1451693591 (52 page)
4. For your next book group, select a book about other “invisible” women in history. Try to discover the stories of women in your own family. Interview older relatives or read about history of women in your own culture.
5. To learn more about Alice Hoffman, visit her website at
www.alicehoffman.com
or connect with her on Facebook at
www.facebook.com/alicehoffmanauthor
.
A Discussion with Alice Hoffman
Q. Though Camille Pissarro is globally known and celebrated, few people know this part of his history. What inspired you to write about Rachel Pizzarro? Where did you first learn about her?
A. I was at an exhibit of Pissarro’s work at the art museum at Williams College. It was there I first realized he was a Jew and had been born in St. Thomas. I’d always assumed he was French, as he was one of the fathers of Impressionism. I then wanted to discover what else I didn’t know. When I began reading about the scandal his mother’s marriage had caused I knew I had found my story.
Q. Your female protagonists are always formidable. How did you find and develop Rachel’s voice?
A. Luckily, my characters come to me fully formed. After reading about Rachel she was alive in my imagination and she spoke directly to me.
Q. The title of the novel
The Marriage of Opposites
could apply to almost any marriage—or relationship, for that matter—in the work. How did you select that title?
A. “The Marriage of Opposites” is an alchemical term—to create any substance or circumstance one has to combine opposite materials, in love and in all things. This term seemed so right for the marriage of Camille Pissarro’s parents, but also for many other relationships in the novel, and then in a broader historical sense—that people from all over the world are thrown together on this island and that they create a marriage of their cultures.
Q.
The Museum of Extraordinary Things
was set in New York City at the turn of the twentieth century,
The Dovekeepers
was set in biblical Judea, and
The Marriage of Opposites
is set in the 1800s. How do you create such rich and varied historical settings? What was your research and writing process for
The Marriage of Opposites?
A. I usually read everything I can, then begin to write, then research again. It’s a process of layering fact and fiction. I want all the historical references to be correct, but I am also creating characters, both the ones based on historical characters and the ones who are completely imagined.
Q. You’ve penned several dozen novels for both children and adults, as well as a memoir. Do you have a preference for a particular age group? Does a specific theme seem to weave its way into works for one age versus another? What do you see as the difference between writing in each genre?
A. I love writing for children and teens, mostly because I always feel that is such an important time in a reader’s life. What you read at that point forms who you are as a reader. Each book comes to me as an adult novel or a children’s novel or a teen book or nonfiction. Some work comes to me as stories, other as novels. My themes are always the same: Love, loss, and survivorship. But the way I write about these themes differs, depending on the book.
Q. Of your writing, do you have a favorite work? Is there one character whose story you’d like to return to?
A. I often miss characters when a book is written. I have missed Rachel Pizzarro greatly. I often think she is the sort of woman I wish I could be. I’ve thought it might be interesting to know more about the world of
Practical Magic
. And I’ve just written a children’s book called
Nightbird,
and I very much miss the town of Sidwell, Massachusetts, that I imagined.
Q. Jewish life and history play a major role in your novels. What draws you to exploring Jewish themes?
A. For me, the Jewish themes very much related to my grandmothers and to their stories and to their struggles. It’s part of telling the story that hasn’t been told. I’ve enjoyed learning more about my own history and culture.
Q. To further the above question, your publisher said that you consider
The Marriage of Opposites
the “story of the ultimate Jewish mother.” Both Rachel and Madame Pomié are intense mothers. Are they modeled after anyone in your own life?
A. Rachel Pizzarro has something of a bad reputation, as being bossy and controlling, which is the stereotype of the “Jewish mother.” I wanted to explore this and understand what it is to be a mother in a dangerous world where you are an outsider and your ultimate goal is to protect your children no matter the cost. Again, my grandmothers were the model for women who would do anything for their children.
