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Marina Lewycka answers
questions from the Book M8s Reading Group in Ruislip:
Georgie says on page 381
'It's as though love gives you a special licence to do anything you
like.' And she appears to forgive Mrs Shapiro for the way she
treated Naomi. Do you think that love does, and should, allow you to
break the rules?
I think this is what happens in real life - that people in love tend
to put their passion before everything else, and behave in ways
which in the normal course of their lives they themselves might
consider unacceptable. In this book, I wanted to be true to how my
characters would think and feel, rather than passing judgement on
them. Within the terms of the book, Georgie's ability to forgive Mrs
Shapiro allows her also to forgive her husband's affair. I don't
necessarily agree that love should allow you to do whatever you
like, but I do believe that forgiveness is as liberating for the
person who forgives as the person who is forgiven.
What inspired the theme
of the Middle East conflict that featured heavily in the book?
During the time that I was starting to write this book, the conflict
in the Middle East was dominating the headlines. I realised how
little I knew about the background to what was going on, what had
happened in the Middle East all those years ago, and I was curious
to understand why this conflict seemed to be so intractable. I
thought, if that applies to me, it probably applies to other people
too. I wanted to educate myself, and there's no better way to do
that than to set out to write about it. Writing it from the
perspectives of one's characters, who are all very likeable in their
different ways and all with a valid rationale for the lives they
have chosen, forces one to focus on the human and psychological
aspects rather than on the politics.
From where did you draw
the character of Mrs Shapiro?
There used to be a very old lady who lived across the way from me in
Sheffield. I used to see her walking up and down the road, looking
very elegant in stylish hats and high-heeled shoes, though I only
knew her to say hello. She was a descendant of a major Jewish
clothing family. When she died and her house was cleared, all the
lovely hats and clothes and shoes were put in a skip in front of her
house. And I must admit - I was the one who did the rummaging! But
when I came to write this story many years later I reversed the
roles. And I was the one with the cats, though only two, and not
smelly (though one of them had a visiting boyfriend very similar to
Wonderboy.) Mrs Shapiro, like most of my characters, is a composite.
The habits of scrimping and saving which I ascribe to both Mrs
Shapiro and to Georgie were something I grew up with. The smells,
the grime ... well, I can still remember some of the places I lived in
during my student and commune-dwelling days. My mother used to come
and stay, and spent the whole weekend sweeping and scrubbing. I feel
bad when I look back on it now, but at the time it seemed perfectly
normal. And to judge from the way the students next door to me live,
things haven't changed much.
The theme of adhesives
running through the book was very clever. Where did the idea come
from?
This came from a reader who came to see me with some books to sign.
I asked him what he did, and he said he was an adhesives chemist. I
thought to myself - golly that sounds a bit dry and boring. Then I
thought, no, that's a bad attitude. Adhesives are incredibly
important, and I only think they're boring because I know nothing
about them. So I set out to find out.
There are many threads in
the book that so wonderfully illustrate the '6 degrees of
separation' theory. How extensive was your research and how did you
glue it all together?
I'm naturally quite a nosy person - sometimes to the embarrassment
of my family - and I'm always surprised at how willing people are to
talk about themselves and their lives. I often find that the most
apparently ordinary people whom we might bump into in the
supermarket or bus queue have amazing stories, which are there just
beneath the surface of everyday life. In a book like this which
combines historical fact with present day fiction, it's important to
get the factual bits right. The research for this book took me to
car parks, supermarkets, hospitals, London buses, DIY stores and Tel
Aviv, Lod, Jerusalem and Ramallah. I met many interesting, wise,
kind, generous, knowledgeable people, and was left with the feeling
that what we share in common as human beings is so much more
important than what separates us. In the end, I think the common
humanity is what glues us, and the book, together.
You have written several
books. Which one was your personal favourite to write and why?
Books are like children - no parent can say they love this one more
than the other ones. They all have their individual quirks and
qualities, and blossom with the attention lavished on them. I
usually find writing pleasurable, and I aim to write books which I
myself would enjoy reading. Having said that, my first book, A Short
History of Tractors in Ukrainian, was the most enjoyable to write
because I was such an innocent - I had no pressure of expectations,
and all the time in the world. And getting accepted for publication
was the culmination of a life-long dream. |
