For Imagine Me Gone, the first scene I wrote in-depth was the mother traveling with her family to Maine for a summer vacation. I write those scenes, and as I’m writing them I’m discovering and deciding what scope of work they fit into-a short story, a novel, or something in between. I always begin with characters in particular settings, inside particular scenes. When you set out to write the book, had you already planned the chronology of your characters’ lives? The novel switches narrative voice and isn’t chronological. We spoke to him about genre, mental illness, and structure. Organizing his novel by characters, Haslett has produced a text that requires reflection and refuses authorial control. In his new work, Imagine Me Gone, the Lambda Award–winning author introduces his readers to the complex inner workings of an idiosyncratic family. These issues are what Haslett takes to heart, and most of his work has put individualism in tension with the body in one way or the other. Novelist Adam Haslett started his writing career with his short story collection, You Are Not a Stranger Here, where he explores how sexuality and mental illness affect relationships among families and friends.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |