Everytime I see one of Bobbie Ann Mason's novels on a shelf I have a private moment of awe. I touch the spine of the book, run my fingers over her name and say to myself, "Wow. I know her. I've talked with her. This woman helped me become a writer." And then I blab these innermost thoughts to anyone standing behind the circ desk. No one on staff has begun to roll her eyes--or maybe some of them have and I haven't caught them--but they must be so sick of me.
But c'mon. How much fun is this? I revel in this tiny thread of connection. My ties to Mason go back several decades. During the mid-70s she taught journalism at Mansfield University, and I was in her classroom for two semesters to learn the rudiments of news and feature writing. I remember her soft-spoken lectures on style and nuance as well as the critiques of my work--the good and the not-so-good included.
Over the years she's catapulted into the literary limelight, winning the PEN/Hemingway award for first fiction and being named a Pulitzer finalist. Now, maybe, you can understand why I'm a bit of a groupie.
Her latest book, The Girl in the Blue Beret, is an absorbing story about a downed WWII pilot and his quest 35 years later to find the French Resistance members who helped him escape. It's based on the real-life story of her father-in-law and hit bookstores last year. How did I miss this? How did I overlook her name or the vintage French street scene on the cover or blurbs about its WWII theme, which I lock onto like a heat-seeking missile? Luckily, one of my favorite book catalogs, Bas Bleu (http://www.basbleu.com/) alerted me to Mason's newest title and I suggested we add it to our collection at the library.
Last spring I wrote to Mason to congratulate her on the novel and request an e-mail interview. The good thing about Mansfield's small classes is that she remembered me too and was happy to answer a few questions about the book and her writing process. Here's what she had to say:
When and how did you learn about your father-in-law's escape from the Nazis and when did it strike you as a potential theme for a novel?
He had often spoken of his B-17 being shot down in the War and how he had to escape with the help of the French Resistance. Toward the end of his life, he wrote a memoir for his family. But it never occurred to me to write a novel about it until I began taking a French class several years ago. Suddenly, through the language, the uncertainty and terror of his wartime situation became real in my imagination. He was a tall American trying to disguise himself as a French worker--who couldn't speak French!
Once you settle on an idea and commit to it, how much time do you typically spend on research before you write? Is it important to visit the novel's setting?
I don't usually do research before I write. I do it as I go along, or even near the end, to check up on things I've imagined. Most stories don't require research. But my novels have all delved into subjects that I wanted to know more about---Vietnam (In Country), nuclear contamination (An Atomic Romance), 19th century Southern folkways (Feather Crowns), and the French Resistance.
I saw pictures of you in Paris at your website. How many times did you visit and how did it affect your storytelling?
I went to Paris six times, for two weeks at a time. It wasn't advance research really. It was just being there, soaking up the atmosphere, trying to imagine Marshall Stone, my protagonist, living there in 1980, when he returns to look for the people who had helped him during the war. So I went in search of the story. I sought out members of the Resistance who had helped my father-in-law, and they were very hospitable and still grateful to the Allied aviators. They helped to bring the story alive.
How did you find those Resistance fighters so many years later?
In the late 80s the villagers in Belgium created a spectacular monument to the crew of my father-in-law's fallen B-17. He went to the dedication, so I knew about those people. And a woman in Paris whose family had helped aviators contacted him after finding his name on her mother's list of aviators. They had made his false ID card so that he could get out of France. They met again at a reunion in 1993. I looked her up, and she became my girl in the blue beret in the story.
Where will your next story come from?
Who knows? It will surprise me. It will knock me over and demand some consideration.
The Push From the Book: each book we read leaves its mark
and gives you a push: a new way of thinking, a new take on life, new ideas, new
goals. Here's what this book did to me: After nearly 35 years away from college, I did my own reconnecting, just like Marshall Stone. I loved this book so much I wanted to tell Mason. Would she remember me, I wondered. I took a chance and wrote her after visiting her website and getting the e-mail address. What a treat to see her name in my inbox. She graciously brought me up to date on her life, answered my questions, even shared news of some other Mansfield students who had entered the world of communications. I was tickled by it all. To learn more about Bobbie and her books, check out her website: http://www.bobbieannmason.net/bio.htm
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