I needed some adrenaline pumping prose to jump-start my summer reading. Which is precisely why I chose the counter-terrorism thriller, The Last Man, by Vince Flynn. CIA operations in Afghanistan with a kidnapped agent were certain to give me a jolt, and its fearless, incorruptible tough guy hero Mitch Rapp was the ideal character to keep me riveted to the page.
Four dead men on the floor of a safe house demand your attention, and in no time I was sucked into the well-knit story of FBI/CIA investigations, torture scenes, gunfights and deceptions. Why, I thought to myself at the end of the first few chapters, had I not heard of this author before. Who is Vince Flynn anyway?
Before I tell you more, just know that this wasn't Flynn's first outing with Mitch Rapp. The Last Man was 13th in a series. Obviously, I'm a little late to the Rapp party.
A few days later I was half-way through the book and while watching a news program that afternoon the cover of the book suddenly appeared on the screen. One of the news panelists was talking about Flynn, whose books had become favorites of real-life intelligence officials, as well as Presidents Bush and Clinton. The 47-year-old author was dead after a two-and-half year battle with prostate cancer.
I'm sure I wasn't the only person in American reading a Flynn novel at the time of his death, but it came as a bit of a shock anyway. Certainly this healthy looking guy on the back of the book couldn't be gone, could he? He looked rugged, capable, strong, and smart. Just like the Mitch Rapp character I envisioned while reading his stories.
Still unbelieving--although I knew the reports were accurate--I wanted to know more. Who was this writer who churned out these heart-thumping stories?
The more I learned, the more dejected I felt. Flynn was a huge success story and a widely popular novelist. He sold 15 million books in the US alone and had legions of fans.
In his hometown newspaper's obituary, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported that Flynn was diagnosed with dyslexia as a child and started writing in the 1990s to combat his disability. He self-published his first novel before Simon & Schuster picked it up. Two years later he wrote another book introducing Mitch Rapp and the series was born. He produced a new Mitch Rapp novel each year, and now it seems like I've got to back and get acquainted more formally. One book at a time.
Here's an excerpt from the obituary:
Former CIA official Rob Richer was chief of Middle Eastern Operations when he befriended Flynn during a 2003 research trip to Washington, D.C.
“This is a guy who wrote the books, but he also walked the talk,” said Richer. “He would vet his books to make sure he wasn’t giving away secrets while remaining true to what we did. When people were up in arms about the war on terror, he defended us. He also made sure hundreds of his books were mailed overseas to our servicemen and women. He was a guy who cared. And he was a real patriot.”
If you'd like more information about Flynn or his series of Mitch Rapp thrillers, visit his website:
http://www.vinceflynn.com/
The Push From the Book: Flynn's book dedication on the opening pages struck me when I first read it and will stay with me for a long time: "To all of my teachers and coaches at Saint Thomas Academy who taught me that to succeed in life, you need to raise the bar, not lower it."
Friday, June 21, 2013
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Geek Reads
I love lists. And lists with books are even better. And lists about books to read to your children are about as good as it gets. Browsing through this compilation of books every geeky parent (that's their term) should read to their children (to insure their geekiness) was tons of fun.
See how many books you remember reading to your child, and if your kids are still at home and enjoying a quality bedtime reading habit, you might find some inspiration here:
http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2013/03/67-books-every-geek-should-read-to-their-kids-before-age-10/
If the geeks who put this list together missed anything, write back so we can compare notes. One not on the list that I really loved reading with my daughter was Ben and Me: An Astonishing Life of Benjamin Franklin by His Good Mouse Amos, a book about the true genius behind Franklin's inventions (it was the mouse, of course) and the beautifully illustrated tale of truth and honesty, The Empty Pot by Demi
See how many books you remember reading to your child, and if your kids are still at home and enjoying a quality bedtime reading habit, you might find some inspiration here:
http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2013/03/67-books-every-geek-should-read-to-their-kids-before-age-10/
If the geeks who put this list together missed anything, write back so we can compare notes. One not on the list that I really loved reading with my daughter was Ben and Me: An Astonishing Life of Benjamin Franklin by His Good Mouse Amos, a book about the true genius behind Franklin's inventions (it was the mouse, of course) and the beautifully illustrated tale of truth and honesty, The Empty Pot by Demi
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
The Perks of Being a Reader
I subscribe to Shelf Awareness, an e-newsletter for readers and persons employed in the book business, and today's issue has an information-packed link about the benefits of reading. Not that I needed any additional proof about reading's advantages, mind you.
