I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to interview the very gracious and talented Elizabeth Brundage, author of the recently released psychological thriller, Somebody Else's Daughter.  (If you haven't read my review, click HERE to do so.)

Elizabeth's answers to my questions are as thought-provoking and compelling as her novels.  Enjoy!


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Literarily: You dealt with so many issues in Somebody Else's Daughter:  adoption, alcoholism, drug addiction, pornography, sexual abuse, murder, AIDS, prostitution, adultery, gambling/dog fighting, eating disorders.  I am so impressed that you were able to incorporate all of these issues without overwhelming me as the reader.  It really worked.  Did you set out to include all of these in the novel, or did it just happen as the story evolved?  Was there any one that you particularly wanted to address, any that are especially close to your heart?


Elizabeth Brundage:  My first priority as a writer is to create characters that feel whole and real on the page.  The characters grow in my mind organically.  In time, they become very familiar to me, as if they are real people I have met by chance and come to know.  Most of the characters I write about have problems of one kind or another; problems interest me.  We live in chaotic times and many of us have war stories to tell.  I don’t think the problems I write about are necessarily unusual – on the contrary. 

The reality is it’s not a big stretch for me to write about somebody with an eating disorder, for example, because I have known so many women who have been afflicted by them.  However, it’s not just writing about “an eating disorder” for the sake of writing about one as a character trait.  I see that particular problem as being a symptom of a much larger, more complex problem that I tried to address thematically in this novel by looking at pornography, teenage sexuality and adultery – by exploring the ways in which we view women in society – and have viewed them for centuries – how we look at women, how we evaluate women, etc. 

I don’t think it’s terribly surprising that a sizable percentage of the female population (and some men) either starve themselves or make themselves throw up – consider the size zero that so many young girls aspire to.  Zero?  What is that about?  (I am nothing; I am no size.  I am so small; so tiny.  Pure.   I am empty; vacant.  Look how I’ve deprived myself).  This is a huge issue that demands attention – but you can’t just look at one aspect of it – you have to look at the larger picture.  We have to think about the language we use – the complexities of raising girls while assaulting them with visual cues that demand that they be thin.  If they are not thin, they are simply not worthy – and if you think about that for a minute you realize how ridiculous it is.  No matter what else they accomplish, there is no status so great as being thin in our world – think about that for a moment – think about that! 

As a society, we have become so comfortable with looking at women naked, judging women based on their physical shape.  The woman in question has diminished her power not only because she is continually being judged based on some grotesque physical rubric, but because she is willing to be judged.  This ties in to the way we live as women, the way we behave, the things we believe we want and need. 

One can ask, are our needs innate or learned?  Are we taught what beauty is, or do we simply know it when we see it?  Are we encouraged to betray one another, or is it simply an aspect of natural selection?  Is the visual paradigm that we so obsessively marvel and worship in our culture – what we discover as children on the pages of fairy tales and what is reiterated over and over again on the pages of fashion magazines – those poor, wan, unsmiling, hungry looking models – how a woman must look and smell in order to achieve happiness – isn’t it another way of diverting a woman’s attention from the larger issues at hand?  And isn’t that, ultimately, a form of repression?

These are the sorts of issues I think about and am interested in addressing in my fiction.  It’s my hope that, at the very least, my fiction might inspire conversations about these things.

Literarily:  On your website, you mention interviewing people in the pornography business.  I assume this was part of the research you did for the book.  What other type of research did you do prior to and during the writing process?

Elizabeth Brundage:  I live my life as a person who is continually trying to learn more.  The best thing about being a writer is that you have a good excuse to get into stuff that you otherwise maybe wouldn’t.  I always do a lot of research.  I read first – I spend a lot of time in the library, and then I talk to people who actually do the things that I’m researching, in this case people in the porn business, a sculptor, and teachers.  You have to know about what you’re writing about.

Literarily:  There were so many complex and sympathetic characters in this book - Willa, Nate, Claire, Teddy, Joe, Candace.  Were there any characters you were particularly sad to say good-bye to?  Any that you identified with more than others?

Elizabeth Brundage: The truth is, when I finish a novel I’m usually happy to let go of the characters.  You live with them in your head for a long time - years - and the way I know that I’m finished with them is when I feel ready to let them go.  I did miss Nate Gallagher a little bit because he was my favorite character, and I was happy that he’d found Claire and that they were going to have a life together.  One critic said that the ending felt “too neat” or something to that effect, but I was happy they decided to get married.  I felt that they had both come to terms with certain things in their lives and that their love for one another was well deserved.



Literarily:  Both of your novels - Somebody Else's Daughter and The Doctor's Wife - depict a marriage that has been splintered by adultery.  Yet, in both cases, the couple decides to make a go of it despite the fact that one spouse has been unfaithful.  Is there any reason that you decided to keep the couples together versus allowing the marriage to dissolve in the wake of adultery?

Elizabeth Brundage:  I think people need to make more of an effort to stay together in marriage.  Again, we are taught by the media to behave in a certain way – what is considered socially appropriate behavior.   When married couples betray one another in movies or on TV, the cost is huge – usually divorce. 

