Author Interview: If the world were thrown...
If the world were thrown into chaos, the end near, where would you most like to be, with whom, doing what, why?
With my daughters and my grandson, trying to look on the bright side.
Not the End of the World is your first collection, after three highly acclaimed novels. Did any of these stories begin as an idea for a novel? Do you have thoughts about what might happen to some of these characters after their stories end here?
They were always meant to be stories, I was very clear about that with myself. It had been a long time since I had written any stories and I was very concerned to find again the spontaneity that comes with the form — novels can seem very imprisoning sometimes. I rarely think about an afterlife for characters, they exist on the page and not beyond it. The only character who has a kind of half-life for me is Simon, the appalling adolescent from ”Wedding Favors” and ”Dissonance” — he sort of lurks on. One of my daughters helped me to invent him and we sometimes find ourselves saying to each other, ”That’s what Simon would say/do. ”
The influences apparent in Not the End of the World are as wide-ranging as "Metamorphoses" and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." How do you think pop culture and classic literature inform our modern lives?
All the time, every day, in our language, our philosophies, our beliefs, our stories. Both pop and classic equally. I always think culture's just like a big snowball rolling through history, acquiring more "stuff" all the time. Which makes us lucky in some ways and unlucky in others - living near the end of western civilization we have a lot of "noise" to deal with but also many wonders.
Which story did you find most difficult to write and why? Which characters do you most and least identify with or sympathize with?
"Sheer Big Waste of Love." I kept trying to write it and then leaving it. I finally realized it was because it was absolutely dark, no light, no humor, and so I went back and put some light in, gave Addison, the main character, a wife and child, and it worked. I probably altered about a paragraph in all but the difference for me was total.
I don't think I identify with one character more than any other. I don't identify with Simon (thank goodness) but I do have an unnatural fondness for him.
The characters in these stories inhabit the same world. Did you have a sense of how they would relate to one another and interact with one another before you began writing, or did the connections evolve as you went along?
I'd written about half the stories before I realized they were connected and that I wanted them to connect more, but I always wanted them to be able to stand on their own feet as individual stories, which they do, apart from the last one, which was never meant to. Charlene and Trudi bookend the collection because essentially they are Scheherazade, telling the intervening stories to keep themselves alive.
Your books are published to huge success not only in the U.K. and the United States, but also in translation in many foreign countries. How do different cultures respond to your work? Are there certain qualities more appreciated in some countries than in others? How do other cultures influence your writing?
I don't really know how most countries respond - if I visit, they're polite! I seem to be very popular in France, which is particularly gratifying.
Your most recent book, Case Histories, weaves three mysteries into one novel. How did Not the End of the World prepare you to handle the different storylines?
I think it made me much more aware of the possibilities inherent in carrying different storylines, but I was very unstructured in my approach to them in Case Histories, I just wrote it and didn't think too much about it. What Not the End of the World gave me was a much greater interest in the internal monologue (Simon again) and the confidence to immerse myself in individual characters.