Q. Could you describe when and where you like to write? What does your desk look like?
A. I have to say, I don’t have a desk. I write wherever I am, whenever I can. Noise doesn’t bother me, and I prefer not to have a window, which would distract me. I write the way I read—on a couch, in a bed, on a train.
Q. In a 2013 interview with
Writer
magazine, you said, “The idea of magic and reality intertwined is really appealing to me. I lived in a working-class suburb in Long Island, right over the border from Queens, so it was very gritty. Every house was the same. There were no trees. It was neither here nor there. It was the least magical place. And yet it felt magical. If you can view that place with magic, any place can be filled with magic.” Are there any magical stories, histories, or eras that you haven’t yet explored in a novel that you’re interested in researching one day?
A. For me, magic is a part of every story. It is the original story—myth and fairytale— and I can’t imagine writing without some element of magic being a part of my work.
Q. We’ve read that some of your favorite authors include Emily Brontë, Toni Morrison, and Ursula LeGuin, among many others. Of your favorite books, is there one in particular you wish you’d written? Is there one particular book you return to often?
A. I love those authors. Toni Morrison is the greatest living author and I admire her more than any other writer. I am an Emily Brontë fanatic—for me, Wuthering Heights is the greatest psychological novel ever written. And as a fan of fantasy and science fiction, I have to say LeGuin transcends all genre writing—her worlds are astounding. I also often go back to childhood authors that meant so much to me, especially Ray Bradbury, who taught me so much about what it means to be a writer, and what it means to be human.
Q. Are you working on anything new? Is there anything you can share with us?
A. My next novel is something completely different—modern, edgy, set in New York, with a character named Shelby who is desperately trying to find her place in the world.
© DEBORAH FEINGOLD
ALICE HOFFMAN
is the author of more than thirty works of fiction, including
Practical Magic, The Red Garden
, the Oprah’s Book Club Selection
Here on Earth, The Museum of Extraordinary Things,
and
The Dovekeepers.
She lives near Boston.
MEET THE AUTHORS, WATCH VIDEOS AND MORE AT
authors.simonandschuster.com/Alice-Hoffman
ALSO BY ALICE HOFFMAN
The Museum of Extraordinary Things
The Dovekeepers
The Red Garden
The Story Sisters
The Third Angel
Skylight Confessions
The Ice Queen
Blackbird House
The Probable Future
Blue Diary
The River King
Local Girls
Here on Earth
Practical Magic
Second Nature
Turtle Moon
Seventh Heaven
At Risk
Illumination Night
Fortune’s Daughter
White Horses
Angel Landing
The Drowning Season
Property Of
YOUNG ADULT NOVELS
Nightbird
Green Heart: Green Angel & Green Witch
Green Witch
Incantation
The Foretelling
Green Angel
Water Tales: Aquamarine & Indigo
Indigo
Aquamarine
NONFICTION
Survival Lessons
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Bibliography
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Pissarro’s People
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Cohen, Judah M.
Through the Sands of Time: A History of the Jewish Community of St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands
. Waltham, MA: Brandeis University Press, 2003.
Gjessing, Frederik C., and William P. Maclean.
Historic Buildings of St Thomas and St John
. London: The Macmillan Press LTD, 1987.
Lloyd, Christopher.
Pissarro
. New York: Phaidon, 1979.
Rachum, Stephanie. “Camille Pissarro’s Jewish Identity.” Tel Aviv University,
Assaph
5 (2000): 3–29.
Raffaele, Herbert, et al.
Birds of the West Indies
. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2003.
Rewald, John, ed.
Camille Pissarro: Letters to His Son Lucien
. Boston: MFA Publications, 1958.
Roe, Sue.
The Private Lives of the Impressionists
. New York: HarperCollins, 2006.
Sherlock, Philip.
West Indian Folk-tales
. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1966.
Thorold, Anne, and Kristen Erickson.
C. Pissarro and His Family
. Oxford, UK: Ashmolean Museum, 1993.
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
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