
did not intend to go into the jungle. I intended to tell Fawcett’s story, and
that of one of the recent explorers who went into the jungle and was kidnapped.
Going back to my earlier answer, this was a case of clues leading to clues, and
of getting a bit consumed with the material, until finally I decided to go
myself. I tracked down a descendent of Fawcett who lived in Wales and who had
an old chest, with old locked books covered with dust. She said these were
Fawcett’s secret diaries and logbooks.
Going through the books made me realize
that others hadn’t searched for Fawcett in the right places. And that’s when I
began to wonder, What would I find if I went in the right direction?
Q:
Does it seem unreal now, that you made that journey into the jungle, or does it
seem more like just another trip for a story?
A:
I went to the Amazon even through I don’t camp or hunt, I’m out of shape--I
hate that stuff! It’s absurd to anyone who knows me. But at the time, it didn’t
seem absurd. It seemed like the only way to complete my own quest, which was
understanding who Fawcett was and what happened to him on the expedition when
he disappeared. But it’s hard to imagine ever doing it again.
Q:
As a writer for The New Yorker, what do you think of the changes in magazine
journalism in recent years?
A:
It’s difficult to answer. I don’t know how everything will shake out. I don’t
know enough about the economics of magazines. I do know that it’s an extremely
challenging time, even more so in the newspaper world. Ad revenues are down,
and papers are in desperate shape. There are still great stories and great
reporters, but many papers don’t have overseas bureaus anymore and some even
lack the resources to cover American cities and counties.
I
feel fortunate to be at The New Yorker, where David Remnick has done a
remarkable job of insulating us writers, making sure we can do reporting. We’re
not living in lavish times, but the resources are still there to do the job.
My
one hope is based on the belief that people are no less curious about the world
and are still eagerly reading great stories. It’s a question of the
infrastructure and how to sustain the cost of good reporting. I suppose I’m
naïve enough to believe that there’s some way to resolve it.
Q:
Are you writing another book?
A:
I just started a new book about an old crime story that took place in Oklahoma
in the 1920s. There’s oil, greed, private eyes, and serial murder. I’ve been
spending time in Oklahoma, doing research in archives. Hopefully, I won’t end
up in some place like the Amazon.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
Thursday, April 18, 2013
Q&A with author Achy Obejas
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| Achy Obejas |
Achy Obejas is an author and translator who lives in Chicago. Her books include the novels Days of Awe and Ruins, and the collection We Came All the Way From Cuba So You Could Dress Like This?.
Q: You were born in Cuba and have gone back many times, and
much of your work deals in some way with that country. What is your sense of
what's likely to happen there in the coming years, and do you think the
relationship between Cuba and the United States could change substantially?
A: That's the magic question. No one knows. There have been
a million lost opportunities, and so long as the embargo is in place, there'll
be a million more. The relationship has nowhere to go but up.
Q: In addition to writing your own books, you have worked as
a translator, including translating Junot Diaz's The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao into Spanish. How difficult was it to translate that book, and what
was the process like?
A: It was an amazing challenge. The process was a
complicated one. I'd do a chunk, send it to Junot, then he'd send it off to a
close knit group of Dominican friends with varying degrees of fluency in
Spanish. Their notes would frequently contradict but I'd pick my way through it
and make decisions. Junot intervened only when there was a very specific thing
he wanted. He supported my decisions 100 percent.
Q: Questions of Jewish identity are part of your novels
Ruins and Days of Awe. How much do you identify with Judaism?
A: I consider myself of Jewish heritage. I sometimes fast on
Yom Kippur, I try to attend Kol Nidre (it's been a bit), and I celebrate
Passover with a big festive seder. We had 60 people this year.
Q: You also have worked on gay rights issues and often focus
on gay and lesbian characters in your writing. How do you think attitudes in
the United States have changed regarding gay and lesbian issues, and what about
attitudes in Cuba?
A: Since when? Things are getting better on all fronts, in
both places, in spite of specific events that sometimes push back. It's two
steps forward, one back, but overall, forward.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: Too many things. A translation of Cabrera Infante's Heavenly Bodies into English, two anthologies, and two separate
long form projects still in their infancy.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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