Readers Place

Author Q&A

1. Like most of your novels, The State of the Union is narrated from a female perspective. While I read it, I was really convinced by the female voice. How do you achieve this?

Well, I don’t have a secret pouch of estrogen which I place under my arm before writing as a woman. As I have always written in the first person, I see myself as an actor assuming a role. So, in the case of the recent novel, I don’t start writing a scene by asking the question: ‘Now what would a woman do in a situation like this?’ Rather: ‘What would Hannah do…’ I try to see the world with her eyes.

2. The plot of The State of the Union had many twists and turns. Did you plan this, or did you let the plot develop as you were writing?

I never plan my plots – even though my novels are heavily plotted. The narrative always develops as I’m writing – though part of my methodology is to relentlessly work the story out in my head. My wife informs me that, once I start a novel, I’m half-elsewhere most of the time. To which I can only say: guilty as charged.

3. Are any of the events in State of the Union or your other novels based on real life experiences?

Even though I have never written a ‘roman a clef’, there are always autobiographical elements in all my novels. But I’m not going to say what they are.

4. If a film were to be made of State of the Union, who would you like to play the main characters?

As Hannah has to age from twenty-one to her mid-fifties, an actress midway between those ages would work best. Fifteen years ago, Meryl Streep would have been perfect. Now? Ms Paltrow or Cate Blanchett would be more than acceptable.

5. What is your favourite of all your novels and why?

It’s a toss-up between The Pursuit of Happiness and State of the Union – possibly the latter, as it is the most emotionally complex book I’ve written, especially when it comes to the intricacies of family life.

6. Why do you think your novels are so popular?

I write about ordinary lives going into free-fall after some unforeseen mistake or happenstantial event. In other words, I write about the potential nightmares lurking behind day-to-day life. And as we all like to read about the nightmares of others…

7. How long do your books take to write, and how many hours a day do you dedicate to writing?

I can never say how long a book takes to write – because they all have their own individual rhythm (and because you should never tell such things!). Generally, however, I give myself a year for a first draft – writing between 500 and 1000 words per day, six days a week. The discipline of the word quota is essential – as it gets the damn thing written.

8. Where do you draw your inspiration from?

That wonderful, maddening mess called life.

9. What is your favourite book of all time?

I don’t have a specific book that is the ‘ne plus ultra’ for me. I have many favourite novels – from Greene’s The End of the Affair, to Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, to Flaubert’s Madame Bovary, to Sinclair Lewis’s Main Street, to the Updike Rabbit Novels, to Richard Yates’s Revolutionary Road, to Pynchon’s V to… In short, my taste is very catholic….

10. Can you tell us anything about what you are working on at the moment?

I’ve just finished a new novel, The Woman in the Fifth, which Hutchinson are publishing in summer 2007. It’s set in Paris – and it is (I hope) the sort of novel which will keep my readers up into four in the morning, as it is a story of a waking nightmare. And I’m going to say no more than that…