Amy Bloom on the Audacity of Little Women

"Reading Little Women when I was a little girl—I was about eight and working my way through the library stacks—made me realize that other people thought about relationships. And that other people also thought it was interesting to observe other people. And that it was possible to be a good person, even if you didn’t always behave yourself, um, very nicely. I love the fact that Jo had such a temper and so often regretted it. There were the moments where she'd go off to write and was unashamed to say, this matters to me, and I don't care that you all think I’m crazy. There's a moment, I think, where she puts on a hat and she says, 'Genius burns.' I was impressed by her willingness to declare that it mattered to her."

Amy Bloom’s latest, Where the God of Love Hangs Out, a collection of short stories, is out now.

Photo: Courtesy of Penguin Classics; cover designed by Coralie Bickford-Smith, to be released in September 2010

Andrew W.K. on How Author Hilary Mantel Made Him "0.10 Percent Smarter"

 
There are plenty of things we'd ask 30-year-old rocker Andrew W.K's advice on: what vintage records to spin at our house party, what obscure club to be seen at on a Sunday night, and what to wear on the dance floor to make a statement. (Tom Ford cotton bathrobe, anyone?) Books, however, would be pretty far down on the list. But the great minds over at The Morning News chose him to play judge at the semi-finals of their Tournament of Books, a March Madness-style literary competition, where he had to size up Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall against Marlon James' The Book of Night Women. Here's what he had to say on his winner, Wolf Hall:

"Right away, I could tell both these books were clearly the undertaking of persons more refined than I. And I liked that feeling. It was humbling in a good way—like the sense of comfort that these people can take care of you, like a mom or a dad. Hilary Mantel is a new mother for me. The world she created in Wolf Hall is as lavish and harsh as every dream or nightmare I’ve ever had and she can protect me from it, punish and reward me with it. Wolf Hall is a life-changing and unforgettable reading experience. I’m 100 percent sure it’s made me at least 0.10 percent smarter."

Read the rest of Andrew W.K.'s review here, if only for his closing note, something every aspiring author should take to heart—we quote, "PARTY HARD!!!"

Photo: Getty

Merritt Watts, Magazine Editor

Why did you decide to pick up Loving Frank? I’m really interested in architecture—Frank Lloyd Wright, specifically. My grandparents lived in a house designed in his signature "Prairie style," and I always liked learning about him as a person. Loving Frank is historical fiction about him and his mistress. His love life was pretty messy.

Do you read a lot of historical fiction? I like books that are fiction, but based on a true story. That way you go, “Oh, is this true?” and then you get to Google it.  

What’s your ideal fact-to-fiction ratio? It’s better when it’s more steeped in fact, and when all the people and places really existed. In the foreword Loving Frank, Nancy Horan writes about all the research she did—she traveled to Stockholm to research the main character Mamah Borthwick Cheney, Frank Lloyd Wright’s mistress, and how she found all their love letters.

Are you attracted to love stories? Well, it’s not really a romantic story. Frank Lloyd Wright really comes off as a jerk, and of course something really tragic happens in the end.

Do have a soft spot for anything other than historical fiction? I love salacious memoirs. I just finished Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, who used to be the gossip columnist at MSNBC.com. It’s about her growing up on the road with her parents after they pulled her out of school. They didn’t let her get medical treatment and were basically homeless. Now she’s really successful, which when you’re writing a memoir about your shitty childhood, must be nice. She emerged victorious! 

You look so comfortable. Where did you get your sweater from? It’s my boyfriend’s, from Brooks Brothers.

Do you wear his clothes often? Yeah, I do! Then I return it, he dry cleans it, and I get to steal it again.

