By the Book (46 page)

For years, I have been heralding the work of Rabih Alameddine, a Lebanese-American writer. His prose is gorgeous, his approach irreverent, and the ideas in his stories are sometimes comical or fantastical, but always deadly serious—very relevant to understanding the complex history behind multiple holy wars today. In Italy and Spain, his books are best sellers. He has full-page profiles in major newspapers, has garnered prizes, is a darling of literary festivals, and has won acclaim from international writers. In the United States, he's hardly known. Why is there a geographic divide in literary appreciation?

What kinds of stories are you drawn to? Any you steer clear of?

I'm open to reading almost anything—fiction, nonfiction—as long as I know from the first sentence or two that this is a voice I want to listen to for a good long while. It has much to do with imagery and language, a particular perspective, the assured knowledge of the particular universe the writer has created.

I don't steer clear of genres. I simply haven't steered myself toward some of them. I haven't sought out much science fiction since the days when my husband and I read aloud H. P. Lovecraft while sitting around the campfire on backpacking trips. In those days, I would also read aloud gruesome passages from
Bear Attacks
. We enjoyed scaring ourselves witless in the wilderness, where there were, in fact, many bears. These days, I simply read the news and all the horror stories about the House of Representatives.

What books might we be surprised to find on your shelves?

A lot of books on animal cognition and behavior—crows, ravens, dogs, and even ants. I'm a sucker for dog training books as well. And I collect antiquarian books on biology. One is a four-volume set,
The Science of Life
, by sci-fi writer H. G. Wells; his son G. P. Wells; and Julian Huxley, a biologist and also a prominent eugenicist.

What's the best book you've ever received as a gift?

On December 7, 1999, I left the bedside of my editor Faith Sale, just before she was removed from life support. We had been like sisters. Two hours later, Stephen King called and asked my husband, Lou, and me to meet him at his hotel room. It was his first public foray after being nearly killed by a van six months before. He gave me an advance reading copy of
On Writing
. A couple of years before, we had talked about the question no one asks us in interviews: language. He had been thinking of doing a book on writing, and I had said, “Do it.” He now asked me to look at the dedication. It was for me. We then went to see the premiere of
The Green Mile
, about a man on death row who can heal people, including those dying of cancer. That night was both enormously sad and gloriously uplifting.

What book has had the greatest impact on you?

Probably the Bible. My father was a minister, and I heard verses every day. I memorized big whacks of passages to earn progressive levels of pins. The repetitive rhythms of the Bible were inscribed in my writing brain from childhood. (And it may account for my tendency to start sentences with “and.”) Many of my stories also relate to undoing handed-down beliefs, whether they come from religion, society, or mothers. And my writing sensibility was also warped by a steady dose of gothic imagery, often related to religious sins or virtue: David braining Goliath, Samson's bloody head missing a lock of hair, a stinking corpse arising to be kissed by relatives.

If you could require the president to read one book, what would it be?

I would never require anyone to read any book. That seems antithetical to why we read—which is to choose a book for our personal reasons. I always shudder when I'm told my books are on required reading lists.

Did you grow up with a lot of books? What are your memories of being read to as a child?

Books were luxuries. We had the
World Book Encyclopedia
, donated Reader's Digest Condensed Books, inspirational books by Billy Graham, Bibles in foreign languages, and my favorite, a book on a high shelf called
Psychopathia Sexualis
. One Christmas I received an Italian book of Chinese fairy tales. All the sages, gods, and mortals looked like Italian movie actors and actresses. I recently unearthed it.

My mother and father didn't read fiction books, at least not in English. But for one year, my father read to my brothers and me bedtime stories, a page a night from a book called
365 Stories
, covering the daily life of happy American kids with minor dilemmas. The fiction books I read on my own came from the library. From the age of six, I carefully chose five or six every two weeks, working my way through the ones I could reach on progressively higher shelves. Fairy tales were favorites. I crossed a threshold of reader pride after finishing
To Kill a Mockingbird
. And I made it a point to read banned books, like
The Catcher in the Rye
, which led to counseling sessions with a youth minister, who told me such books would give me sinful feelings. That incident solidified feelings I have about the power of books and one's helplessness without them.

Do you have a favorite childhood literary character or hero?

Jane Eyre remains a favorite. Her truthfulness sometimes made me laugh. And her loneliness and need to make her own way mirrored my feelings. The Little Prince is another lost soul I clung to. Pippi Longstocking was a bit too cheerful.

Which writers inspire you?

When I first started writing short stories, I read collections by Amy Hempel, Mavis Gallant, Alice Munro, Molly Giles, Flannery O'Connor, Eudora Welty, Richard Ford, Mary Robison, Chekhov, and many others. And then I read Louise Erdrich's
Love Medicine
, with its strong multiple voices. The stories were bound by community and mutual loss. That later became a model for the structure of
The Joy Luck Club
.

These days, any book that astonishes me can either inspire me or make me feel I should give up writing. Coetzee's
Disgrace
made me feel the latter.

If you could meet any writer, dead or alive, who would it be? What would you want to know?

