Staring Down the Blind Spots: An Interview with Laura Moriarty
The
author of The Rest of Her Life and The Center of
Everything talks about the significance of mother-daughter relationships,
religious communities, and breast implants in her latest novel.
Laura Moriarty's writing has been said to "resonate
like an emotional tuning fork." A novelist intrigued by
the varied and complex relationships between mothers and daughters,
she crafts characters that are both authentic and accessible, caught
in difficult situations that force them to come to terms with themselves.
Her latest work, The Rest of Her Life, explores the emotional
aftermath that follows for a family and a community when a young
woman unwittingly causes a tragic death. The accident that happens
on the first few pages of the book opens a story that examines how
mothers and daughters, even with the best of intentions, involuntarily
hurt one another and those around them.
What inspired you to write The Rest of Her Life?
There have been several accidents like this--accidents where someone
sober and normally careful makes a mistake while driving and kills
another person--in my community in the last few years, and reading
about them in the paper got me thinking about how it's something
that could happen to anyone who drives. I wanted to consider the
psychology of someone who feels tremendous guilt for something she
never meant to do.
How was writing a second novel different from writing a
debut novel?
It was much easier the second time around, partly because I'd been
through the highs and lows and planning stages of writing a
novel before, and I knew what to expect; it was also easier because
I didn't have to have a day job.
Both novels explore mother-daughter relationships. What
about this relationship intrigues you?
I think the mother-daughter relationship is endlessly varied
and complex, so I'll never run out of subject matter. Also, it allows
me to write about women at different stages of life. I'm actually
pretty interested in people in general, so I may expand my horizons
in the future. There's a parallel father-son dynamic going on in
The Rest of Her Life.
You live in Lawrence, Kansas, where both novels take place.
How does your environment inform your work?
Both of the novels are set in Kansas--it's where I've lived the
longest, and I really feel connected to the landscape and the culture.
But neither of the novels is set in Lawrence. The
Center of Everything and The Rest of Her Life are
both set in fictitious towns that are much smaller than Lawrence.
Lawrence has around eighty thousand people. It's a college town,
and it's pretty close to K.C. But I think small towns lend
themselves to drama: there's more of a claustrophobic atmosphere and
also the likely possibility that you will bump into--or have
to learn to live with--an enemy. The protagonist in each novel has
a different relationship with her town--I think Evelyn [in The
Center of Everything] has to learn to see beyond Kerrville,
and I think Leigh [in The Rest of Her Life] has to learn
to let herself truly be part of the community. I really love
where I live, Lawrence, and I'd like to set a novel here someday,
but I'd really want to get it right--it's such a quirky, lovely
town, and it's ended up becoming a very important place to
me.
The Rest of Her Life centers around the aftermath
of a car accident that takes place on the first page of the book
and directly involves Kara, the narrator Leigh's daughter. Why choose
to narrate the novel from Leigh's perspective instead of Kara's?
I didn't want the novel to be just a surface-level conflict,
a story about a nice, normal kid who accidentally hits someone with
a car and has to reconcile with the guilt. I started researching
accidents like this, and the thing I kept noticing the drivers saying
was, "I never even saw her," or "I never saw the
kid." The drivers seemed to really dwell on this lack of seeing,
and when I thought about it, I could understand why. It would be
hard enough to accept guilt for something terrible you had no intention
of doing, and it would be even harder if you had no visual memory
of actually doing it. It would be like accepting guilt for something
you'd done during a blackout. So the whole issue of blind spots
got me thinking about how people also have blind spots when it comes
to themselves and their relationships. I wanted to bring in a character
who has good intentions but doesn't really see or understand the
hurt she's causing for other people. That character turned into
the driver's mother, Leigh.
For most of the novel, Leigh comes across as self-centered,
making her unsympathetic. What were your reasons for making her
this way?
That's sort of a tough question for me, because I don't see Leigh
as self-centered, and she has my complete sympathy. I agree she's
terribly insecure, which is the result of her own childhood. But
she truly cares about other people, especially the underdogs of
the world. She's an award-winning teacher, though she prefers working
with disabled students over the academic stars, and I think
she's actually a very caring mother, though she's much more comfortable
with her awkward, friendless son than she is with her confident,
popular daughter. I actually see Leigh as pretty heroic, even at
the beginning of the novel. She's had a bad start in life, but she
works hard to put herself through school, and she marries a guy
she knows will be a good father, all because she wants her children
to have it easier than she did. And indeed, her children reap
the benefits of all her planning. The trouble is, her daughter,
who grew up with a doting father in a stable, middle-class home,
has confidence and choices her mother only dreamed of, and Leigh,
despite her best intentions, is a little resentful, or at least
a little intimidated by this. I don't think that makes her unlikeable.