Photo: Angela Bliumis

Obama Shops Around The Corner

Hopefully, the folks at Prairie Lights Bookstore in Iowa City had their camera phones handy today when President Obama dropped in on the independent book seller, which incidentally provides health insurance for all its employees. After jokingly holding up Mitt Romney's and Karl Rove's latest tomes, he perused the children's section in search of something for his two daughters and eventually decided on Journey to the River Sea by Eva Ibbotson and The Secret of Zoom by Lynn Dornell (how pumped are those authors?). He also foot the bill for a pop up Star Wars book that press secretary Robert Gibbs insisted he was going to give to his son (whatever you say Gibbs, we have a sneaking suspicion you know a thing or two about Ewokese). No purchases for the POTUS himself, nor the first lady (“Nothing for Mrs. Obama?” a reporter asked. “Thanks for getting me in trouble,” Obama replied), but Gibbs recently tweeted that Obama is currently reading The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris.

Lit Life Review: Twisted Sisters

Loss is painfully inevitable, and it is harsh—Heather Clay’s debut novel Losing Charlotte (Knopf) is a heart-stinging reminder of this truth. Sisters Charlotte, rebellious and carefree, and Knox, attentive and “eminently sane,” spent their youth among the backdrop of lush greens and horses on their parents’ thoroughbred-horse farm in Kentucky. Their powerful yet at times unsteady sisterly bond collapses when Charlotte leaves Four Corners Farm for the bright lights of New York City. Left behind, Knox finds herself living in a former sharecropper’s cabin nestled down the hill from her childhood home and entangled in a relationship with a man to whom she is unable to commit wholeheartedly. Meanwhile, Charlotte’s quest to start a family with her husband, Bruce, ends in sudden tragedy when she dies just after giving birth to twins. With a weight of duty firmly planted on her shoulders, Knox leaves her mourning family at home to help her brother-in-law care for his two newborn preemie boys, Ethan and Ben, in his West Village apartment. Feedings, bath times, diaper duty, forensic-science TV reruns, and take-out camouflage their fresh wounds. With broken hearts and tired minds, Bruce and Knox replay their lifetime of moments with Charlotte and begin to gain a deeper understanding of this quirky, passionate, and relativistic woman and start to see just how she helped shape their existence. And slowly, they begin to heal.

Sydney Levin, Web Editor

What are you reading? I’m reading The World According to Garp by John Irving. 

Do you read a lot of Irving? It’s actually a funny story. In high school I read A Prayer for Owen Meany and I was obsessed with it, my senior yearbook quote came out of it, and then it was like I completely forgot Irving existed as an author. I kind of rediscovered him this year and realized there was a lot more to his repertoire, including Garp.

What do you like about the book? I love it because it’s absolutely insane, and the things that happen blow you away, but he doesn’t hit your over the head with it. You have to be an informed, careful reader, and I like that. As a writer myself, I get really bored when I see writers just trying to hammer their themes home. Plus, Garp is so wacked out that one minute you’re crying, one minute you’re laughing, and then you’re blacking out from all the emotion.

What other authors do you like? Dave Eggers, who’s entirely different and a lot more self-involved. Although now that I’m reading about Irving’s background, I’m seeing a lot more of it in his books. Like in Garp, the child doesn’t know his father, and the same was true of Irving.

Any guilty pleasures? I’m sort of a tortured reader, so another one of my favorite authors is Lorrie Moore. You read her books and you know every one of them is going to go the exact same way—every single character will end up getting cheated on. It’s so depressing that my friends wouldn’t call me the day they knew I’d bought one of her books. She’s fantastic, but you need a Xanax afterwards to take the edge off.

Speaking of guilty pleasures, let’s talk jewelry. Where’d you get your necklace? It was my first purchase from Madewell, which has become my favorite store to pop into and get just one statement piece—and then rock it until the wheels fall off. 

Photo: Angela Bliumis

ELLE Book Addict: April Long, Senior Beauty Editor

April Long is like that incredibly cool big sister your 13-year-old self wish you always had. She’s been listening to that about-to-break band you’ve just discovered on Pitchfork for months now (which makes sense considering prior to jumping into the big bad world of beauty, she used to cover music at Nylon). Her ability to pull off an impeccably applied cat-eye liner and rich red lipstick simultaneously—during the day no less—and make it look effortlessly modern is enviable. And her flirty retro dresses, fitted knit cardigans, and delicate gold necklaces make you want to borrow everything in her closet. After you read her answers to our literary minded questionnaire, you’ll be heading to her bookshelves next.

