Author Interview: Gabrielle Zevin

Gabrielle Zevin is the Author of the adult novel Margarettown and the two YA novels Elsewhere and Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac. She graciously obliged to do a short interview and answer a few questions for you readers!


Question #1
Your books Margarettown and Elsewhere incorporate fantasy with real life. Do you think it is important for people to see a little fantasy in their everyday lives?


A: I don’t know if it’s important, but I think we can use fantasy as a way to make sense of reality, if that isn’t too pretentious to say. At least, that’s what I use fantasy for in my writing – Elsewhere is a fantasy about the afterlife, but for me it was really a way to discuss the things that matter to me in this life.

Question #2

What helps you develop your female characters Naomi, Margaret and Liz? What about your male characters Owen, Ace, James and N.? Are they somewhat based off of real people you know?

A: The thing that’s helped me most in developing characters of either sex has been just living and having my eyes open to the world and the people around me. I think one of the most useful things in creating characters is to see yourself as clearly as possible. Until I was able to be honest with myself about myself, I wasn’t able to write anyone else particularly honestly either. But yes, I definitely base my characters on aspects of real people… But it’s always just parts – never the whole thing.

Question #3
In Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac you are constantly referring to different songs and bands. What is some music that really influenced your writing? Do you have any favorite bands?

A: The reason there’s so much music in MEMOIRS was because that book was really about the importance of ”reference” in relationships and what happens when a person no longer shares the same references with another person. I was very Emo in my listening tastes when I was writing that book. James was definitely, like, Bright Eyes for me. Especially “First Day of My Life.”
My favorite artists at the moment: I’m really liking Thao, Arcade Fire, The Mountain Goats, Neutral Milk Hotel, Griffin House, Stars, and Joshua Radin. I definitely enjoyed The Killers latest album. Although pop is not usually my sensibility, I think there’s something really touching about Beyonce’s song “If I Were a Boy.” And Pink’s “So What” is also pop, but it’s remarkably intimate and it’s almost like reading someone’s dairy. I love Thao’s “Bag of Hammers” and I adore Josh Ritter’s album “The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter.”



Question #4
Do you have a special ritual or place you like that enhances your writing? Do you have any advice for some aspiring authors out there?

A: My only advice to young writers is to avoid special rituals and places. Once you get in your head that writing is attached to a certain desk or sofa or a special pen, you start to mystify writing and I’ve found that’s usually creatively destructive. Writing should be able to happen anywhere on anything – in a hospital bed, on a cocktail napkin, on an airplane, in the back of a cab. Writing happens when you’re not really writing, too. It happens in your head – all the time.



Question #5
What are some of your favorite books and literary characters?

A: I love AN EQUAL MUSIC by Vikram Seth. It’s an amazing love story with an intricate classical music backdrop. I recently read a fantastic short story collection by Amanda Eyre Ward, called LOVE STORIES IN THIS TOWN – so good. In terms of literary characters… I’ll tell you some of the ones I still think about. I think about Holden Caulfield pretty often – and I think about his sister Phoebe, too. I feel an odd sympathy for the Dursleys in Harry Potter – my publisher told me I should keep this to myself. I always think about Lily Bart from THE HOUSE OF MIRTH. I think about Humbert Humbert in LOLITA now and again – and that scene at the end where he says he still loves her even though she’s pregnant and married. There are probably others, too, but those are a couple that come to mind.



Question #6
In Elsewhere, Liz discovers how to enjoy life (ironically) while she's dead. What do you think are some of the real joys in life?

A: Love, dogs, books, music, winter coats, and dessert.



Question # 7
In Margarettown Margaret seems to be many women at once. Do you have any alter egos?If so, care to name a few?

A: In a way each of my books has been an alter ego. Now that I’m older, I guess I find less need to be different people. I’m mainly myself though there’s definitely a marked difference between Gabrielle with and without espresso.



Question #8
Are you working on any new material? If you are can you give us a little sneak peek?

A: I have another book for adults coming out in March. It’s called “THE HOLE WE’RE IN” and it’s completely different from anything that I’ve done. It’s about faith and politics and just about everything I think is important in the world.


Come back soon to check out another interview from Sephanie Kuenhert author of Ballads of Suburbia!

Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac

Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac

by Gabrielle Zevin

Rating: Great

Difficulty: Normal

Pages: 288

Synopsis

If Naomi had picked tails, she would have won the coin toss.

She wouldn't have had to go back for the yearbook camera, and she wouldn't have hit her head on the steps.

She wouldn't have woken up in an ambulance with amnesia.

She certainly would have remembered her boyfriend, Ace. She might even have remembered why she fell in love with him in the first place.

She would understand why her best friend, Will, keeps calling her "Chief." She'd get all his inside jokes, and maybe he wouldn't be so frustrated with her for forgetting things she can't possibly remember.

She'd know about her mom's new family.

She'd know about her dad's fiancee.

She wouldn't have to spend her junior year relearning all the French she supposedly knew already.

She never would have met James, the boy with the questionable past and the even fuzzier future, who tells her he once wanted to kiss her.

She wouldn't have wanted to kiss him back.

But Naomi picked heads.

