Monday 19 November 2018

Three novelists (John Irving, Joyce Carol Oates, Jodi Picoult) and Abortion in America

Recently I had the good fortunate to hear Jodi Picoult "in conversation" at the Toronto Reference Library on November 5. It was a sold-out event attended mostly by women and presumably fans. I hadn't checked ahead so I didn't know that her latest book A Spark of Light was about abortion, but I wasn't surprised. Picoult is the author of numerous novels, most of which, if not all, are inspired by a controversial issue.

It was interesting as a writer to hear her talk about the amount of time she spends researching a novel, especially since she also happens to be a very engaging and informed speaker.

When she first started speaking, I felt a little uneasy that her talk might engender some adverse comments, but either due to time constraints or the theme of A Spark of Light, questions weren't allowed. All five hundred and fifty of the attendees were encouraged to have their picture taken with the author, an offer I declined because I didn't have the patience to line up for that long.

Picoult's subject was both moving and riveting. Fortunately for me, the only time I almost cried was when she spoke about the shame and secrecy which still surround even legal abortion, much like the shame and secrecy surrounding the mounting and almost daily tales of  sexual abuse in the news, though many of these acts took place decades ago. When Picoult did an informal survey of her audience, it turned out that an almost equal number of women who knew somebody who had an abortion also knew somebody who had been sexually assaulted.

As the keeper of the history for many branches of my family, people have shared  old stories with me, some of which I have confirmed with the death certificates which are now publicly available in Ontario up through 1946. As a feminist, I have been appalled by the choices some women were forced to make because a man wouldn't stop whatever or because birth control simply wasn't available. This may be why as an ardent reader of fiction, I have also been drawn to two other novels about abortion, though John Irving and Joyce Carol Oates also happen to be two of my favorite novelists.

As far as I’m concerned, John Irving’s The World According to Garp is one of the best books ever written, so of course I read The Cider House Rules when it was first published in 1985. Although Irving’s opinion was obvious, both sides of the abortion issue were fairly presented.

The same is true of A Book of American Martyrs published by Joyce Carol Oates more than thirty years later in 2017. Presenting unique perspectives, much of Oates's story is told from the points of view of two damaged young girls, one the daughter of an abortion doctor and one the daughter of his killer. Notably neither girl has been damaged by having had an abortion, but more so by the loss of her father and the politics of abortion which have shaped the United States since the procedure was first criminalized in the 1880s. Why in God's name is abortion in the States still a part of anybody's political platform in 2018?

Like Oates's A Book of American Martyrs, Picoult's A Spark of Light  begins with a shooting at an abortion clinic. Except for the fact that the subject of abortion is so divisive in the States, I'm not sure why Picoult chose to follow up on Oates's book so soon with a novel on the same topic, so I can only surmise that Spark was largely researched and written when Oates came out with Martyrs. Both Oates and Picoult are extremely prolific, Oates perhaps more so, although there is a generation between the two women and Picoult has a family to help/hinder her. Though her characters are fairly complex and  her books are well-written, Picoult is less of a literary writer than Oates. Nevertheless, except for the fact that some people will be reluctant to "like" a book about abortion, Picoult has written a very compelling book (in a backwards fashion which I personally didn't care for) which her fans will adore. I also applaud her for presenting another sane, although of course fictionalized account of the abortion controversy in the States.

Monday 15 October 2018

The Write Life

Love this list!  I believe it's revised every year:

https://thewritelife.com/100-best-websites-for-writers-2018/

The boom and relative ease of self-publishing seems to have spawned a number of people who want to write but are instead using their skills to build their own adjunct careers and/or make money off of other aspiring writers. Some of these skills on offer are valuable and necessary, some are not. Some people actually have skills to offer, some don't. Some authors can afford these services, some can't.

The bloggers I most enjoy are novelists themselves who generously devote their time to helping other writers be successful. If they also get a little press for their own creative efforts while doing so, good for them.My top three picks from Write Life (in no particular order) are:

https://annerallen.com/

https://www.janefriedman.com/

https://www.thecreativepenn.com/

Wednesday 29 August 2018

My life's a beach

With the recent and unexpected purchase of a cottage near a beautiful beach, my Internet access has been blessedly very limited. The good news is that I have returned to one of my first loves--fiction.

Friday 15 June 2018

Diane Schoemperlen who so kindly edited my second book has won another well-deserved prize:

Molson 2018 Prize Winner, Diane Schoemperlen!