24/04/05 - Jodi Picoult
In association with New Books mag, Bracknell Forest Libraries invited Jodi Picoult to discuss her work at The Wilde Theatre, South Hill Parh (on Sunday 24th April 2005).
Jodi Picoult is the well receieved author of Plain Truth and the latest smash My Sister's Keeper.
Jodi Picoult was a little bit smaller than I had imagined a graduate of Princeton and Harvard to be. As an author of thirteen novels, though I didn't know this at the time I went to see her, you would imagine a stalwart figure whose hard eyes, rimmed by spectacles would be prying into your inner psyche for some new ideas. Of course, I hadn't imagined Terry Pratchett to be a Hobbit until I stumbled over him, without his hat on. At six-foot-two I am being unfair.
Ms Picoult (rhymes with Nicole, as in Nicole! Papa!) is a lively, bubbly personality with as much brains and forward focus as you would expect from someone whose works have dealt with teen suicide, domestic abuse, the Stigmata, Amish life, sexual abuse, rape and most recently, in 'My Sister's Keeper', a daughter born specifically to provide blood and body parts to save her sister from leukaemia.
While Dan Brown may be rather forward with his assertions that everything in the Da Vinci Code is the Gospel truth, it is writers such as Ms Picoult who are dealing with far greater truths and have their fingers more firmly on the pulse of today's world. But don't label, group or pigeon hole her.
Undertaking much of the hard work (her research comes first hand from spending time with the Amish or Inuit tribes, on an Oncology ward or interviewing depressed teens) necessary in providing sweeping stories whose narrative flits between characters and always provides the reader with all the view points, but often only half the answers, Ms Picoult takes resolution and catharsis from disaster and tragedy. She isn't a chick-lit author there to keep the minds of airport travellers vacant and neither is she a suspense or thriller author, thickly pasting in her twists and turns in the vain hope that the reader won't fall off the train of thought.
No, because her books are about people and her style is unfolding of the characters through use of the plot until you are so drawn into their lives and their loves that by the time you reach the end you feel somewhat bereft of the family you have been with for however long it took. The pay offs have included television movies, rights purchasing by New Line Cinemas and more importantly the use of The Pact as a school set text. To say that Jodi is making a place for herself on the world's literary map is an understatement.
Jodi spoke at length about the history of her work and the roots from which she started. Whilst doing a degree in creative writing she was advised by her tutor to send off her first work to agents (Songs of the Humpback Whale) and much to her own surprise was snapped up. She was lucky in her beginnings as at that time in 1992, the British publishing house Faber and Faber were entering the American market and agreed to her first novel with the interest that only a small firm does.
She had two things to say about being published. Firstly, in America you choose as a writer whether you want to become a commercial or a literary writer. Of course there are benefits to both. When you are a literary writer, your work is never pigeon holed, you are up for all the awards and you have that self assurance that you haven't sold out. The flipside is that you have no marketing spent on your work and the inclination is that your novel will be awarded, remembered as brilliant, but ultimately you will be scraping for money and hoping you next work will pay the bills.
You could however, choose to be commercial. You waive the chance for that acknowledgement from your peers and you instantly find yourself in that potential rut as chick-lit, mills and boon, sci-fi, thriller, chiller, horror, crime… Potentially, and with the considerable marketing investment in these areas, where readers are always on the look out for 'A book like…' you can do very well indeed. You ask yourself then: Have I sold out? Will I be remembered for this?
Secondly, as a writer in America, especially a new one that are pitfalls in the choice of publishing house. If you go with a web established house, Random, Harper, Hodder, etc, you may get some marketing, some promotion, but ultimately in the big catalogue of authors they release each year, how high up in that list do you really think you will be? Sometimes the choice doesn't even get to be the reader's, but the shops and stores that bulk order the book. But, then you do have all that weight behind you. The other option is the smaller publisher, as with Faber and Faber at the time, attempting to push into a new market. By fate, or choice or luck, headlining in a smaller publishing house provides you with far greater coverage. There is far less chance of saturation amongst all the others. The weight of responsibility is that it all rests with you.
For Jodi, the case in point was a triangle of chance; the time it seemed was right. New author, new work and new publishing house being watched by the entire business to see if it would sink or swim. Fifteen years on, you can be the judge.
It is clear from listening to her discussion with Guy, from Wokingham's New Books Magazine, that given an inch, Jodi can talk miles about her work, her inspiration, her home life. She is bubbling with the energy of someone who has found her niche in the world and wants desperately to share her experiences and insights with those she meets. Wonderfully engaging and brimming with that much needed vitality a writer requires to maintain interest in and discipline over her work, Jodi's energy is awe inspiring.
As the hour grew into its closing quarter, the talk turned to future work and became evident that there was much on the horizon; two paperback releases, two hardback releases… can a Jodi Picoult fan keep up?
Most importantly, I think, is her continual striving to find some new and dynamic way to present the story, the ideas, the characters. In My Sister's Keeper, the book is represented by the sectioning of days of the week and within them chapters are angled specifically from a single person's point of view. In this respect, not only does the reader find themselves clinging to each character with a greater rapport and understanding but also they come to understand the grey. Jodi has long since realised that there can be no black and white when the different needs or beliefs of two or more people intersect.
As an author far too intelligent to judge the characters on their own weaknesses, she allows the reader to take on board the reasoning for themselves. And although at no point does the reader feel preached to, the message is clear: 'Open your eyes, you're neither right or wrong; this world needs give and take.'
The feeling that comes from the way in which My Sister's Keeper is written, is as if the story is gradually circling about itself in ever decreasing circles, like a moth around a flame. But, with deft hands Jodi constructs an outcome that is so evasive throughout the book that its final execution is so chilling, the reader is left somewhat shell shocked. The purpose of course isn't to wrap up the story's so finely weaved silken strands, but to hold them apart in the interest of saying 'Look, reader, look. Do you now understand what this has been for?'
Further to Jodi's intent to push her novels, she will soon be completing The Tenth Circle. In Jodi's own words, she will be returning to when adult fiction was originally printed, when the narrative was accompanied by pictures. What? I hear you say. Didn't Clive Barker do that with 'Abarat'?
The difference is that whilst Clive Barker painted four-hundred pictures to accompany 'Abarat', in The Tenth Circle, Jodi intends to use a graphic novel to help evolve the narrative.
From Ms Picoult's website:
THE TENTH CIRCLE asks whether a man can reinvent himself in the course of a lifetime; or if his mistakes are carried with him forever. It explores how the course of man’s life is — like any good comic book — a struggle to see whether he can control good and evil, or if it controls him… and whether we can reinvent ourselves entirely, or if our mistakes are carried with us forever… In a revolutionary combination, the novel’s narrative chapters will be intercut with pen-and-ink pages from Daniel’s Stone’s graphic novel – the illustrated story of a man whose daughter is stolen by the devil into the world of Dante’s Inferno…and how a father might literally go through Hell to get her back.
My advice to readers is, give Jodi Picoult a try and expand your horizons and perceptions. To writers, I would say: if you want to weave a mutli-faceted plot around which your disparate characters grow, interact and learn, then read Jodi Picoult. She throws omniscience to the wind and with the discipline of a master storyteller, allows the narrative to lay down the information in such a way that never does the reader feel the lag of description.
Check out this breath of fresh air, as poignant as the last breeze of summer.
My Sister's Keeper came out in paperback in January 2005.
Vanishing Acts came out in hardback in March 2005.
Tenth Circle arrives in Spring 2006.
- Richard Howse
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