‘I want to be Ann Patchett when I grow up’
Author Brandy Scott on the five books she wouldn’t part with
The big temptation when asked to write a column like this is to paint yourself in the best possible light — to compile a list that will make you sound cultured and well-rounded; without coming across as a bit of a dick. But I’m writing this on the veranda of a farmhouse in rural Victoria, without my bookshelf to remind me of my worthier purchases, and with dire threats of what will happen if I use “all the data” to google titles. So I’m working from memory — which means you’ll probably get a much more honest list. Here are the books I’m thinking fondly of this morning:
1 Goodwood by Holly Throsby
For plot reasons, Not Bad People is set in rural Australia. (Something important that happens in the book is illegal there and not in New Zealand . . . but no spoilers.) In the year I spent writing my novel, I read a lot of Australian fiction, old and new, but Goodwood was a standout. It’s a big-hearted novel about small town life, with a country-and-western song of a plot and a real fly-buzzing lazy summer feel to it. I loved it.
2 Girls High by Barbara Anderson
If choosing five novels is hard, picking only one Barbara Anderson to include is nearly impossible. My all-time favourite New Zealand writer, I discovered her in high school and felt my head open with possibility that one of us could write like that. I particularly love the way she captures the Kiwi voice in speech and thought. If it wasn’t this book, it would be Long Hot Summer . Or I think we should go into the jungle. Or The Swing Around…
3 Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
I’m a bit obsessed with books about writing, and this is one of the best. It’s got something for everyone, from would-be writer to published author. Lamott knows what it’s like to burn with unacceptable jealousy when a friend is published before you, or to debate the ethics of borrowing stories from real life. (Her take: “If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should have behaved better.”) It’s an instruction guide to the writing life; my copy is falling to bits.
4 The Expatriates by Janice Y.K. Lee
I’ve been based in Dubai for nearly two decades and The Expatriates captures extremely well the emotional challenges of a life lived in more than one place; that constant feeling of both belonging and not. I’m firmly a New Zealander, yet when I came back a few years ago to do a Creative Writing Masters at Victoria University in Wellington, I felt distinctly fish-out-of-water for some time. Being able to travel and live abroad is amazing — being based in the Middle East has introduced me to many people whose passports don’t afford them the options we sometimes take for granted — but it also means a part of your heart is always somewhere else.
5 Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
The novel I read at least once a year, Bel Canto is extremely clever, beautifully written, and never fails to make me cry. The book revolves around a hostage situation at an ambassador’s residence in an unnamed South American country. The rebels and their captives quickly form a life together, a beautiful equilibrium that always makes me forget that the situation has to end badly for one party. And yet every time it shocks me: I’m so swept up in their relationships, I assume the impossible can continue. I want to be Ann Patchett when I grow up.