|
An Interview with Jennifer Haigh
Jennifer, both of your grandfathers were coal miners. Did they serve
as inspiration for the novel?
In
a way, yes. Where I grew up, everybody had miners in the family, and I never
gave it any thought. I was an adult before I considered how miners actually
spent their shifts: walking into the mine drift or later, riding the mantrip;
the hard labor in tight quarters, the physical danger, the absolute darkness.
It seems incredible, now, that I ever considered this a normal and unremarkable
way to make a living. Everything about it is extraordinary.
How did you choose your setting?
To
some extent Bakerton is modeled on Barnesboro, the town I grew up in, but it's
not an exact replica. It's really a composite of towns I know in that part of
Pennsylvania
. Each mining town is unique, though its distinguishing features may
not be obvious to people who don't know the place well. Every town has its own
landscape, its own ethnic mix, its own relationship to the mine operators. I
invented a town so that I could have control of those variables.
What kind of research did you do for the novel?
I
do my best research by talking to people. These conversations yield more than
simple facts; they give me a feel for how people talk, what they remember,
which events in their lives hold the greatest significance for them. Beyond
that, I spend a lot of time looking at old newspapers and magazines -- not just
the headlines, but the advertisements. I care what people were wearing, what
kinds of cars they drove, what groceries cost, what was playing on the radio.
Some of this information finds its way onto the page, but most of it doesn't.
It's my way of creating a world in my imagination, of making it real and vivid
for myself.
How does life in Bakerton compare to life in other mining towns?
I
think it's fairly representative. But today that world has largely disappeared.
In Pennsylvania, coal mining is mostly a thing of the past.
Nobody lives that way any more.
Does Joyce's experience mirror your own in any way?
None
that I can think of. The generational differences are very significant. Joyce
was born forty years before I was, into an entirely different social climate. A
very different set of opportunities was open to her. I never served in the
military, or worked in a factory, and I have never held a family together the
way Joyce does. Her resolve and competence and moral strength are a product of
those life experiences.
Did you ever consider writing
Baker
Towers
in the first person, from Joyce's perspective?
Writing
in the first person is difficult for me. I sometimes approach short stories
that way, but I find it too restrictive for a novel. Part of what intrigued me
about writing Baker Towers was the chance to show the reader a time and place
through several different sets of eyes -- Joyce's, Dorothy's, Georgie's, Lucy's.
Without those different perspectives -- male and female, soldier and civilian --
Baker Towers would be an entirely different story and, I
think, a less interesting one.
How do men and women
experience Bakerton differently?
The obvious difference was work. A man mined coal,
and a woman almost never did. Her economic security depended completely on
finding a husband, and that reality shaped her life in all sorts of ways. A
bachelor could make a living, but an unmarried woman had a rough time of it.
She might work in the dress factory, or do housework for wealthy families, or
care for her elderly parents, but her livelihood was tenuous and probably a
source of worry for her family.
A
man was also more likely to see some of the world beyond Bakerton, or to leave
the town completely. Going to away to college was a luxury almost no one could
afford, but if you were a young man in the forties or fifties, you likely
served in the military, which took you across the country or even overseas, and
much increased the likelihood that you would settle somewhere else. Young women
stuck close to home. After the World War II, the GI Bill allowed some people to
get an education -- mostly men, since they were far more likely to have served.
What are some of the themes and motifs present in the novel that
resonate with you?
Well,
it's a book about first-generation Americans, those of a certain place and
time; today's first generation families have different stories to tell. The
small town way of life, which no longer exists as it once did. We still have
small towns, but with television and the internet they're not the islands that
they once were; they're much more connected to the culture as a whole. We have
lost much of our regionalism, those qualities that gave one part of the country
a different texture from all the others. And there's no getting it back.
Those
are the first thoughts that come to mind. I don't think about any of this stuff
when I'm actually writing. It occurs to me later, when I'm looking at a printed
page and the words no longer seem like mine. A kind of separation occurs, and
it's as if I'm reading a book written by someone else. And the book appears to
have a theme.
What was the writing process like for you? How long did it take you
to write Baker
Towers?
On
a first draft I write every morning, at my kitchen table, by hand. I do later
drafts at computer, but I can't imagine composing on one. It's too easy, the
words too cheap. There is something about the act of forming letters with a pen
that makes me conscious of each word, and I write better sentences.
Baker
Towers
took three years to write, with occasional
interruptions; but I had been thinking about the characters for much longer.
The idea occurred to me even before I wrote Mrs. Kimble. I knew back
then that I wasn't ready to tackle it, that I didn't yet have the skills to
write it. I'm glad I waited as long as I did.
Writing
full time is monotonous and lonely, but it works for me. When I'm deep into a
novel, the characters are much more real to me than anybody in my own life, and
that's necessary for me as a writer. Years ago, when I was writing mostly short
stories, I could get by writing in the evenings or on weekends; but when I'm working
on a novel, I really benefit from being able to work in long stretches. I write
at home, in a quiet room with the curtains drawn. It sounds boring, and it is;
but I can't write unless the world in my head is more vivid than my
surroundings are. I'm amazed by writers who can compose on airplanes or in
coffee shops. Writing is hard for me, and it only works in a place where
nothing can distract me.
Which authors do you most admire?
William
Styron. Nabokov. Isaac Bashevis Singer, particularly his short stories. I'm in
awe of short story writers, like John Cheever, William Trevor, Mavis Gallant
and Alice Munro, who somehow give stories the weight and depth of great novels.
What is your favorite part of the book? Do you have a favorite
character?
Looking back at the finished manuscript, I am most
attracted to the opening sections of each chapter, which give a sort of
panoramic view of the town. And I feel a great tenderness for all these
characters. It pains me when bad things happen to them.
| 
