Alice McDermott on trusting readers enough to stay subtle
ALICE McDermott, 62, is the author of seven novels, including “Charming Billy,” which won the National Book Award in 1998. She is a three-time finalist for the Pulitzer fiction prize and a professorat Johns Hopkins University. She lives in Bethesda, Maryland.
Question: Is there a book you read as a kid that has stayed with you?
Answer: Right away I think of two books — “Wuthering Heights” and “Rebecca” — and of just sinking into them as a young reader. I think they must have appealed not just to my romantic adolescent soul, but I suppose there’s also an appealing darkness in both of them. Q: What do you owe readers? A: I think about that a lot. I think it’s a kind of honesty and a kind of directness that does not assume that they will miss all subtlety. To have respect that, if it’s in there, they will get it.
Q: Do you often have readers who want you to tell them more about the characters and plot than what you’ve told them
I think that readers sort of want to be taught something. They have this idea that there’s a takeaway from a novel rather than just being there, which I think is the great, great pleasure of reading. Alice McDermott, author
in the book?
A: Oh my gosh, yes. Some readers sort of suspect that you have another book that you didn’t publish that has even more information in it. I think that readers sort of want to be taught something. They have this idea that there’s a takeaway from a novel rather than just the being there, which I think is the great, great pleasure of reading. Not to be convinced of something. Not to have Chris Matthews shouting in your face about what you should believe (laughs).
Q: When you finish writing a book, are you satisfied or terrified?
A: Oy. Satisfied I haven’t found yet. I haven’t had that experience.
Q: Is there a book that you’re embarrassed that you’ve never read?
A: “Finnegan’s Wake.” Not for lack of trying. But I’ve stopped picking it up. I walk by the copy of “Finnegan’s Wake” on my bookshelf and just laugh. Q: What’s terrible advice for a young writer?
A: I guess I cringe when the discussion leads to, rather than books and sentences and characters and the stuff that writers are supposed to be concerned with, how to have an online presence and how many followers you have on Twitter. That stuff always makes me uncomfortable.
Q: Have you ever not won an award that you thought you deserved?
A: (Laughs.) I have not won far more awards than I have won.
Q: Well, that’s true of everyone, but you’ve actually won a number.
A: I really think so much of myself as the bridesmaid and never the bride when it comes to literary awards. At this point, I would be more surprised to get one than to just miss it. Just miss it seems to be my thing. — WP-Bloomberg