Jo Sittenfeld
Curtis Sittenfeld
Older and wiser, the author of Prep graduates from all the debut-novelist hype with a second book
By Ling Ma
Published: June 26th, 2006 | 2:30pm
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 portrayals of internalized angst. Sittenfeld's follow-up novel, The Man of My Dreams, also focuses on a female character, chronicling the love life of Hannah Gavener through decades of relationships, happenstance encounters, and obsessions.
The following is a compilation of previously unpublished excerpts from the interview in issue No. 28.
STORIES IN RETROSPECT
In both Prep and The Man of My Dreams, the story is narrated in retrospect. I don't mean the use of the past tense, but there are these periodic instances when the narrator recedes back from the moment to fast-forward to what happens to a certain character in the future. Why did you choose this device for both novels? What kind of effect were you going for?
Well, I just think it's sort of almost curiosity about a character, where you kind of want to know what happens in certain ways. Or, how does this incident that occurred in the chapter that you just read — how does that stay with the character or not stay with the character in the months or years to come?
HANNAH AND LEE
How would you compare Lee from Prep and Hannah from The Man of My Dreams?
I think that you see [that] the reader sees a lot more of Hannah, or sees her over a much longer period of time. Prep covers four years basically, and The Man of My Dreams covers 14. And I think that Hannah has a chance to mature in certain ways that poor Lee doesn't. You're right that it's told, her story is told, in retrospective — that you know that she becomes an adult. But you get a very limited view of her adult life. Whereas you know the reader goes with Hannah into her mind too late [into her] 20s. So I think that you get to see Hannah learn from her mistakes more on the page. Whereas you just have to kind of give Lee the benefit of the doubt and assume that she does.
CLIMATIC MOMENTS AND ENDINGS
I do have one question at the end of Prep. It's almost the last part, and Lee fast-forwards time to tell how the different characters end up as adults: like their occupation, what city they live in, etc. But there's not that kind of summarizing for Lee. How do you think she ends up?
[Laughs]. Well, the reason that I didn't include more specific details about Lee's adult life —
— It's a mystery, right?—
— is that I wanted the reader to decide how she turns out and to decide whether her boarding-school experience is a big deal or not. And some people think Prep has a really unhappy ending and that she's kind of corrupted by the boarding-school system and ends up kind of miserable and insecure. And other people think, “No, it's actually a happy kind of ending, because she eventually realizes how inconsequential her high school experience is.” And I tend to agree with the latter interpretation. So it was a conscious choice not to say what happens. It just seems like the reader can imagine something more interesting and that, I don't know, you maybe throw away a little mystery if Lee just says, "Now I live outside Detroit and I have a little toddler and my husband is a middle manager at an office and I work part time." [Laughs] I just think it's more interesting to leave the options open for Lee.
A common criticism about Prep is that it lacks a climax, or I guess a very obvious or overt climax. Like, Lee doesn't have this big epiphany that absolves all her self-consciousness or puts her life at all in perspective. I really like that lack of grandiose resolution; it feels true to life to me. But if you were to pinpoint the climatic moment in Prep, what would you say it is?
I would say it's her conversation with Cross [Lee’s longtime crush] in the gym where she basically, you know, expresses herself with greater honesty to this person who matters to her a lot, than she ever has before. And then I think, to a lesser extent, the publication of the New York Times article I see [that] as sort of climatic, where she's this person who's obsessed with how she's perceived by other people, and she kind of loses control over that in a very public way. So in fact [laughs], while many people think that there are zero climaxes in the big [sense], I think there are two! It just depends on your perspective.
I was going to ask the same question about The Man of My Dreams. If you had to pinpoint a climatic moment in the novel, what would you say it was? — without giving too much away to the reader.
That's an interesting question. I don't know if I think… I mean I think that some people feel frustrated that in Prep Lee doesn't change more over the course of the book. And I think that Hannah does change, but it's pretty gradual. So I would say maybe some of her sort of late interactions with Henry could be interpreted as climatic.
THE ROUTINE OF WRITING
How have your ideas about writing changed since you won the Seventeen fiction contest when you were 16 to now, when you’re releasing your second novel?
I think that my ideas have probably become more, sort of, matter-of-fact. One of my teachers when I was in graduate school was Frank Conroy. I don't want to get his wording wrong, but he would say something like, "It's not about the product; it's about the process." And you know, you write day in and day out. And maybe sometimes it goes well and sometimes it doesn't go well. But it's who you are, and it's the way that you see the world. I think that it can be frustrating, but it's also where the greatest satisfaction is in writing. Don't get me wrong, it's nice to have public affirmation, but I don't think that's the reason that… well, I was going to say I don't think that's the reason you become a writer, but that's the reason some people become writers! [Laughs]
But I think that nothing is ever more satisfying than feeling immersed in your work and feeling like you're achieving something that you're trying to achieve, or you're able to say something that you're trying to say. And that everything else is sort of secondary and you can't control it anyway; you know, in terms of reviews and publicity and sales.
FAVORITE WORDS
What are your favorite words?
[Laughs] I like the word "delightful."
Delightful. Any particular reason?
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.
THE THIRD NOVEL
Do you feel like you have to push yourself toward writing your third novel?
Well, OK, my publisher Random House bought Prep in June 2003. They held onto it and didn't publish it until January 2005. And so it's not as if I wrote The Man of My Dreams as quickly as it might appear I did. But at the same time, the time since the year since Prep came out, has been hectic and draining for me. So I feel a little bit like, you know, [I’m] recovering from that. And I don't really want to push myself to write a novel that I don't have the appropriate energy for. Do you know what I mean? Like, I want to feel really excited about it and not like I'm only meeting a deadline. And I think there's a balance you have to strike where sometimes you can't wait for the muse, you have to push yourself. But then, I think, it's not as if I feel any urgency, it's not as if I feel, “Oh, I want to have another book a year from now. Because I don't, and I'm definitely not going to, and I think that's OK.
Issue #28
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