The Sincerest Form of Flattery
I've always wanted to write and, immodest though it may be, always considered myself a fairly good writer. Much as I might yearn to be a novelist, however, fiction has never been my strong suit. When I say that I consider myself a good writer, I mean it in a purely mechanical sense. That is, I have a wide vocabulary, strong spelling skills, and an almost obsessive love of grammar. The heart-and-soul part? Well, I'm not so good with that. Should I ever lose my self-consciousness sufficiently to be able to write a novel, though, I know exactly the kind of fiction I would write. I would write a book about ordinary people and the extraordinary things that happen in ordinary lives. I would write the kind of modern fiction that is so expertly crafted by the following women, some of my favorite writers.
First, Rosellen Brown, who wrote what is probably my favorite work of fiction, a beautiful book called Civil Wars. I discovered this book when I worked at a local public library during my college years, and I've read it countless times. Nobody I know seems to have read it, which I always find somewhat dismaying. It's one of those rare books that truly changed my life and my perceptions about so many things. If I had to recommend one single novel as a "must-read," Civil Wars would be it.
Rosellen Brown is also the author of a number of other books, short stories, and poems, including Before and After, a chilling novel that was made into a film that had no chance of doing it justice. If you've seen the movie and think you know the story, trust me when I say that you don't. I've read the book a couple of times and it always leaves me unsettled, but never sorry that I picked it up.
Another of my favorite writers is Alice Hoffman. I've read maybe half of her novels--or perhaps even less, she's very prolific--and it seems that each one is better than the last. Her characters are always a little "out there" and her storylines often stretch the imagination a bit, but the overall result is captivating. My favorite is Second Nature, a fairly dark book that offers enough glimmers of hope so as not to be a total downer. I also especially like Practical Magic (another one not to be judged by the movie it inspired), a book with a light-hearted veneer that barely covers a much deeper look into the human spirit.
Sue Miller is another who springs immediately to mind when I consider the kind of writer I'd like to be. Her debut novel, the startling and disconcerting The Good Mother is is one of those books that stays with the reader for a lifetime. Also outstanding are Family Pictures and While I Was Gone, both books that have burrowed into my subconscious and jump out at me when I least expect it. Miller has also published numerous outstanding short stories, among them Inventing the Abbots (finally one that was made into a good movie). The Los Angeles Times Book Review has written about Miller that "[t]here is a certain kind of knowledge that we reach only through a certain kind of fiction: fiction so rich, so thoughtful, so absorbing that reading it is like experiencing the passage in our own lives." To my mind that assessment is right on the money.
Last, but most certainly not least on my list, is Anne Tyler. When I was preparing for a three-week trip abroad in my junior year of college, I didn't want to risk being caught without something to read so I bought a hardbound collection of four Anne Tyler novels to take along with me. I'd never read any of her books, despite growing up in a household with plenty of them on the shelves, and I didn't know what to expect from them. The first one I read was Morgan's Passing, and it remains my sentimental favorite. Up next was Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant a book that is painfully bleak at times, but about which I cannot rave enough. Rounding out the collection were If Morning Ever Comes and The Tin Can Tree, two good but unbearably sad books that I had the heart to read only once apiece.
Tyler's characters are often described as "quirky," which they are, but what I love most about them is that they're so real. She understands and captures human nature in a way that leaves me wishing I had written such truth myself. She won the Pulitzer Prize for her novel Breathing Lessons, and while I think she deserved the honor, I don't think it's her best book. If you've never read Anne Tyler, save that one for later and start out with The Accidental Tourist or Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant. I'm betting you'll go back for more.