Click on the link to learn more about how the brain changes and thrives while under the spell of a book. It'll make you feel less guilty while you burrow under the covers and keep turning pages when there's a sink full of dishes in the kitchen.
http://oedb.org/library/beginning-online-learning/your-brain-on-books-10-things-that-happen-to-our-minds-when-we-read
Click on the link to learn more about how the brain changes and thrives while under the spell of a book. It'll make you feel less guilty while you burrow under the covers and keep turning pages when there's a sink full of dishes in the kitchen.
http://oedb.org/library/beginning-online-learning/your-brain-on-books-10-things-that-happen-to-our-minds-when-we-read
Sunday, February 3, 2013
The Long and Winding Road
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, by Rachel Joyce, is a quirky book. But's it's a quirky book with a big heart that left me mulling big thoughts about life---do I seize each day? have I wasted opportunities to live well and full? am I the best that I could be? is there something major left for me to accomplish?
Harold Fry, a recently retired business man, lives life comfortably but without passion. He's blah. His wife Maureen is blah, and their lives together are dull, loveless, and very clean. There's lots of dusting and sterilizing going on to fill the void. Their son, moody and disconnected from his father, is out of the picture, so it's just the two of them. A story about nothing.
But then an old friend writes to Harold. She's in hospice and wants to say goodbye. Harold sheds a tear for Queenie, a former officemate, and quickly responds with a short letter of his own. He walks to the mailbox, and then decides to keep walking. He will walk to Queenie. He will walk 600 miles, across the spring-blooming hills and dales, cities and villages of England. He's on a spur-of-the-moment odyssey, and for the first time in decades Harold is alive with purpose.
I know what you're thinking. A book about walking? How interesting can that be?
While he walks, Harold replays episodes from his life, and we begin to understand that in the beginning he and Maureen were madly in love. We learn about Harold's difficult childhood with an alcoholic father and runaway mom. We learn that Harold shrank away from his duties as a father, and isolated himself emotionally and physically from his son. We learn that he and Queenie met at work and formed a solid friendship. We learn that Harold's pilgrimage may be his last hurrah.
And like any worthwhile pilgrimage, there are entertaining asides about people met along the way and others who join the long walk north. Over time and miles, Harold attracts fans of his own. Misfits, lost souls, even a stray dog, fall in line behind him.
While England finds a new hero, back home Maureen actually dusts less and begins to miss her husband. He writes and phones, but she is at a loss. She knows he and Queenie were never lovers, but living alone has rekindled her own memories of their youth. Maureen wants Harold back home.
Over each new hill there is a fresh challenge or another tag-along or another flashback into Harold's life as a child, husband and father. The farther north he wanders, the more we understand his life and his sorrows. And then we wonder, will he get to Queenie in time? Will she hang on until Harold gets there? What will they say to each other?
I thought this book was going to be like a slow walk, pokey and meandering and not all that heart-thumping, but I was mistaken. This book was hard to put down. There were always questions and concerns. How far would he walk today? Would his blisters do him in? Why hasn't his son contacted him? Where will he sleep tonight? After weeks of effort, sacrifice and exhaustion, Harold's pilgrimage comes to an end. I won't say if he gets to Queenie in time, but I will report that Joyce created a tense, emotional conclusion to the book. The final 30 pages were riveting.
