Q: Galaxy Bookshop: How did you come to write the story of Little Island?
A: Katharine Britton: I was vacationing in Maine, trying to think what to write about for my second book. Next door a family started to gather: cars pulled into the drive, people piled out, groups formed on the front and back lawn, some folks left, new folks arrived... Being a nosy writer, I spent much of the weekend on my second story deck, observing this ebb and flow.
That gathering reminded me of my own family, which congregates in Vermont ever summer. Our gatherings have a distinct emotional and physical dynamic, and I thought it would be an interesting challenge to try to recreate this in a novel. So, I gave each of my characters a crisis or issue in their life, as they prepare for their family weekend on a small island in Maine. Family members, for the most part, are not aware of what’s going on in one another’s lives⎯as is so often the case.
I wrote the book in multiple points of view, so the reader knows more than the characters in the novel, and I present the story in relatively short scenes, to replicate the truncated conversations that often happen at family gatherings, due to constant interruptions.
I want the reader to feel like a guest at Little Island Inn. One who keeps happening upon different members of the Little family, having their conversations in the kitchen or out on the wide front porch as they prepare for their grandmother’s memorial service and deal with the issues in their lives.
Q: GB: What books are your favorites and why?
A: KB: How much space do we have? I like books for different reasons. Some I latch onto for their great stories, others for the way the author plays with form or language.
I read Gone Girl recently and was so impressed by Gillian Flynn’s ability to, in an instant, turn a sympathetic character into one I despised and feared. I was completely engrossed by Tanya French’s Into the Woods. She kept me guessing right up to the last page. Julie Orringer’s stories in Learning to Breathe Underwater are all gems. I’ve admired and enjoyed everything I’ve read by Kate Atkinson. Other favorite authors include Barbara Kingsolver, Louise Erdrich, Anne Patchett, Richard Russo... The list goes on and on.
For classics, I’d choose A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and To Kill a Mockingbird.
Q: GB: What's your favorite passage or line from a book?
A: KB: These lines from near the beginning of To Kill a Mockingbird give so much information in such a spare and elegant way.
“Somehow, it was hotter then: a black dog suffered on a summer’s day; bony mules hitched to Hoover carts flicked flies in the sweltering shade of the live oaks on the square.
A day was twenty-four hours long but seemed longer. There was no hurry; for there was nowhere to go, nothing to buy and no money to buy it with, nothing to see outside the boundaries of Maycomb County. But it was a time of vague optimism for some of the people: Maycomb County had recently been told that it had nothing to fear but fear itself.”
Q: GB: What are you reading currently?
A: KB: Right now I’m reading Bossypants. I read a lot of fiction and wanted something funny. I just finished The Light Between Oceans, by M.L. Stedman. Very good and quite somber.
To see the trailer for Katharine's book Little Island, please visit here. And remember: Tuesday, October 15th at 7 P.M. at the Galaxy Bookshop in downtown Hardwick!
No comments:
Post a Comment