The Book of Why (23 page)

1. In what ways is
   The Book of Why
   an unconventional love story? 
   
2. Did you finish
   The Book of Why
   believing that love really is a matter of fate? 
   
3. Do you believe that Gloria Foster is the reincarnation of Eric's wife? 
   
4. Why does Eric call
   The Book of Why
   “an apology”? Is Eric to blame, even in part, for his wife's death? 
   
5. Did you read the ending of the novel as hopeful or tragic? 
   
6. At the end, when Eric says goodbye to Gloria Foster (and perhaps to Cary), what do you imagine will happen to him? 
   
7. Were you surprised that Eric and Sam do not become romantically involved? Why do you think Eric resists this opportunity? 
   
8. Do you think there's some truth to Eric's beliefs, or do you see him as an impressionable man who assigns too much meaning to coincidences? 
   
9. Eric's belief system changes several times throughout the novel. What does he believe at the end of the novel? 
   
10. To what extent do you believe in the law of attraction and the power of intention? Do you believe that thoughts affect reality? Do you believe that the human mind has the power to cure illness? Has this novel changed your opinion? 
    
11. Early in the novel Eric writes, “This is a self-help book.” Do you agree with him? 
    
12. Why do you think Eric ends his story the way he does—with a long list of advice from self-help books? 
    

What kind of research did you have to do in order to capture the voice of a self-help author and inspirational speaker? What kinds of self-help books did you read? Did you go to see inspirational speakers as part of your research
?

I was reading self-help books long before I had the idea to write this novel. I read a lot of Wayne Dyer, who influenced the character of Eric Newborn more than any other inspirational speaker. I even went to hear him speak, and he was great. I don't agree with everything he says, but I admire him a lot.

Self-help books can be easy targets for ridicule because many seem to promote quick, easy fixes and are filled with treacle. What's your view of self-help books and the self-help industry?

 

Some are silly, and some promise things they can't deliver, so they're selling false hope, but there
are
some really helpful self-help books. There are so many self-help books and so many people reading them, and this tells me that people are out there looking for help—for answers. I feel compassion for anyone trying to improve their lives.

Are there any self-help or inspirational books you've read that you've found useful and would recommend to readers?

 

The Five Things We Cannot Change: And the Happiness We Find by Embracing Them
by David Richo stands out from most self-help books I've read—and I've read many—because it's realistic. It recognizes that life isn't always fair, that we suffer, and that everything changes, but that we might find peace by accepting these truths. It's a brave, wise, and compassionate book. Most recently, I've fallen in love with Pema Chödrön's books, especially
Taking the Leap
,
When Things Fall Apart
,
and
The Wisdom of No Escape
. She's writing from the Buddhist tradition, so her books are about the practice of mindfulness and trying to accept or even embrace whatever happens.

Eric Newborn, the narrator of
The Book of Why,
believes that the mind can create and cure disease. By the end of the novel, Eric comes to believe something different. What's your take on this controversial issue?

 

There's no question that our thoughts can affect our health—for better and for worse. Stress can contribute to high blood pressure—that's an easy example. Maybe some people have cured disease with positive thinking, who knows, but I think it's risky, even irresponsible, not to try more traditional medical treatment. People, especially in frightening and painful situations, look for help anywhere there's even a glimmer of hope, and I sympathize with that urge.

Eric believes, at least early in his career, that there are no such things as accidents—everything happens for a reason. There are coincidences in the novel that are either signs of synchronicity or signs of Eric's desire for synchronicity. This is another potentially controversial issue, and I'm wondering what you believe about this.

I'm a storyteller, so I'm interested in how we organize our lives into meaningful narratives. Maybe that makes me extra sensitive to what most people would consider coincidences. Sometimes I believe that there's an order to the universe, a reason behind everything that happens, but other times, especially when faced with tragedy, it's hard to make that case. Most of us want to believe that our lives aren't merely a series of random events. I'm not sure what to believe, but some things have happened to me that I have a hard time calling coincidences.

Without giving too much away, I want to ask you about reincarnation, which plays a role in
The Book of Why.
Your novel presents the possibility that one character may be the reincarnation of another character. What kind of research did you do about reincarnation? Do you believe in the possibility of reincarnation?

I've read a lot about reincarnation, and the cases seem within the realm of possibility. I've tried past-life regression—individual sessions with a regression therapist and a group session with Brian Weiss, a bestselling author and expert in reincarnation. Those were interesting experiences, but I remained where I am—in this life. Even if we've had previous lives and will have future lives, this is the only one that matters to me.

There's been a backlash against positive thinking—recent books like
The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking
and
Bright-Sided: How Positive Thinking Is Undermining America.
In what ways do you see
The Book of Why
as in conversation with these books?

The Book of Why
raises similar questions about positive thinking and the desire for happiness, but allows characters to play them out.
The Book of Why
is way more about questions than answers. My hope is that the novel will evoke compassion—maybe in a way these books don't—for the understandable desire people have to feel happy and safe in a sometimes frightening world.

How do you balance teaching and writing? Do you find that one informs the other? How?

Being a college professor gives me more time to write than any other job I could imagine, and I'm grateful for that, but I'm a writer before all else. Teaching is a job—a very good one—but writing is a practice, a calling. I schedule my classes in the afternoon and keep mornings sacred—writing only. My passion for writing is a big part of what makes me a good teacher. And teaching makes me a better writer because I get to reread and study my favorite stories in a way I might not if I weren't preparing for class.

Which authors have most influenced your work? Why?

Many of my favorite books—
Jesus' Son, Where I'm Calling From, A Streetcar Named Desire
—didn't influence my work in ways that I can see, except that they inspired me and raised the bar very high.
To the Lighthouse,
the third time I read it, changed the way I went about writing; it made it clear to me that the sound of prose matters and creates meaning just as much as story. But if I had to pick one book that has had the most influence on my own work, it's
The Things They Carried
by Tim O'Brien. Its prose is graceful and visceral without showing off. Its form—hybrid novel/story collection—is innovative. It manages to be sincere without being sentimental. And it explores important questions about truth and story-truth—questions that are important to me.

What advice would you give to writers just starting out?

Discover what you do well as a writer, what only
you
can do, and do that. Don't write stories someone else could tell just as well as you. Don't waste time writing about anything other than what's most important to you. Focus on the work, one sentence at a time, and avoid worrying about outcome. You may not be able to control whether you publish or win awards or make a living from your writing, but you can control the work.

What are you working on now?

I'm just finishing a new short-story collection called
Like Love Lust,
which explores love, desire, obsession, and addiction. And I'm several hundred pages into a new novel,
The Senator's Children,
about a former senator and presidential candidate whose career and marriage end in scandal.