I highly recommend The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. Just be ready for something different. It's not your usual walk in the park.
The Push From the Book: Live boldly, don't waste a minute, tell the special people in your life they matter.
Harold Fry, a recently retired business man, lives life comfortably but without passion. He's blah. His wife Maureen is blah, and their lives together are dull, loveless, and very clean. There's lots of dusting and sterilizing going on to fill the void. Their son, moody and disconnected from his father, is out of the picture, so it's just the two of them. A story about nothing.
But then an old friend writes to Harold. She's in hospice and wants to say goodbye. Harold sheds a tear for Queenie, a former officemate, and quickly responds with a short letter of his own. He walks to the mailbox, and then decides to keep walking. He will walk to Queenie. He will walk 600 miles, across the spring-blooming hills and dales, cities and villages of England. He's on a spur-of-the-moment odyssey, and for the first time in decades Harold is alive with purpose.
I know what you're thinking. A book about walking? How interesting can that be?
While he walks, Harold replays episodes from his life, and we begin to understand that in the beginning he and Maureen were madly in love. We learn about Harold's difficult childhood with an alcoholic father and runaway mom. We learn that Harold shrank away from his duties as a father, and isolated himself emotionally and physically from his son. We learn that he and Queenie met at work and formed a solid friendship. We learn that Harold's pilgrimage may be his last hurrah.
And like any worthwhile pilgrimage, there are entertaining asides about people met along the way and others who join the long walk north. Over time and miles, Harold attracts fans of his own. Misfits, lost souls, even a stray dog, fall in line behind him.
While England finds a new hero, back home Maureen actually dusts less and begins to miss her husband. He writes and phones, but she is at a loss. She knows he and Queenie were never lovers, but living alone has rekindled her own memories of their youth. Maureen wants Harold back home.
Over each new hill there is a fresh challenge or another tag-along or another flashback into Harold's life as a child, husband and father. The farther north he wanders, the more we understand his life and his sorrows. And then we wonder, will he get to Queenie in time? Will she hang on until Harold gets there? What will they say to each other?
I thought this book was going to be like a slow walk, pokey and meandering and not all that heart-thumping, but I was mistaken. This book was hard to put down. There were always questions and concerns. How far would he walk today? Would his blisters do him in? Why hasn't his son contacted him? Where will he sleep tonight? After weeks of effort, sacrifice and exhaustion, Harold's pilgrimage comes to an end. I won't say if he gets to Queenie in time, but I will report that Joyce created a tense, emotional conclusion to the book. The final 30 pages were riveting.
I highly recommend The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. Just be ready for something different. It's not your usual walk in the park.
The Push From the Book: Live boldly, don't waste a minute, tell the special people in your life they matter.
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Wartime London My Cup of Tea
Anything, ANYTHING to do with WWII fiction gets my attention. So imagine my interest when I saw the cover of Mr. Churchill's Secretary, by Susan Elia Macneal. A prim, pearl-earringed woman with her hair in an elegant chignon set in profile against the London night sky, with RAF fighters soaring overhead. Wow, I said to myself, this is my kind of book.
Which it was. Maggie Hope, an American-raised Brit, returns to her homeland to settle family business and stays on as Britain enters the war. She's a math wizard who defers her graduate education at MIT to go across the pond (really?) and finds herself adapting to the tea, the chintz and her new roommates. She's got friends in high places and by the first chapter lands a job at 10 Downing Street as one of Churchill's secretaries.
Who cares that she's a math whiz and could do more? Chain her to a typewriter. She's a woman. I saw that old chestnut of a storyline coming and started to doubt.
But it was early and I kept reading, or as Churchill would say, KPO. Keep Plodding On.
Macneal did an admirable job of recreating London, life inside the PM's War Rooms and the German's daily air raids known as The Blitz. She even threw in some IRA terrorism involving a few of Maggie's coworkers and friends.
