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| photo: Ian Warburg | |
In 1996, Jane Green left her job as a feature writer for the Daily Express (U.K.) to write a novel. Seven months later, Straight Talk emerged, a story about a career girl looking for "Mr. Right." There was a bidding war for its publication, and Green soon became an "overnight success." Throughout the years, Green's popular novels have evolved and deepened. She continues to contribute to a host of publications and appears regularly on television programs such as Good Morning America and The Today Show. Green is also an avid gardener, cook and house decorator. Her novels--stories about contemporary women facing real-life challenges--often include glimpses of her personal passions. Summer Secrets, Green's 17th novel, focuses on a woman wrestling with the far-reaching aspects of her alcoholism.
You are British by birth and now live in the U.S. Is it a conscious choice on your part to merge aspects of both places in your work?
I spent a few years writing books peopled solely by Americans--The Beach House, Dune Road, Promises to Keep--but I realized that my being English is such a strong part of who I am, it felt dishonest not to use that. As much as I can observe the American sensibility, it is my Englishness that informs who I am and the choices I make on a daily basis, and I realized I had to have some of that in my books in order to be true to myself.
The island of Nantucket is central to a few of your novels, including Summer Secrets. What's your connection to the area?
My husband has been going to Nantucket since he was a baby, and we have spent a lot of time there over the last nine years, but I am particularly interested in the old Nantucket--I love hearing about the history, about what it used to be like. I have tremendous sadness about how these places have changed. What was once home to advertising creatives and actors and writers is now is overrun by huge houses and men working "in finance." The changing priorities, the value on "stuff," changes the personality of these towns, and I am trying to keep a little of the old values, the old sensibilities, alive in my books.
Why and how did you decide to tell Summer Secrets from Cat's very intimate, first-person point-of-view?
I started my career with first-person novels, and after about four books decided to change, realizing how much bigger the world of the novel became if you could tell it in a third-person narrative. Last year, I picked up Emily Giffin's novel The One and Only, and was swept up in the first-person point of view in a way that was instantly intimate, and personal. I felt like the character was talking to me, and I remembered how joyful that was in my early books, to write in that way. Summer Secrets seemed like the perfect story to tell in that way.
Cat is an alcoholic. What, if any, personal experience have you had with alcoholism?
Recently, I had a discussion with one of my dearest friends, and we both came to the same realization that every one of the people we adore, the people closest to us, has a relationship with alcohol. That relationship is not necessarily the same: some drink, some define themselves as alcoholics, some are sober, some not. But they all have a relationship, and there is a certain kind of extremism that comes with addicts and alcoholics, which I am always drawn to. Addicts do not see the world in shades of grey but in black and white. They feel passionately. They love and they hate. And that's something I have always related to. You can put me in a room of a thousand people, and I will always end up finding the addicts and alcoholics.
Some female characters you've created are addictive and impulsive. Why are you drawn to exploring these types of behaviors in your work?
The kinds of stories I write are real, with an emotional honesty that can only come from drawing from what I observe, and what I feel. My experience isn't everyone's, but I write so often about women who don't feel quite good enough, who are riddled with insecurities, who are looking for peace. I believe that feeling "less than" is universal, particularly these days, when we are all trying too hard to be perfect, all so worried that those around us will look at us and see our imperfections and flaws.
Your characters often admit to feeling fragile and lonely, as though they don't belong.
Part of why I became a writer is because I am always standing slightly on the outside, observing. I am not someone who has ever felt comfortable in groups, nor in situations where conformation is a requisite, and I gravitate to women who are similar. I'm also a deep introvert, and something of a recluse, according to my children who are old enough now to recognize all of my flaws. I'm far more interested in writing about women who don't quite fit the norm--my experience is that these are the women who think more, who are more complicated, who have fuller lives, make more interesting choices and therefore make more interesting characters.
You've been heralded as a founding member of "Chick Lit." How has the genre changed over the years?
I feel enormously honored to have been at the forefront of a movement that really did transform women's fiction. The books we wrote were the first ones that portrayed real women, filled with insecurities, living lives like everyone we knew, with emotional honesty and humor. Up until that time, commercial fiction offered sex and shopping sagas and bonkbusters. No one had reflected real life in quite the same way. But I also think I have moved on and grown up, plus I defy anyone to call me a chick these days. I think chick lit has really transformed into what we call YA, and all of us who were there at the beginning are writing very different sorts of books today.
Where do you see your writing heading in the future?
I'm working on my own cookbook--Happy Food--which will hopefully be out later this year. I have written it, filling it with stories from my life, and have found an incredible photographer. I am so excited to bring my personal passion for cooking to fruition.
I have just written a short story, "Cat and Jemima J," where readers get a glimpse into Jemima's life today (she was a character from an earlier novel). The short will be available as a free digital e-book to coincide with the release of Summer Secrets.
I'm also outlining a YA novel, which I'm really excited about. It's a hugely fun combination of English and American culture, with a big smattering of royalty. And then I have the idea for the next two novels, the first of which I will hopefully get to start very soon. There are a couple of other projects I can't talk about just yet, but they may bring my passion for decorating to life in a way I hadn't ever anticipated.
I ran into someone recently who is a psychic and medium, and she told me that being flanked by water on two sides is amazing for creativity. All I can tell you is ever since I moved into the Creaky Cottage on the Creek, my new house, I have been on fire! --Kathleen Gerard