Q: Can you explain the title Joy School?
A: As explained in the novel, Katie believes that Jimmy will be the place for her to learn happiness, her "Joy School."
Q: Although it stands alone, this is clearly a sequel to Durable Goods. Why did you choose to continue the story of Katie and her family?
A: I wrote Joy School simply because I missed the characters in Durable Goods. I wanted to revisit them, see what they were up to. I never planned to write a sequel, though. There was just a time when I was lying in the bathtub, and I thought about Katie, and I got out of the bathtub and started writing about her to see what she was up to.
Q: Will we be seeing them again in a future novel?
A: I don't think so. But who ever really knows?
Q: Did you know it was going to be a novel of first love when you started writing it?
A: I had a vague idea that it might be a novel of first love.
Q: Durable Goods traced much of your own childhood experience as an "army brat" with a stern disciplinarian as a father. To what extent is this story of Katie's first love biographical as well? Does Katie's story mirror a first crush of your own?
A: Although there were biographical elements in Durable Goods, Katie's first love experience, chronicled in Joy School, is in no way similar to my own. My first love was a jerk.
Q: How much of yourself do you inject into your characters?
A: It's hard to gauge how much of yourself you put into your characters. As the writer of the material, I think you're too subjective to really know. However, I think it's safe to say that there is some of me in every character I write. How could there not be?
Q: You've been quoted as saying "I have an inordinate fondness for Katie..." and that "the character was such fun." Why do you have such fondness for her? What was fun about bringing her back to life?
A: I love Katie because she loves so much, because she wears her heart on her sleeve, because she is honest and forgiving, because she is funny without knowing she's funny. It's fun to write about her because she brings back a time of life that is so rich. It's also fun to write about Katie because you get to write about Cherylanne.
Q: What sort of pressure have you felt from receiving such good reviews on your first novel and your subsequent ones? Have you felt any pressure from yourself or from others to top yourself?
A: There's always a desire to top yourself, I think. I hope to get better and better for my own sake, and for that of my readers. Reviews are a funny thing. I read them, but I try really hard not to take them to heart.
Q: What do you mean when you say "It's important to tend the fires within and the rest will take care of itself?"
A: I think when you write, you need to worry only about yourself. What are you trying to say? How does it feel? Does it please you? No one else should be in your head--not your editor, not your readers, not your lover. You shouldn't be worrying about any aspects of publishing--will this sell? Will this be well reviewed? That's all pollution. First, honor your creative instincts; honor yourself and your gift and your own original impulses. Get the thing written the way you want to write it. Then worry about all the business stuff--or, better yet, let your agent worry about it.
Q: And what are you referring to when you talk about "the interior landscape?"
A: "Interior landscape" refers to what I'm concerned with when I write. I don't care where my characters live; I care how they feel. That is not to say I don't very much admire other writers who are concerned with place. It's just that external geography is not important in my books--only the terrain of the heart and soul. This might be because I'm an army brat and don't feel a strong attachment to any place. A friend of mine once told me "You carry your home around inside you." I think that's true.
Q: One reviewer characterized Joy School as "a coming-of-age story that is neither grim nor saccharine, an exploration of how, for one spirited girl, life brings both daily grief and daily joy." How do you walk that fine line between being overly grim or overly sweet?
A: Questions like this always feel to me as though the person is asking "How do you have brown hair?" Well, it just grows there. I'm pleased that people say things like that reviewer did, but it's nothing I plan.
Q: Reviewers always have their own thoughts on the major themes and subthemes in the books they review. For instance, one reviewer saw--as subthemes--the ways people look for connections in different ways and in different places, regaining a faith that has been lost, and how early loss can radically shift a child's understanding of the world. I prefer to hear your thoughts on the themes and subthemes of this story. How would you describe them?
A: I don't plan my books, I just start writing. I do believe that in one way or another, writers write about the same things over and over. For me, I suppose I focus on aspects of love and relationships. I am interested in love. Like the Beatles, I believe it's all you really need. And what happens in relationships, that interests me, too. I like the human drama that gets played out on the small stage. I'd rather read--and write--about people in kitchens than in Paris. I like when characters are homey--wear their curlers, speak uncensored from the heart. I think all the depth we need can be found in the simple life.
Q: With a dead mother, a father who flies into sporadic rages and hits her, and an unhappily married sister who has fled to Mexico, Katie has every excuse for withdrawing into herself. And yet she continues trying to make connections with those around her: Cynthia and Taylor, Ginger, Nona, Father Compton, and of course, Jimmy. What pushes Katie to keep reaching out?
A: Katie is all heart. All feeling. She longs to share--with everyone. Above all, she has hope. It's huge in her. It drives her, shapes her, defines her. And saves her.
Q: One reviewer has written "Adults writing novels about teenagers run a very real risk of turning out the literary equivalent of Impressionist paintings rather than capturing Kodak moments. Happily, Elizabeth Berg's new novel is very much on the photography side of the spectrum." While you may not be a teenager any longer, you are so obviously in touch with what it feels like to be one--the feelings, nuances of emotion, sights, smells, and sounds. How have you managed to stay so completely in touch with what that was like?
A: This question gets asked a lot. And I always answer it the same way: I think probably anyone can remember this way. I mean, just try it. Lie on your bed. Close your eyes. Think of a song, a smell, an article of clothing from a certain time in your life. Other things will come to you. Then more things. The fact that people think I get things right means that they can remember those things, too.
Q: Of all the people in Katie's life, it seems to be the priest, Father Compton, who is able to provide her with the perspective she needs to make sense of her life and the events described in the book. Why did you choose Compton for this role?
A: I didn't "choose" Compton. He just happened. In retrospect, it does seem right to me that a good priest might have the proper perspective to help Katie figure things out. She is a very spiritual person--and so is he.
Q: What do you mean when you say "The act of writing is very much like dreaming?"
A: I let writing happen as I "let" a dream happen. I trust in the process, sit down at the computer, and let go. Sometimes I feel as though I'm in a trance when I write, and when I read the pages from that day's work, I don't remember having written those words. I love when that happens. Every writer is different, but for me, it's no good to plan. I can write down notes, pieces of dialogue, and so on and possibly incorporate those things. But there is never a detailed plot that I decide upon ahead of time and follow.
Q: Have you always had the desire to write?
A: Yes, I have always had the desire to write. I would write whether I were published or not. It's a need for me.
Q: Who are your literary influences?
A: I don't have literary influences. My education was too crummy for me to have such things. I play in my own corner of the sandbox, looking only at my own work. There are certain writers I really admire, though. My two favorites are E. B. White and Alice Munro.
Q: Has your success as a writer changed your life?
A: My success as a writer means simply that I can write for a living. I am profoundly grateful for that.
Q: Have you ever experienced writer's block?
A: I don't believe in "writer's block." I think there are times when the well runs dry with good reason, and your job then is to get up and go walk around and let the well fill up again. For me, being a writer means having a certain mindset, a certain sensibility, and that doesn't go away any more than your left-or right-handedness goes away.
Q: What do you want readers to get out of this book?
A: Oh, I just want them to feel it. To have a good time. To laugh, and to feel moved. To finish it, and give it a little pat before they put it on their bookshelf or pass it on to a friend. I want them to feel satisfied, like they got their money's worth.
© Copyright 2009 by Elizabeth Berg. Reprinted with permission by Ballantine. All rights reserved.
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