Maggie eventually triumphs--using her math and codebreaking skills--and breaks out of the steno pool long enough to perform some heroic acts to save herself, her family, her friends and her nation. It unfolded a bit too predictably for me. I felt like I knew what was coming, but I couldn't put the book down until I knew for sure.
This is a mixed review. I loved the setting and the historical details, but it lacked the depth and details of other WWII storytellers. I recommend the book to readers who enjoy a WWII yarn that features the best of the British, keep-a-stiff-upper-lip sensibility during their darkest hour. Those scenes were vividly recreated. If you like wartime suspense, in lighter doses, this would also satisfy.
Just don't expect Ken Follett or Len Deighton-quality intensity.
The Push from the Book: See Above. KPO. That was a new Churchill-ism for me. Keep Plodding On. We all have our battles. Each day. Never give up. The book gave me a catchy new phrase, and I love the fact that it's Churchill's words.
Which it was. Maggie Hope, an American-raised Brit, returns to her homeland to settle family business and stays on as Britain enters the war. She's a math wizard who defers her graduate education at MIT to go across the pond (really?) and finds herself adapting to the tea, the chintz and her new roommates. She's got friends in high places and by the first chapter lands a job at 10 Downing Street as one of Churchill's secretaries.
Who cares that she's a math whiz and could do more? Chain her to a typewriter. She's a woman. I saw that old chestnut of a storyline coming and started to doubt.
But it was early and I kept reading, or as Churchill would say, KPO. Keep Plodding On.
Macneal did an admirable job of recreating London, life inside the PM's War Rooms and the German's daily air raids known as The Blitz. She even threw in some IRA terrorism involving a few of Maggie's coworkers and friends.
Maggie eventually triumphs--using her math and codebreaking skills--and breaks out of the steno pool long enough to perform some heroic acts to save herself, her family, her friends and her nation. It unfolded a bit too predictably for me. I felt like I knew what was coming, but I couldn't put the book down until I knew for sure.
This is a mixed review. I loved the setting and the historical details, but it lacked the depth and details of other WWII storytellers. I recommend the book to readers who enjoy a WWII yarn that features the best of the British, keep-a-stiff-upper-lip sensibility during their darkest hour. Those scenes were vividly recreated. If you like wartime suspense, in lighter doses, this would also satisfy.
Just don't expect Ken Follett or Len Deighton-quality intensity.
The Push from the Book: See Above. KPO. That was a new Churchill-ism for me. Keep Plodding On. We all have our battles. Each day. Never give up. The book gave me a catchy new phrase, and I love the fact that it's Churchill's words.
Saturday, December 29, 2012
Take Charge of The Chaperone
I was a poor chaperone to The Chaperone. It was left neglected, tossed aside for days and weeks during a hectic fall season of all work and no pleasure reading. I liked the book, yet made no time for it. I should have fired myself and returned the novel to the library, but I couldn't part with the characters or the story.
So I hoarded it, waiting and waiting for evenings or weekends of uncluttered serenity---which never came. Days and weeks passed after my introduction to Cora, the chaperone, and young snippy, snobby Louise Brooks, a soon-to-be professional dancer and actress whose banged and bobbed hairstyle set trends 90 years ago.
Author Laura Moriarty used the real-life story of Brooks to set her story in motion. At age 15, the aspiring starlet wanted out of Wichita, Kansas, where life was too boring, too uncultured, too small town. Her self-absorbed, detached parents didn't create a warm home life either, but they at least insisted upon a chaperone while Brooks travelled to New York for dance classes and auditions.
Enter Cora Carlisle, married mother of teenaged twin boys who signs on for the job. While her sons are baling hay and chopping wood at some remote Kansas farm, she heads for the big city. Can't say that I blame her.
