Pat MacEnulty has written four novels (Sweet Fire, Time to Say Goodbye, From
May to December and Picara) and the story collection The
Language of Sharks. Wait Until Tomorrow: A Daughter's Memoir
(May, Feminist Press) focuses on MacEnulty's struggles to care for her aging
mother, a renowned musician, and to raise her teen daughter, who is at the age the
author was when drugs and addiction changed her life. MacEnulty lives in Charlotte, N.C., and
teaches at Johnson & Wales University.
On your nightstand now:
The Blue Hammer by Ross MacDonald (a writer's mystery writer); Cookie and Me, a delightful book by my friend Mary Jane Ryals; the Audubon Field Guide (Eastern Edition); and my journal.
Favorite book when you were a child:
So many! But let's go with The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling (not the Disney version) because it enveloped me in a hermetic seal and taught my mind how to see something that existed only in imagination.
Your top five authors:
These are five that I love and that come to mind right now: Harry Crews for his inimitable voice, Toni Morrison for her lyricism and evocation of pain, Jane Austen for her wit, Leo Tolstoy for his passion, Alan Furst for giving me insight into life during World War II and entertaining the hell out me at the same time.
Book you've faked reading:
A Bend in the River by V.S. Naipaul. I was in graduate school, I had a baby, and I was teaching classes. I just didn't have the time. Maybe I'll get around to it some day.
Book you're an evangelist for:
A Fan's Notes by Frederick Exley. Also Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss.
Book you've bought for the cover:
I didn't buy this book. I picked it up from a friend's bookshelf the night she died. It was the title that drew me. The title was Kitty, which was the name of my friend. I read that book, which was a tawdry piece of work, in order not to have to go to sleep that night.
Book that changed your life:
On the Road. I wanted to be a writer, but didn't know how. Kerouac showed me that "it" was all worth writing about. Siddhartha also changed my life in some ineffable way. Oh, and Crime and Punishment. I was in prison when I read it so the topic was appropriate; that book taught me about redemption.
Favorite line from a book:
"Frederick J. Frenger. Jr., a blithe psychopath from California, asked the flight attendant in first class for another glass of champagne and some writing materials." From Miami Blues by Charles Willeford. Who could not keep reading after that?
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
The way my brain works (or doesn't work) these days, just about any of them I re-read will be like the first time. But let's say The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera. Just because.