Emily Dickinson. I would be her nursemaid, her quiet companion on walks in the woods. I imagine that anything she spotted—feathers, tea leaves, a hole in a fence—would lead her to utter something profound about human emotions in a lifetime of expectation.

If you could meet any character from literature, who would it be?

I would not want characters to come to my world. They'd lose their special qualities, the perfect amount of what I should know about them. On the other hand, I could go to theirs because they would not have any preconceptions of who I was. I'd like to hang out with the Cheshire cat, learn how to disappear, and speak in smart illogic. He would look exactly like his pen-and-ink illustration by Tenniel. I'd be rendered in pen and ink, too. That would be required for entering a pen-and-ink world with its particular dimensional strangeness.

Do you miss playing with your old band, the Rock Bottom Remainders?

I deeply miss our founder, Kathi Kamen Goldmark. But I have a feeling the Remainders will go on like the sequels of novels. We are already banding together at the Miami Book Fair to do our first annual reunion.

What's next on your reading list?

I've just started two books. One is dark,
Weights and Measures
, by Joseph Roth. It fits the mood of what I feel is happening in the United States—the dangerous shifts, the disintegration of what held the country together, the moral demise of politicians, moneylenders, and heroes.

The other is more hopeful:
My Beloved World
, by Sonia Sotomayor. I'm grateful for her wisdom and compassion on the Supreme Court. In June, Justice Sotomayor invited my husband and me to have a private lunch with her in her chambers. This was right when the justices began deliberations over the major cases. We talked about our mothers' fears, about publishing, translations, snorkeling, adopted kids, and cultural self-identification—all sorts of things, except the cases. I've read the first ten pages of her memoir and know already that it's like a continuation of the conversation we had.

Amy Tan
is the author of
The Joy Luck Club
,
The Kitchen God's Wife
,
The Hundred Secret Senses
,
The Bonesetter's Daughter
,
Saving Fish from Drowning
, and
The
Valley of Amazement
, among other books.

Bryan Cranston

What's the best book you've read so far this year?

Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream
, by Doris Kearns Goodwin. Real insight on the thirty-sixth president from someone who knew him well.

Describe your ideal reading experience (when, where, what, how).

While shooting in Portland, Oregon, I got the pleasure of discovering Powell's Books, an enormous old bookstore (which I hope still exists) and stayed there the entire day. I just curled up in a comfy chair and read. They had a cafe in the store that I frequented. What joy. I suppose it helped that it was a rainy day. Rain creates a Pavlovian response in me to relax with a good book. I find that peace at our beach house, and created a cozy nook just for that purpose. I admit that I am driven to work and have to remind myself that reading is not an indulgence or a luxury. I have to improve that aspect of my life.

You recently recorded the audiobook version of Tim O'Brien's
The Things They Carried
. Are you a fan of the book? Did performing it aloud change your perception of it?

The main reason I agreed to do the audiobook was because I had wanted to read that book and never got around to it. So I thought, why not commit to this and then I will be guaranteed to read it? These questions have exposed an uncomfortable condition, in which I can make time for reading books if it's “work related” but not for just my own personal pleasure.… I need to see a shrink.

What was the experience of recording a book like for you? How was it different from the theater, film, and television work you've done?

I found narrating an audiobook very challenging, a task exacerbated by my suspected—but undiagnosed—mild dyslexia. Still, the experience was rewarding for the discovery that one, I did it; and two, that I won't do another one; and three, that the strength of the story got me through the long recording sessions. It's a real talent to convey emotions through your vocal choices and it takes real stamina. There are far better actors doing that work than myself.

Do you draw inspiration for your theater, television, and film projects from the books you read?

A) Yes. The three main tools in an actor's toolbox are personal experience, research, and imagination. Richly drawn literary characters plant seeds in our brains for future reference. When developing a character we will unwittingly pull from those memories to form a whole character.… Then we selfishly claim them as original.

B) And vice versa. Anna Gunn, my wife on
Breaking Bad
, gave me a beautiful hardcover of
The Dangerous Book for Boys
. A perfect book to flip through to get back in touch with the little boy within. It inspired me to create a concept for a TV show.… Stay tuned.

You recently portrayed Lyndon Johnson at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge in the play
All the Way
, a production that is headed for Broadway. Did you read any books on Johnson, aside, I presume, from Doris Kearns Goodwin, to prepare for the role? What books in particular informed your portrayal?

In addition to Goodwin's book, I plunged into Robert Caro's
Master of the Senate
, Mark Updegrove's
Indomitable Will
, and Michael Beschloss's
Taking Charge
. And I must admit being curious about the new book, Roger Stone's
The Man Who Killed Kennedy: The Case Against LBJ
, but I think I'll save that for after the run of the play.

Of all the characters you've played across different media, which role felt to you the richest—the most, perhaps, novelistic?

Breaking Bad
's Walter White. The depth of this tragic story made it feel like the character reached Shakespearean level.

What kinds of stories are you drawn to? Any you steer clear of?

I like mysteries, thrillers, and adventures best. I haven't been interested in very many science fiction novels.

What books might we be surprised to find on your shelves?

After my confession of not being attracted to sci-fi, one might be surprised to see the collection of Philip K. Dick's short stories. Love those.