Cora had moxie and for 1922, quite a lot of liberation. Even in 2013, I believe most married women would consult their husbands before leaving for five weeks to babysit another family's teenager. Not Cora. While driving home in the car she told her husband, a Wichita attorney, "I think I'll go."
Wow! What a woman, I said to myself. Just doing what she wants when opportunity knocks. And, no argument from her husband! He acquiesced in one page of dialogue? How progressive for a Wichita couple from 1922.
Oh, I should have known there'd be a reason for all that cooperation and goodwill. The Carlisles were an unusual couple, whose backstory drives much of the remainder of the novel. Turns out Cora's childhood started in an orphanage in New York City (A-ha!) and continued on the prairie after a trip on the orphan train. She and Alan, her future husband, meet a decade later when Cora needs legal advice. They marry, move to Wichita and eventually start a family. Pretty routine, right?
Uh-uh. It is anything but routine. I enjoy discovering secrets in a novel, but The Chaperone invites the reader to be included in the secret-keeping. With each page, we discover more and more about the Carlisle's unique marriage, Cora's birth mother, Louise's atypical home life, and Cora's expanding family she invites home to Kansas after her chaperoning stint in New York ends.
It's one secret--or lie?--after another. And we, as readers--are in on it all. Will the real stories come out? Will Cora deceive her family forever? Will the truth prevail?
Cora was a woman ahead of her time. At least that's what I came away believing. How and why she lived like she did kept me from parting with the book. Now that I'm finished with it, I can't believe I stalled so often.
The story is interesting, but the book allows 21st century women to drop in on the lives of our "sisters" back in the 1920s. That's one of the reasons I've been recommending this book to friends. This was the era of our grandparents' youth; our parents' birth. Stories about this time and place help fill in the details about how our families may have lived and what they might have seen and heard and thought about issues of the day. It's stuff you can't get from a family scrapbook or photo album.
I thought of my grandmothers a lot while reading. Gee, did Nana ever see Louise Brooks in silent films, I wondered. Did she ever consider bobbing her hair? Themes of children born out of wedlock and birth control surface, too. What was it like, back then, to discuss health and body issues that ruffled feathers and made many women blush? I wondered about all of this while I read.
The Chaperone was good, enjoyable. However, it's no Rules of Civility, another book set in New York in the 20s by Amor Towles. Civility has more fast-lane, upper crust sophistication. Here's how I might set them apart. Chaperone is the reliable New York subway trip that gets you where you want to go. It's a decent ride. Civility is seeing Fifth Avenue from the back of the rumble-seat. A bit wilder, more glitter and lots more fun. Our library has both books. All you have to do is decide how you want to travel.
The Push From the Book: What I'd really like to write here I can't, or I'll ruin a big part of the plot. Let me just say this. I'm forever blabbing about being born at the wrong time. I'm especially curious about the years between my parents's birth in the 20s and their youth and young adulthood in the 40s. The movies, the clothes, the simpler pace. It clicks for me.
My husband tells me I'm full of it. And I guess he's right. It wasn't the easiest of times for women, especially for those who wanted information about their bodies and birth control, which is addressed in the second half of the book. Cora takes a brave stand---she refused to join a protest against the local drugstore where condoms were sold--and then later in her life helps raise funds for unwed mothers. Time travel sounds so exotic until you encounter episodes like this in a book that confront your whims and dreams. Perhaps time travel is like going to New York City. It's nice to visit but I wouldn't want to live there. I think I'm OK where I am.
So I hoarded it, waiting and waiting for evenings or weekends of uncluttered serenity---which never came. Days and weeks passed after my introduction to Cora, the chaperone, and young snippy, snobby Louise Brooks, a soon-to-be professional dancer and actress whose banged and bobbed hairstyle set trends 90 years ago.
Author Laura Moriarty used the real-life story of Brooks to set her story in motion. At age 15, the aspiring starlet wanted out of Wichita, Kansas, where life was too boring, too uncultured, too small town. Her self-absorbed, detached parents didn't create a warm home life either, but they at least insisted upon a chaperone while Brooks travelled to New York for dance classes and auditions.
