Houston novelist Katherine Center tackles her toughest subject matter yet.
Readers of Katherine Center’s new book “How to Walk Away,” available Tuesday, will recognize a theme from the native Houstonian’s previous novels: a central female character facing a seemingly insurmountable, unexpected change in her life’s plans. The subject matter Center tackles this time, however, is much graver than those life obstacles she’s explored before, such as a divorce or breakup.
“It’s going to break your heart a little,” said Center, 46, of her sixth novel. “I think we go to fiction to feel things. We want stories to wake us up and stir up our emotions. This story does both.”
Part of growing into adulthood is finding humor — and joy — in life’s messiness, she said. Center, mother of two teens, recently told the Houston Chronicle how she’s been learning to do that, right alongside her characters.
Q: Your female protagonists tend to watch their lives fall apart and then, with newfound courage, put the pieces back together. Why do you craft this kind of story?
A: The theme I seem to come back to is how we pick ourselves back up after life has knocked us down. And it’s because I’m not really good at that. It’s very easy for me to be like, ‘Well, it’s hopeless’ and throw myself on the floor. So I am fascinated by how other people do it.
Q: You’re a fifth-generation Texan, and all of your books are set in Houston or Texas — this time in Austin. Do Texas women have more grit and gumption to get through trying times?
A: I was raised around all really fantastic kinds of Texas women. There’s a special quality that women in Texas have. I think we all know what I’m talking about. But I write about Houston (or Texas) because it’s such a comforting place to me. I’ve lived here almost my entire life. I have so many rich layers of memory; it’s so evocative for me. So it creates this rich soil to plant the seed of these characters.
Q: In “How to Walk Away,” the main character, Margaret, is faced with an extraordinary obstacle: recovering from a plane crash. Through it, she gains perspective about how life could be worse. Are you good at that?
A: I’ve been working for years — for decades — to teach myself how to do that. I’m definitely not naturally hopeful. But I married this really great guy who’s a total optimist, and he is the king of finding the upside in any situation.
Q: Your characters often find romantic love with someone who, at least on paper, is their total opposite. Was that true with you and your husband?
A: Yes! We met when I was 22 and he was 25 at the old Ninfa’s on Kirby. He was very preppy. Like, he was wearing a pink Izod (shirt). I had never dated any boys like that. I had just graduated from Vassar, and I was very artsy and always draped all in black. He was the captain of the track team, and he was this perky, funny, friendly guy. He claims he knew on the very first day we met that we were going to wind up getting married. My parents had been divorced, and I thought that marriage was a very risky proposition … I fully believe that I am a better, more compassionate, funnier person than I would have been if I hadn’t married him. That’s part of the reason that I believe in (and write) love stories. The most delicious thing in a story that you can have to look forward to is this process of falling in love. I feel like it’s a gift I’m giving to you.
Q: Is writing a hopeful book more difficult than writing one full of doom?
A: I think it is much, much harder. I think we are so jaded these days in life that it’s really, really easy to be suspect of anything that doesn’t make an argument that the world is terrible. This is especially true in literary fiction, which I grew up on and love. The world of literature has a lot on the topic of how things are bad. We English majors are very good at writing those stories!
Q: Margaret cracks jokes to defuse awful situations. Do you?
A: I believe that the harder things are, the funnier we get. Humor is our primary coping mechanism.
Q: “How to Walk Away” has been referred to as a “book club book.” Are you in a book club?
A: I’m not in a book club, but I love them. I visit them all the time. I’ve probably been to 300 book clubs in the past 10 years. It’s my favorite thing I get to do as a writer. We laugh and we drink wine and we talk about books — it’s paradise. If there are any book clubs out there, invite me. I want to come!
Q: What are you reading right now?
A: I’ve been listening to a lot of audio books lately because my mom life involves a lot of errand running, dinner making and grocery shopping. But I only listen to nonfiction on audio books — fiction I like to see on the page. I just binged on all of Carrie Fisher’s memoirs (“Wishful Drinking,” “Shockaholic,” “The Princess Diarist”), which are delightful. I felt really sad when they were all over. Q: Where do you write? A: I get my best writing done in Galveston. My mom has a little beach shack she’s had since the ’80s. It’s really sunny, cheerful and comfortable, with great windows. I go several times a year. I’m just astonished how much I can write if I’m never interrupted. We live in an age of interruption. I turn off all social media, I turn off email, and I just exist in total human isolation.
Q: You have events this week at Blue Willow Bookshop and Brazos Bookstore. What’s your favorite indie bookstore outside Houston?
A: The MacDonald Bookshop in Essex Park, Colo. It’s in a charming old stone mountain cabin.
Q: You’ve taught creative writing to both kids and adults through Inprint, Writers in the Schools and the University of Houston — where you attended the creative writing program. How do those groups learn the process of writing differently?
A: Little kids don’t have the same baggage that grown-ups do. By the time you’re a grown-up, you’ve been through a lot of English classes. With little kids, there’s a lot of joy there. If you can just tap into it, it flows very freely.
Q: What lessons in motherhood have you learned from your own mom?
A: Everything good I know about being a mom came from her, but the No. 1 thing she’s really good at is love. She had three daughters — we’re all fun, intense people. Even when I was making mistakes … not only did I know our mom loved us, she also actively liked us. Allison Bagley is a freelance writer in Houston.