Name: April Long 

What You Do At ELLE: As senior beauty editor, I cover hair and makeup trends—the products/techniques/icons/dermatological breakthroughs that are going to change the way we get ready in the morning both next week and a year from now. I also write about music and other pop-cultural goings-on as much as possible; ultimately, how we want to look is totally intertwined with what we’re listening to, watching, and reading. 

Books you’re currently reading? I’m always lugging several books around so that I can jump between them according to my mood/ability to concentrate. Right now I’m reading The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science by Richard Holmes, Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky, AA Gill is Away by AA Gill, and The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy. And no, I haven’t yet succumbed to the Kindle.  
 
Favorite fictional character? There are so many: Sherlock Holmes, Holly Golightly, Humbert Humbert, Jay Gatsby, Zooey Glass, Ignatius Reilly, Scout Finch, Jennie the Dog in Maurice Sendak’s Higglety Pigglety Pop... But I’m going to honor my Kansas roots and say Dorothy Gale.  
 
If you had to tattoo the name of an author or a book title on your arm, who/what would it be? I wouldn’t! But if you got me drunk enough and held a gun to my head, I’d probably allow ‘Capote’ to be inked in a pretty little heart. He strikes me as having been a pretty obnoxious little man, but he’s one of the most heartbreakingly elegant writers I’ve ever read. I collect early editions of his books. 
 
Favorite book when you were 12? I was heavily into Agatha Christie, and loved Susan Cooper’s The Dark Is Rising trilogy, but my favorites were Roald Dahl’s Kiss Kiss and Someone Like You. I never read Dahl’s children’s stories, strangely, but stole his collections of macabre short stories from my dad’s library when I was far too young to read them. I think they warped me permanently. Hopefully in a good way. 
 
Favorite book when you were 21? I was in a major Fitzgerald frenzy at about that time. I devoured everything—short stories, novels, biographies—but my favorite was (and is) The Great Gatsby. That’s also about the time that I discovered Salinger’s Nine Stories and Nabokov’s Lolita, which are two of my favorites to this day—I could read them a thousand times.  
 
The only lipstick shade that matters? Red.  
 
Classic novel you’ve never read but know you need to? Proust, In Search of Lost Time. I have a feeling I’d love it, but…seven volumes? I’ve always worried the title might prove all too apt. 
 
If there’s one author you could swap record collections with, who would it be? Although admittedly I couldn’t make it through his novels, I think Nick Cave is a genius lyricist and musician, and I suspect he has a fantastically eccentric record collection. Whether or not he’d want my old Go-Gos albums, however, is another story.

Photo: Kelly Stuart

Peter Hedges on the Comfort of Getting It Wrong

"There's a paragraph in a novel that I go back to almost once a week, page 35 in Philip Roth’s novel American Pastoral. It starts with, 'You fight your superficiality, your shallowness, so as to try to come at people without unreal expectations, without an overload of bias, or hope, or arrogance.' Then later, 'The fact remains that getting people right is not what living is all about anyway; it’s getting them wrong that is living. Getting them wrong, and wrong, and wrong, and then under careful consideration, get them wrong again.' The paragraph knocked the air out of me when I read it. I mean, first of all, the prose is exquisite. But it's also about what's under that prose, the meaning of the words. I've spent a lot of time trying to be right about people and in an odd way, Roth's telling me that it may not be possible. So there's a kind of liberation; it tempers a need for certainty. When you look at, for instance, what's going on in the government, and how people are so entrenched their parties and their ideas, there seems to be no flexibility. Then you wonder, has America become a country of people so entrenched in their ideas and their beliefs that no one can be moved?"

Peter Hedges latest novel, The Heights, is available now.

Photo: Susan Bruce