Again, we are being taught how to behave.  Yes, betrayal hurts.  It’s very disruptive to a relationship, and it causes a tremendous amount of pain and sometimes the damage is irrevocable.  Yet, truly, there are worse things.  Betrayal is not a death; it’s not sickness; it’s not a terminal condition.  Betrayal is a strategy of warfare.  When there is a war inside the marriage (and it may be a silent war), betrayal becomes a useful tactic. 

The predictable reaction is to put an end to the situation.  To walk away.  I’m done here.  But that’s never the easiest choice as it turns out, especially if there are children in the mix.  Children that you share.  I like the word you used, Shana, splintered.  The splinter hurts and causes a blister – you need to figure out how to remove it.  Marriage is actually something to protect.  You need to protect each other.  Like any living organism, there are dangerous viruses out there that can make it sick. However, at the same time, sometimes people get married and maybe they shouldn’t, and from the beginning there’s a strain.  Sometimes people feel pressured to get married, to have children, to make a life, and they don’t belong with that person in the first place. 

You have to look at the facts of your life in order to properly evaluate what’s going on.  We all make mistakes.  Sex is not always love; sex happens.  Marriage is very difficult.  Marriage is a process.  It’s not all one thing or another.  It’s not this or that, good or bad.  It’s a mess.  It’s an unruly plant that just keeps growing.  Sometimes there are flowers.  Sometimes it’s malnourished; needs a good watering.  And sometimes it wraps its vines around your neck until you feel you cannot breathe.  It’s up all night making love, or up all night steaming mad; it’s one great day and then suddenly everything sucks and you don’t know why.  It’s a process – it’s an opportunity.  We have to start making the most of it.  We have to look at all we have – not what we don’t have.  Not what’s missing, but what’s already there.



Literarily:  Willa, the title character, is named after the author Willa Cather.  Did you choose her name because of an affinity for Cather?

Elizabeth Brundage:  I love the name Willa.  My Antonia is a book many high schools use.  I thought it fit.



Literarily:  Your debut novel, The Doctor's Wife, was released in 2004.  Your website says that you've taught on the college level as an adjunct or visiting writer for over ten years.  Can you tell us a little about the path you have followed as a writer?  Prior to becoming a novelist, what kind of writing did you do?  Why did you decide to write a novel and what was that first experience like?

Elizabeth Brundage:  In high school I started to write poetry – I fell in love with writing poetry.  I had this SAT tutor who had all these poetry books and we’d get together for a tutoring session and skip the SAT stuff and talk about T.S. Eliot instead.  No wonder I didn’t do so well on my SAT’S! 

What I discovered as a young poet was how good it felt to have a voice – and to use it.  I went to Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts and fell in love with writing and “being a poet.”  I worked with an amazing poet – the late Andrew Salkey – who encouraged me to work very hard. 

Soon after, I became interested in film and spent my junior year at NYU film school, then returned to Hampshire and wrote my first feature length screenplay.  I applied to the American Film Institute shortly after, and moved out to LA and spent the next four years writing scripts and working in the industry in a variety of capacities.  I met with an agent about a screenplay and she suggested I try writing fiction, which I decided to do, and that was it – I was hooked.  I’ve been writing fiction ever since. 

The following year I lived in Israel with my husband who was studying at Tel Aviv University.  We lived in this apartment with borrowed furniture and these wonderful open windows and doors, no screens.  I didn’t have a typewriter or computer – just a pen and paper – and that’s when I really got into writing fiction.  I walked everywhere in that city, thinking, thinking. 

I ended up going to the University of Iowa to the Writers’ Workshop, and that’s when I made the commitment to writing fiction and trying to become a writer.  It’s been a long long long long long long long long long long long long road to becoming a writer.  You have to be in it for the long haul.



Literarily:  When and where do you do your writing?  Do you have a schedule?  A certain place that you go to write?

Elizabeth Brundage:  I write every morning for about four hours at a time – even if I’m just writing the same awful paragraph over and over again – then take a break for lunch, usually take a four mile walk, then spend the afternoon doing mom things.  At night, once everybody’s in bed, I get back to work and usually get in another two hours before going to sleep – rereading the same awful paragraph until I can’t stand it anymore and finally figure out how to make it a little better.



Literarily:  Can you tell us about what you're working on now?

Elizabeth Brundage:   A new novel … can’t talk about it now that I’m actually working on it.  You can talk about it before and afterward, but once you’re into the world you can’t talk about it anymore.  You get a stomach ache when you talk about it.  It’s in my head where it needs to stay put.



Literarily:  I'm always interested in what authors read.  What are you reading right now?

Elizabeth Brundage:  I am reading Junot Diaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao which is marvelous.



*****


Many, many thanks to Elizabeth for taking the time from what I know is a chaotically busy schedule to answer these questions with such thought and detail.



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Elizabeth has generously offered to send a copy of Somebody Else's Daughter to one lucky reader.  You have until 11:59 CDT Saturday, September 6, 2008 to enter.

1.  For one entry, post a comment here and mention some aspect of this interview you found enlightening or interesting.

2.  For another entry, read my review of Somebody Else's Daughter and again, post a relevant comment on that entry.  The review is HERE.

3.  For a third entry, spread the word about this interview and giveaway by blogging about it.  Link to this post and leave the URL of your blog post in the comments here.