132,585
edits
Changes
The Interview: Bookbag Talks To Melissa Leet (view source)
Revision as of 16:22, 29 August 2020
, 16:22, 29 August 2020no edit summary
* '''Bookbag: When you close your eyes and imagine your readers, who do you see?'''
Melissa Leet: When I close my eyes, I see most the expressions of my family and friends as they tell me what they liked (and disliked) about the novel. Eyes closed, I feel again the unexpectedness of having them share their interpretation of a passages passage from angles that I had never considered.
* '''BB: What inspired you to write ''Landslide''?'''
ML: I write to explore questions that are preoccupying me. In ''Landslide’s'' case, I consider the nature of resilience after catastrophic loss. By the time I started the novel, my mom and three close friends had died. My husband had also battled cancer. Before death (or hardship) came again -as it inevitably would given our aging ageing parents - I wanted to understand what death meant to me personally. While writing Landslide, we have lost two additional friends, and my husband’s entire nuclear family - father, mother and sister - all gone. While writing Landslide did not stop the pain of the subsequent passings, I believe it did help me face death with greater grace, presence and love.
* '''BB: When I finished reading ''Landslide'' I came to the conclusion that it wasn't only in your characters' lives, but in everyone's, that we have a series of ''before and after'' events which come to define us. What do you feel has defined your life?'''
ML: I would say that both my husband and my children most define my life. In terms of before-and-after events, my husband’s cancer probably impacted our lives even more than the death of those whom we loved. My husband was diagnosed when my first two children were 15 months and three weeks old, and he was ill for many years.
* '''BB: How much of you is there in Jill and Susie? Did you ever feel any guilt about all the tragedy you heaped onto Jill's shoulders?'''
ML: What Jill and Susie express best is how important friendship is to me. I’m lucky to have amazing friends who are wit, wisdom, intelligence and goodness in real live human form.
* '''BB: 5. Did you ever feel any guilt about all the tragedy you heaped onto Jill’s shoulders?
ML: It is true that in ''Landslide'' Jill experiences unimaginable heartbreak - landslides altering Jill’s life again and again. While writing Jill’s reactions to such tragedy, I discovered Jill’s persistent optimism. Because of this optimism, I have never felt guilty about challenging Jill so aggressively. Instead, by moving Jill through the hardship, I have seen Jill discover her resilience. I have also seen Jill realize that sometimes death opens paths as wondrous as those found in life.
* '''BB: I loved the way that the story cross-cuts between Jill and Susie's childhoods and adult lives. How did you come to the conclusion that the story needed to be told in this way?'''
ML: I wrote about Jill’s childhood because I wanted to understand how early hardship reverberates throughout one’s life. I felt that alternating between Jill’s childhood and adult life helped to keep the plot dynamic.