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The author of “The Museum of Extraordinary Things” found a copy of “The Catcher in the Rye” on her mother’s bookshelf. “I hadn’t known that a book could speak so directly to a reader.”
What books are currently on your night stand?
“Time and Again,” by Jack Finney, which I missed in the ’70s and just discovered — I am a huge fan of all time travel. “Inside the Dream Palace,” by Sherill Tippins, the history of the Chelsea Hotel, since I’m a Chelsea girl. “The Death of Bees,” by Lisa O’Donnell, a dark, fierce first novel that is a page-turner and a fairy tale turned inside out. I can’t wait to read what she writes next.
Who is your favorite novelist of all time? And your favorite novelist writing today?
All time — Emily Brontë, author of the greatest psychological novel ever written, with the most complex character ever conceived. Read “Wuthering Heights” when you’re 18 and you think Heathcliff is a romantic hero; when you’re 30, he’s a monster; at 50 you see he’s just human. My favorite novelist working today is our greatest living writer, Toni Morrison. Nothing compares with her lyrical, heart-wrenching, gorgeous prose.
Sell us on your favorite overlooked or underappreciated writer.
Penelope Lively, the wonderful English writer born in Egypt. I love everything she writes: novels, children’s books, nonfiction. She has such grace, and her characters have true depth. “Moon Tiger,” the first of her novels I read, is a favorite, along with some of her recent books, “How It All Began” and “The Photograph,” luminous, intelligent fictional worlds, often centering on a character who is searching back through her own history to find out why her life played out as it did. Emotional mysteries, the best kind.
What are your literary guilty pleasures? Do you have a favorite genre?
I have no guilt regarding my love of fantasy and science fiction, only pleasure. I grew up reading the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. I chuckle over how this “genre” has become mainstream and how time travel, alternative universes and magic are now so everyday. Plus, no one could ever feel guilty about reading writers like Ursula K. Le Guin and Philip K. Dick.
Which books might we be surprised to find on your shelves.
Lots of nonfiction research. Texts concerning weather, apples, New York City, archaeology, medicine, trees, stars, Roman history, photography.
What was the last book to make you laugh?
Nora Ephron’s “I Remember Nothing.”
The last book that made you cry?
Nora Ephron’s “I Remember Nothing.”
The last book that made you furious?
Oh, no book makes me furious. Maybe sad, or lost, or confused, but mostly joy and wonder are the emotions involved. That’s why I prefer books to people.
What kind of reader were you as a child? And what were your favorite childhood books?
I was a fanatical escapist reader, as I am now a fanatical escapist writer. I always had a book with me, no matter what, on the bus, in line for the movies. I still love to read the same books I loved as a child. Anything written by Edward Eager, especially “Half Magic”; the Borrowers series; “Mary Poppins.” Grimms’ fairy tales, so psychologically true a child reader intuits their deeper personal meaning. Those fairy tale themes are at the heart of many of my own books.
And then, for me, the greatest discovery of my childhood reading life: Ray Bradbury. The one thing my father left behind when he took off was a box of books — fantasy and science fiction. Inside was a Bradbury collection. Ray became my literary father. He was the one who taught me about the world, and he was a great teacher. I think every 12-year-old should read him (and every adult as well, but 12-year-olds are so much better readers). “Fahrenheit 451” is an American classic and a work of genius, and “Something Wicked This Way Comes” is my favorite of his books, small-town magic. I loved them all and still do. I admired Ray as a writer and a person and wish he was still here with us.
Whom do you consider your literary heroes?
Toni Morrison, Grace Paley, Emily Brontë, Ray Bradbury, all for different reasons, all adored. And my mentor and professor who changed my life at the Stanford writing program, the writer and critic Albert Guerard. In our workshop his first assignment shocked the class: write 50 pages a week. When the pages were handed in by the exhausted student writers, our teacher was the one to be shocked. He hadn’t been serious about the assignment. Guerard was just letting us know that writers write.
Which novels have had the most impact on you as a writer? Is there a particular book that made you want to write?
“The Catcher in the Rye.” I found it on my mother’s bookshelf. I knew nothing about it or its author, but my mind was blown after the very first page. I hadn’t known that a book could speak so directly to a reader. After that, I knew what I wanted to do with my life.
If you could require the president to read one book, what would it be?
I would hate to require him to do anything more than he already has to do. I think I’d just send him a beautiful volume of Emily Dickinson’s poems and hope he had a day off to read them.
You’re hosting a literary dinner party. Which three writers are invited?
Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Grace Paley. I had the extreme honor of reading with Grace several times. On one occasion there was the potential of some political differences with the audience. Nervous, I asked Grace what we should do if we were heckled. She said, “Honey, we’ll just sink to their level.” Then she stood on a box because she was too tiny to reach the microphone and quickly made everyone fall in love with her. I’m sure she’d do the same at my dinner party with these two challenging, brilliant men.
What books are you embarrassed not to have read yet?
The Russians. Even though my father wanted to name his children Nicholas and Anastasia, the rest of my Russian family was running away from the past, so I was never inclined to read the great Russian novels, now a huge regret. Now I fear I’ll never have time to read “Anna Karenina.” My Russian stories were the ones my grandmother told me about Baba Yaga, the witch who lives in a hut built on chicken legs in the forest. Because of this I have always loved ferocious old women, and I hope to be one myself.
What book are you most eagerly anticipating this year?
A novel I know nothing about that I happen to stumble upon, as I did once upon a time searching through my mother’s bookcase. That’s still the best reading experience: falling in love with a book I meet by accident.
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