emerging creativity

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Login |
Signup

Launch Radio

Sittenfeld, Jo

Article Tools
print
email
share
- Del.icio.us
- Digg
- reddit
- Facebook
- Newsvine
- Permalink
save

Curtis Sittenfeld Issue #28

Older and wiser, the Prep author graduates from all the debut-novelist hype with a second novel, hard-earned experiences on the unspoken rules of publishing, and more thoughts on chick lit

By Ling Ma
Published: June 1st, 2006 | 12:00am

Here’s a list of not-so-legitimate words I’m embarrassed to have used while talking to novelist Curtis Sittenfeld over the phone: “canoodling,” “catfight-y,” and the overuse of “like,” among others. It’s an annotated list. That’s because Sittenfeld (first name’s actually Elizabeth, but she goes by Curtis) is just as easily articulate in conversation as the acutely observant writing in her novels suggest.

Her best-selling 2005 debut novel, Prep, featured the self-analytical monologue of an ordinary Midwestern teen Lee Fiora through her four years at an elite East coast prep school. It beguiled critics with its clairvoyant observations of social nuances and intricate portrayal of internalized angst. Sittenfeld’s follow-up novel, The Man of My Dreams, also focuses on another female character, chronicling the love life of Hannah Gavener through decades of relationships, happenstance encounters, and obsessions.

In between novels, Sittenfeld caused a minor ripple in the blogosphere with her unfavorable New York Times book review of beloved author Melissa Bank’s The Wonder Spot. The review’s oft-quoted first line (“To suggest that another woman's ostensibly literary novel is chick lit feels catty, not unlike calling another woman a slut — doesn't the term basically bring down all of us?”) triggered an ensuing fracas over the literary hierarchical implications of the chick lit label.

Taking a break from her reading on a Monday afternoon in March at her Washington, D.C., home, Sittenfeld reflects on her two novels, appropriate writerly activities, and what exactly is chick lit, anyway?

How do you work as a writer? Do you, you know, write a sentence and then smoke a cigarette?
[Laughs] No, I never smoke a cigarette. While writing, or otherwise. I would say it really depends what I’m working on, and it differs from day to day. My ideal, which I don’t always fulfill, would be to write everyday from maybe 10 to one, then have some healthy lunch with alfalfa sprouts or something. [Laughs]That’s not what I usually do.
Wasn’t part of The Man of my Dreams published earlier? The part where Hannah is working at her internship and she goes to this mid-day party with her co-workers?
Uh-huh. It was kind of different, but yeah, it was published earlier.
So what was the initial idea that got you putting this final draft together?
It changed over time, because I worked on it over a period of a lot of years. But I think, the [section] that you’re talking about — which again is different in the novel — I had the idea that I wanted to think about people interacting in a way where their relationship to each other would change in a very short period of time. Like over a few hours, people who already know each other would see this different side of each other, if that makes sense. So people who know each other from the office find themselves in this social situation where they’re drinking heavily, and how does that fit their relationship.

And then once I had written that section, I still felt interested in Hannah as a character. I felt like, “What has happened to her before this and what happens to her afterwards?” I just kind of kept expanding it that way. It’s kind of like roots or something, the roots of a tree going off in different directions.
Can you compare your experience writing in the first person, as with Prep, and writing in the third person, as with The Man of My Dreams?
As a writer when I’m choosing which perspective to write from, which point of view, I just go with whichever one feels right. But I think when you’re writing from the first person, it’s almost like you’re picturing yourself as the character and how the world looks from the character’s eyes. And then writing in the third person, you feel almost like you’re writing about a person. You’re not inhabiting that person in the same way.
So from that stance, did you feel closer to Lee than you did to Hannah in using the two different formats?
Yeah, because of the experience of writing from [Lee’s] perspective, I do feel closer to her as a character. I mean, I’m not a writer who has particularly romantic ideas about my own writing. To me, Hannah and Lee do not exist. They’re made up, you know? It’s [not like], “Oh Hannah would want this!” Or you know, “Lee and I were on vacation!” I don’t really think in those terms.
When I first read Prep, I found it almost therapeutic [laughs]. I’m sure others have also told you similar things. What do you think it means that so many people relate so closely to a character who’s just a high school teenager?
[Laughs]We all have some inner teenager inside us still. I have to say, I get very mixed reactions about Prep where some people really love it and some people hate it. … I do think there are people who are like, “Oh my god! [Lee’s] so neurotic, she’s so self-conscious. She’s, like, paralyzed and she never does anything and she’s so frustrating and I hate her more than I’ve ever hated any character.” It sort of depends where you’re coming from.
I was disappointed by some of the reactions to your NYT review of The Wonder Spot. It felt catfight-y to me.
Well, I have to say after I became aware of the backlash, I did think, “OK, is it possible I wrote the meanest and harshest review ever published in NYT?” Then I started paying attention and every single week there are reviews that were the same level of unfavorable. And again, I have no ill will towards Melissa Bank whatsoever. I felt like I was critiquing a piece of writing and I was being sincere.

One lesson I’ve learned about publishing is that sometimes honesty isn’t the best policy. I had one writer tell me — she’s done reviews — that when she gets a book she doesn’t like, instead of going through with the review she just sends it back to the editor. So I do I feel like to some extent I broke a rule of review or of publishing, or that was how it was perceived, as much as anything else.
It’s pretty apt that you just happen to be featured in this upcoming anthology called This is Not Chick Lit!
[Laughs] It is kind of, it’s funny. Because there have been some touchy feelings about that title too. Part of the reason that “chick lit” is an incendiary term is I don’t think there’s a consensus on what it means, and so it’s confusing. Some people would think that it’s kind of a factual assessment, like this plus this plus this equals chick lit. Some people feel like it’s more of a subjective assessment. And so sometimes it’s used as a term to promote a book, sometimes it’s used as a sort of slur. But you don’t know. It’s almost like [the term] “feminist.” You know, where someone can say that as an insult or as a compliment, it just depends on context.
Is there anything that you’re particularly self-conscious about in regards to your writing?
Of course, I look back on so much of my writing and think, “That’s absolutely horrible. Who wrote that?” So yes, absolutely. All the time!
What are your favorite words?
[Laughs] I like the word “delightful.” I don’t think that’s a word I would use in fiction. I might use it in dialogue, like if it was sort of a cheesy person or something. [Laughs] But in real life I am a kind of cheesy person, so I would probably use it.