Review

Everyone knows I love a good Gabrielle Zevin novel and Memoirs is the perfect antidote to my cravings. Naomi suffers amnesia after a nasty fall and can't recall the past four years of her life, sge can't remember her boyfriend Ace or why she liked him, she can't remember her best friend Will and all their inside jokes and she just met mysterious and brooding James- the boy who posed as her boyfriend so he could look after her in the ambulance. Suddenly her life is turned upside down and she has to regain her memories and her life back. The only problem is that she's not sure she wants to go back to her old self and when her and James start a very passionate relationship, she doesn't see a reason to return to her old life. Naomi is definitley one of my favorite characters of all time and the characters in this bppk are so well thouight out and perfect for each other. The thing i most recognize about Gabrielle's writing is that her mom represents photography, her dad represents writing, Will represents music and James represents movies. If you read it (which you should) i think that would be the first things you should look out for and notice. James is such a heartbreaking character because before he met Naomi he had a pretty messed up past. It crazy to see how desperatley he needs Naomi when at first it was Naomi who needed the help. I love this book as i love all Zevin's novels and of course you should go buy it as soon as possible!

Margarettown

Margarettown
by Gabrielle Zevin
Rating: Incredible!
Difficulty: Normal
Pages: 291




Synopsis

A man called N. travels to Margarettown with a woman he loves named Margaret Towne, inhabited solely by four women: Old Margaret, who is 77; 50-something Marge; 17-year-old Mia; and 7-year-old tomboy May. The novel is cast as a letter written by a dying N. to his and Margaret's daughter relaying their courtship and marriage.


Review

So being that i love Gabrielle Zevin so much i just had to read her first novel. Margarettown is half fantasy, half real life. Divided into six parts it tells the story of a women named Margaret who is cursed with (or possibly already possesed) the power to be multiple women at once. This man, solely named N., is writing a letter to his daughter Jane on his death bed and is telling the story of her mother and him meeting and how they found themselves in a strange kind of love. My favorite part of the book and an absolute must read in all literature itself is Susurrus- this section of the book basically tells the part of Jane and her brother Ian, starting in the womb and making their way through Margarette's pregancy. Both sad and astonishingly funny Susurrus is a heart warming addition to this love-hate kind of fairy tale. You wouldn't exactly call this a YA novel but it is definitely a fantastic book. The book kind of lets you decide for yourself on things and lets your imagination run wild. If you love Gabrielle Zevin or "Elsehwere" style books, this is definitly a must have!!!

Author Spotlight!

Gabrielle Zevin

Author of

Margarettown

Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac

Elsewhere

As Taken from Teen Reads...

Before I liked to write, I liked to type. I remember visiting my grandmother Adele in Ponce Inlet, Florida, when I was three years old, and she had an IBM electric typewriter. I thought that this electric typewriter was about the most fascinating toy in the world --- I liked the little bell and the sounds and the feel of the keys and especially the erase key. Grandma Adele would set me up with plenty of paper and I'd be entertained for hours. I would type pages and pages, mainly nonsense, but sometimes my name or lists of words I knew. I can't remember when the nonsense changed into something more organized and storylike, it just did. (Will the monkey eventually type Shakespeare? Not yet.) The first stories I wrote were autobiographies, because, at that age, I found myself a most intriguing subject. Still, the autobiographies were largely fictionalized. I'd sometimes leave space for illustrations and sew the pages together when I was done. And for many years, this was the extent of my fiction career. When I was around eight, I learned how to touch-type at school, and I received a computer as a present. I started writing plays, and for many years I thought I would be a playwright. Over the years, I had studiously managed to write everything but novels --- I had been a copious pen pal, a first-class transcriptionist, a professional screenwriter (still am, actually), a teen music reviewer, a mediocre research-paper writer, and, of course, a writer of plays. So, although I was not writing novels, I was always writing something. Actually, I hadn't ever felt any particular calling to be a novelist, and I clearly remember telling a friend of mine about six months before I started work on ELSEWHERE that I would NEVER write a novel. And then I thought of the idea for ELSEWHERE, which did not seem to want to be a play or a screenplay. It kept sounding awfully novelish in my head, and though I was a little scared, I just sat in front of my computer and started to type. So it was fortunate that I liked typing, because I would be typing Liz's story for many a moon. Although I still write screenplays, I've written two other novels since writing ELSEWHERE . And I'm happy to report that I still like the sound of the keys. Gabrielle lives in New York City. She has one dog, a peculiarly expressive, eight year old pug named Mrs. DeWinter.

48HBC: Elsewhere

Elsewhere

by Gabrielle Zevin

Rating:Incredible

Difficulty: Normal

Pages: 276

48 hour book challenge, book 2!

Synopsis

After fifteen year old Liz Hall is hit by a taxi and killed, she finds herself in a place that is both like and unlike earth, where she must adjust to her new status and figure out how to "live".

Review

Gabrielle Zevin is one of those authors who really blur the line between fairy tale and reality. In books such as Margarettown and Elsewhere, Gabrielle tells stories that are both familiar and unbelievable. In Elsewhere specifically, she chronicles the journey of a young girl who dies suddenly in a hit and run. Liz finds herself in a place called Elsewhere, which is exactly like earth except no one dies or gets sick and ages backward from their time of death to birth. Liz, Lizzie or more formally Elizabeth is at first very distraught with her new circumstances- on the verge of sixteen, she wants to earn her drivers license and graduate from college and fall in love and get married and have children. Dying seems to through a wrench into all of her well thought out plans. Until she finally realizes that nothing she does can change her being dead Liz refuses to see the good things about Elsehwere. Her grandmother Betty, who died before her birth. Curtis Jest, who was the lead singer of her favorite band machine. Thandie, a young girl like her who was accidently shot in the head and a boy named Owen, who helps her realize that even in Elsewhere you can still find love. Elsewhere is one of the best "afterlife" books i've read- filled with life lessons and thoughtful epiphanies. Even though Liz is dead, it teaches you alot about life and how to appreciate what you have in that life. MUST READ!!!!!