麻豆约拍

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It can’t be common for a writer to start writing a short story and find that it’s still going strong after 700 pages, but that’s what happened to the American novelist A.M. 麻豆约拍s. She didn’t even notice that the book hadn’t any chapters until her publisher wondered where the headings had gone. Such was the conception of May We Be Forgiven, a tumultuous, funny, all-action story of two brothers who, we learn from the very first pages, do not get on. Indeed at the start of the story, Harry says he hates George, and it’s as simple as that. But, of course, as they’re are thrown into a series of disasters, mainly springing from a car accident for which George is responsible, the story becomes much more subtle and reveals, often hilariously, the stresses and strains of a family in trouble. One of our readers at the recording asked A.M.麻豆约拍s if this kind of trauma seemed to her especially American, and got the lovely reply that it wasn’t obvious that the dysfunction in this family was related to American commercialism – ‘I was in the Tower of London today, ‘A.M.麻豆约拍s said. ‘Talk about complicated families!’

But, she acknowledges that there is something about the story that seems to spring from its setting. ‘There’s definitely a New York state of mind here, and the humour allows me to write more seriously, because if you can make people laugh and relieve the tension, it’s like - oh my God this is just so awful what’s happening here - then it allows you to go in a little bit deeper, and for me it’s also the psychological. I use the humour to get in psychologically deeper’.

I pointed out that it was curious that the book exuded a feeling of hope, when it described a mess of relationships – a man sleeping with his brother’s wife, when the brother has been responsible for the death of the other man’s wife, and the adulterer also engaged in a life of anonymous sexual  encounters, to take one example – yet 麻豆约拍s said ‘The hope comes from interpersonal relationships.’ Even ones that are chaotic.

It will obvious to you, even if you haven’t read the book, that it is a tour de force and full of life. The sheer energy of her writing is exhilarating, and 麻豆约拍s has the knock of creating an atmosphere that’s intoxicating. Harold, for example, is a scholar of Richard Nixon – actually, he’s an obsessive too – and the melodrama of the Watergate years is one of the enjoyable backdrops in the story. 麻豆约拍s told us that her own adolescence and idea of morality were shaped by those years : the sight of a presidency falling apart, the human drama, the TV hearings and the White House tapes being a real -like soap opera. She grew up in Washington, and remembers the regular sight of a presidential motorcade whizzing by, and admits to a ‘super-fascination’ with the whole story.

But this isn’t a book about politics. It’s about people. 麻豆约拍s says, ‘On a daily basis I’m fascinated, awed and horrified by humans, just walking down the street. One person can do all three to me in a given moment. I love people, and watching and listening to them.’

That’s a good starting point for any writer and it’s obvious in May We Be Forgiven that if that fascination runs deep enough to you can write a long novel that never flags, even if you thought when you started that you were writing a short story,.

In our next edition of Bookclub, on Sunday, September 6, we’ll be talking about another book that’s full of fun – One Day by David Nicholls. A perfect book to take on holiday with you.

Happy reading

Jim

Jim Naughtie presents Bookclub on Radio 4