We caught up with Allegra Goodman as she marks the publication of her new novel, Isola.
1. Who is your favorite character in fiction; your fave character in life?
I can’t choose just one! In fiction my favorite characters include Pierre Bezukhov and Andrei Bolkonsky in War and Peace, Huck and Jim in Huckleberry Finn, Mary Garth and Camden Farebrother in Middlemarch. Like colors in a painting, characters in fiction take on their particular hues in relation to each other.
2. A line (that you or someone else wrote) that continues to inspire you?
“God keep me from ever completing anything. This whole book is but a draught—nay, but the draught of a draught. Oh, time, strength, cash, and patience!” (from Moby-Dick)
I often think of Melville’s words, which are both inspiring and comforting. He captures the struggle of writing and the desire to keep going. When he invokes time, strength, cash, and patience, he names exactly what a writer needs. Each is important, and cash is necessary. After all, you need cash to buy time. But patience is the hardest won. I went through a period while writing Sam and Isola when I wore a bracelet that spelled out PATIENCE. I had to find a way to slow down and also to keep going. To write and rewrite and keep the faith—that I could do justice to my characters.
3. The story, book, or poem you wish you could read again for the first time? What did it teach you?
I’d like to read Hamlet again and feel awestruck as I did the first time. This play taught me what literature can do. That it can make you think and feel. That it can be funny and tragic and many-layered. That words transcribed so long ago can open up new worlds and speak across time.
4. What’s a writing day for you?
I start the day with a swim. I drive across town and read in my car until the pool opens at 6 a.m. Right now I’m reading The Odyssey in the Lattimore translation, just a few pages a day. After swimming, I drive home, eat breakfast, take care of email, and write from about 8:30 until 11 a.m. I eat a quick lunch and then walk to the library or a coffee shop, where I write or revise for a couple more hours. In the late afternoon, I do some reading. At night I cook dinner, clean up, and talk to at least one of my kids on the phone. I should say that this is the writing day of an empty-nester! While I was raising my four children, I could not swim in the morning or do any meaningful work in the afternoon. Now I have much more time to write and read. My oldest son, a labor economist, made me laugh when he said recently, “I’ve noticed that your productivity increased once we all left home.”
5. Your cure for when the spirit flags?
Take a walk. Look at the trees and sky. Take deep breaths. Browse in a bookstore.
6. Ten words you use most on the page? In life?
On the page, the words I use depend on the book, because I’m usually writing in character. In my novel Sam, I told the story from the point of view of a young twenty-first-century girl growing up on the North Shore. I found myself writing like, and seriously, and for example. In my novel Isola, narrated by a young sixteenth-century noblewoman, I adopted a more formal voice and used words like indeed and upon. Upon the ground instead of on the ground. In life I say amazing far too much, along with Oh no and Oh my God!
7. What’s your current obsession?
I am obsessed with an idea for a new novel, but writing it will take a while. Please ask me about it in three years!
8. What’s the most useful criticism you’ve ever received?
My grandmother, a poet, read one of my early stories and warned—don’t force your muse, because she saw that I was rushing. Gradually, I’ve learned the wisdom of her advice. Pushing hard and writing fast doesn’t work for me. I write best when I work slowly. My imagination requires time.
9. What did you know at age twelve that you wish you hadn’t forgotten; and/or what do you know now that you wish you knew then?
I knew at age twelve that I was a writer. I understood in a deep way that I was a storyteller. I did not know much about publishing books. I just knew I had a calling. As an adult it’s good for me to remember what I knew as a child. Writing is more than a profession; it’s a vocation.
10. To quote Auden, “O tell me the truth about love.” We’re all ears.
I think the truth about love is that it takes so many forms. You can love a book, an activity, a child, a partner, a friend, an idea, a place. On one level, my novel Isola is an exploration of different kinds of love. The protagonist, Marguerite, finds love when she is safe and when she is in danger, when she is with others and when she is alone.
Finally, is there a passage from Isola that you’d like to share with our readers?
Our isle was both beautiful and strange. In morning light, the waves were liquid silver. Mist clung to us so that we walked in a white cloud. Offshore, seabirds circled and dove into the sea for fish. With perfect faith, the birds plummeted headfirst, dropping from such height, so hard and fast that water flew up around them. Again and again the seabirds plunged, and we stood upon the rocks, en–tranced to watch them fall. All around our knees, the wild grass rustled and hissed sibilantly. Everywhere we stepped, we heard that sound.
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