The Very Telling: Conversations with American Writers

In interviews with 16 contemporary American authors-popular, award-winning and mostly of the younger literary persuasion-Johnson returns to the form that made her Conversations with American Women Writers such a treat. Interview questions cover the basics-early writing interests, requests for advice and words of encouragement-but also elicit enthusiastic explication on the writing process. Jonathan Lethem holds forth on the turn he took between his earlier, more esoteric fiction (""I was like a painter"") and his last two novels, Motherless Brooklyn (grounded in detailed research on Tourette's Syndrome) and The Fortress of Solitude (based on extensive ""internal excavation""). Donna Tartt speaks at length on the challenge of developing character, which takes ""a willingness to make oneself blank in order to perceive clearly,"" and weighs in on the perennial debate over how best to render dialect. Johnson also asks Michael Cunningham about sex scenes, Myla Goldberg about Jewish mysticism, Rick Moody about the film industry and Ha Jin about his ""sense of home."" Other subjects include Mary Gaitskill, Edwidge Danticat, Edward P. Jones, Nancy Rawles and Mary Yukari Waters. Throughout, Johnson uses insightful questions about specific works to elicit wise and peculiar nuggets on the ""inspiration, struggles, triumphs, and work ethic"" of the writing trade.