Enter Cora Carlisle, married mother of teenaged twin boys who signs on for the job. While her sons are baling hay and chopping wood at some remote Kansas farm, she heads for the big city. Can't say that I blame her.
Cora had moxie and for 1922, quite a lot of liberation. Even in 2013, I believe most married women would consult their husbands before leaving for five weeks to babysit another family's teenager. Not Cora. While driving home in the car she told her husband, a Wichita attorney, "I think I'll go."
Wow! What a woman, I said to myself. Just doing what she wants when opportunity knocks. And, no argument from her husband! He acquiesced in one page of dialogue? How progressive for a Wichita couple from 1922.
Oh, I should have known there'd be a reason for all that cooperation and goodwill. The Carlisles were an unusual couple, whose backstory drives much of the remainder of the novel. Turns out Cora's childhood started in an orphanage in New York City (A-ha!) and continued on the prairie after a trip on the orphan train. She and Alan, her future husband, meet a decade later when Cora needs legal advice. They marry, move to Wichita and eventually start a family. Pretty routine, right?
Uh-uh. It is anything but routine. I enjoy discovering secrets in a novel, but The Chaperone invites the reader to be included in the secret-keeping. With each page, we discover more and more about the Carlisle's unique marriage, Cora's birth mother, Louise's atypical home life, and Cora's expanding family she invites home to Kansas after her chaperoning stint in New York ends.
It's one secret--or lie?--after another. And we, as readers--are in on it all. Will the real stories come out? Will Cora deceive her family forever? Will the truth prevail?
Cora was a woman ahead of her time. At least that's what I came away believing. How and why she lived like she did kept me from parting with the book. Now that I'm finished with it, I can't believe I stalled so often.
The story is interesting, but the book allows 21st century women to drop in on the lives of our "sisters" back in the 1920s. That's one of the reasons I've been recommending this book to friends. This was the era of our grandparents' youth; our parents' birth. Stories about this time and place help fill in the details about how our families may have lived and what they might have seen and heard and thought about issues of the day. It's stuff you can't get from a family scrapbook or photo album.
I thought of my grandmothers a lot while reading. Gee, did Nana ever see Louise Brooks in silent films, I wondered. Did she ever consider bobbing her hair? Themes of children born out of wedlock and birth control surface, too. What was it like, back then, to discuss health and body issues that ruffled feathers and made many women blush? I wondered about all of this while I read.
The Chaperone was good, enjoyable. However, it's no Rules of Civility, another book set in New York in the 20s by Amor Towles. Civility has more fast-lane, upper crust sophistication. Here's how I might set them apart. Chaperone is the reliable New York subway trip that gets you where you want to go. It's a decent ride. Civility is seeing Fifth Avenue from the back of the rumble-seat. A bit wilder, more glitter and lots more fun. Our library has both books. All you have to do is decide how you want to travel.
The Push From the Book: What I'd really like to write here I can't, or I'll ruin a big part of the plot. Let me just say this. I'm forever blabbing about being born at the wrong time. I'm especially curious about the years between my parents's birth in the 20s and their youth and young adulthood in the 40s. The movies, the clothes, the simpler pace. It clicks for me.
My husband tells me I'm full of it. And I guess he's right. It wasn't the easiest of times for women, especially for those who wanted information about their bodies and birth control, which is addressed in the second half of the book. Cora takes a brave stand---she refused to join a protest against the local drugstore where condoms were sold--and then later in her life helps raise funds for unwed mothers. Time travel sounds so exotic until you encounter episodes like this in a book that confront your whims and dreams. Perhaps time travel is like going to New York City. It's nice to visit but I wouldn't want to live there. I think I'm OK where I am.
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Blast From the Past: An Interview with Bobbie Ann Mason
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
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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