I think that makes her human and interesting, and she has my complete
respect because unlike many people with blind spots--and I think
most people have them--she tries to take a hard, honest look at
herself to change herself and her relationship with her daughter.
The novel also explores sibling relationships. How does
this type of relationship differ from a mother-daughter relationship?
Well, I think every relationship is different, so I can't make any
broad statements about one kind versus the other. But I wanted Leigh
to have a sibling, someone who had gone through exactly what she'd
gone through, who nonetheless turned out very differently. I think
at the beginning of the book, Leigh--and the reader, perhaps--would
see Leigh as the successful sibling, the one who made it. But as
the novel goes on, Leigh sees that that although her sister is
damaged in some ways that Leigh isn't, she is also successful in
ways that Leigh isn't. The book is very much about people's strengths
and weaknesses, and people learning to see each other, and themselves,
more clearly.
The thread of religion runs throughout the novel, from
local church leaders who want Leigh to revise the book selections
she has made for her high school English class, to Leigh's sister,
Pam, whose religious experiences inspire Kara to make a crucial
decision at the end of the novel. Why did you choose to have religion
play a role in both Kara's and Leigh's growth as characters?
The Rest of Her Life is very much about community, and
different people being forced to live together, and make important
decisions together, and one of the most difficult but important decisions
communities have to make is what kids read in school. As a writer
in Kansas, I'm often frustrated by the Religious Right’s attempt
to challenge or ban books that I consider important and beautiful--a
town close to mine just had a big fight over Of Mice and Men.
I got to meet a lot of Kansas librarians on my first book tour,
and I was surprised to hear how much of their jobs are devoted to
dealing with censorship requests. So I'm sympathetic with Leigh's
fight with the mother who wants to alter the junior high reading
list. But some of the people I respect most--friends and famous
people alike--are devout Christians, and I completely admire the
way they live their lives and treat other people and fight against
injustice, etc. I met a lot of Christians like that when I
was in social work, a lot of selfless and brave people who have
really devoted their lives to following Christ's teachings. And
I've met a lot of people like Pam, who gain solace and strength
from religion and who aren't so concerned with banning books or
stopping gay people from getting married as they are with just trying
to be understanding and forgiving and humble. Personally, I'm agnostic,
but I admire people like Pam--and the church that takes her
in--a lot.
Kara's best friend, Willow, decides to get breast implants.
Why include this decision on the part of a minor character?
Well, I've noticed the phenomenon in recent years. Girls are getting
them for graduation, even here in the Midwest. I thought it would
be a good way to bring up one of Leigh's major hang-ups: deep
down, she thinks life should be fair, and hardships make you
better, and if you get too much of everything without struggle,
there's something wrong. It's pretty Midwestern thinking. Her friend
Eva really challenges Leigh on this when they're discussing Willow's
implants. Leigh finally admits that she's not really so concerned
about Willow's health as the idea that this string bean of a girl
is getting these huge breasts. Eva calls Leigh "the happiness
police," and I think she's on to something. I'm not getting
on a soapbox for plastic surgery, and I think it's important
that we teach young women to value their minds and hearts.
But I also think some of the scorn for implants and such doesn't
match the way our culture values youth and beauty. It's
like saying to girls, "Yes, our culture loves this,
but if you weren't born with it, forget it! You have to be born
with it for it to count." It's like old money or something.
And I think Eva has a point. Willow has earned good grades,
and she's a nice person, so if she wants the implants and they make
her happy, what's the big deal? Readers may not agree
with me on this one, of course, but I like that I have two very
opinionated characters fighting with each other about it.
What do you appreciate most about working with your editor?
I respect her judgment, and she stops me from doing really stupid
things sometimes. I like her as a person, and I think she really
cares about my books and also about literature in general.
She's very well-read. She's also, like me, the mother of a
three-year-old, so I can get advice from her on parenting craziness,
too.
Friends and family must ask you for book recommendations
all the time. What was the last book you offered up as a must-read?
The All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton by
Jane Smiley. I also really enjoyed The World Below by Sue
Miller. This may surprise people, but my favorite book of all-time
is The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen. I don't write the
way he does, but that's just because I can't.
_______
Alexandra Tursi
edits the Visuals section of Identity Theory
and also contributes to our Social
Justice Blog. She went to Cornell and lives in Vermont and has
blonde hair and green eyes. You can email her at tursita@identitytheory.com.
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Posted:
February 4, 2008
