Interview with Marina Budhos

Today on the blog I'm interviewing Marina Budhos, author of Tell Us We're Home, which I reviewed back in August.  I loved the book and I was very excited to have my questions answered.  Read on, and I hope this answers yours, too!

As I noted in my review, the subject matter you covered in Tell Us We're Home is pretty rare in middle grade fiction.  What motivated you to tell this story to a younger audience, instead of to teens?

Mostly I wanted to a write a book that straddles a bit.  That is, I knew the characters would be in in middle school, on the cusp of high school, which means they still had some of the sweetness of being younger, the yearning, and yet they were actually dealing with pretty big and sophisticated issues.  I wanted to capture girls who are at that moment of separating from their mothers, and yet they are in the unusual position of having mothers who are maids and nannies, and they have to be the support for their mothers.  This way the conflicts were much more raw and fresh as they are discovering who they can be in this town, in this unusual situation. And finally I felt middle school is when these very tight friendships matter so much as girls navigate their social milieus.  Nonetheless, I did see this as a book that can be read upwards to high school, even if it means reading about a character that is younger than you.

I also loved your characters, especially Jaya, Maria, and Lola.  Was there any real-life inspiration for the girls?

The characters just 'came' to me.  Some of it was observing the immigrant teenagers I interviewed for my prior book, Remix: Conversations with Immigrant Teenagers.  Bits and pieces of conversations with them would fill in these imagined characters--for instance, I remember interviewing a girl who had lived in the Bronx at one time, and all the mothers from her community cleaned houses, and how furious she was that most of her peers didn't aspire to much more.  But once I have a character in mind, they take off on the page, and in this case, I think there were parts of me that I was exploring in each character.  For instance, Jaya is the more internal, dreamy and slightly hurt character; for Maria I drew on some of my own emotions of romanticizing wealthy Americans; and I also loved playing around with Lola's over the top intellectualism and bossiness. 


Was it difficult for you to balance the three perspectives in the novel, or did that come easily to you?  What was your biggest challenge while writing?  Do you have any advice for aspiring writers?

That's an interesting question.  I know that some people have been surprised that I chose a third person to tell the story of three girls--I gather in ya/middle grade that is less common.  At the very beginning of working on the book I even had it just from Jaya's pov, but that felt much too constricting for this story is really a novel told 'in the round' as each of these girls gives you something different as a daughter of a maid or nanny.  Later on, I also tried alternating first person, but the novel lost a certain narrative cohesion, the language became a little less interesting, and the setting--which is so important to this novel--fell away.  So I realized my challenge was to take you inside each girl's world as evocatively as possible, but allow you to move between them with a slightly wider angle. 

In terms of the three perspectives, they all came pretty easily to me, as they were so distinct.  And even though I alternate pretty equally between the three, I continued to consider Jaya to be the main character since her struggle is much more internal and it is her mother who is accused of the theft. 

Finally another challenge was the rhythm of the book since the characters spend so much time apart as they each try to deal with the fall-out of their friendship.  I actually read Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants because I admired how Anne Brashares moved in and out of the three girls in short bursts.  In my process, this became like a kind of film cutting where I would move scenes around and see how the contrast worked, and what kind of tension could be built with these parallel, developing stories.  For me, the structure then became the arc of each girl and how they cope with a difficult situation, how it exposes the frailities in their lives, and the little, important insights they gain along the way.

In terms of advice, one thing I would say is that every project, every story has a different process, so it is like learning how to write each time.  My prior novel, Ask Me No Questions, was a more straight ahead, first person narrative, driven by a set of events.  Tell Us We're Home is an ensemble piece, with a small chorus or trio of voices, and so I had to think a lot about structure and be willing to be flexible in how to order the events and the arc of each girl.  Thus, I'd say it's so important to be patient with your project as you find your way towards the right form.

The other bit of advice I'd give in writing fiction is to try, as best you can, to always give something surprising about even the most minor of characters--it adds depth and richness to your portrayal.  Let yourself be surprised by your own characters.


 If you had one thing you hoped readers would take away from this book, what would it be?  What has the reader response to this novel been like?

I like to write books that are slyly subversive; that turn things upside down a bit without you knowing it.  In so many ways these girls are spies, anthropologists reading the cues, the casual privilege of the wealthy town they've been plunked down in.  And so, for some readers, I hope this is a way of seeing your own life through fresh eyes.  At the same time, I hope the novel also gives voice to a certain invisibleness that many can feel.  

Reader response has been quite good and people are appreciative of the freshness of perspective and the timeliness of this story.  I was thrilled to receive a great review in the New York Times, as a lot of people saw that.  One of the interesting ways the book is being read is as a 'mother-daughter' book--I've had mothers who have read the book alongside their daughters, and they appreciate the conversation it opens up about privilege and 'outsideness' and seeing one's own town through the eyes of immigrants.

My favorite response was that of the son of a colleague--apparently he picked up the book and couldn't put it down and they would fight every night because he wasn't going to sleep and had it hiding under his pillow.  What touched me about his response was that it showed that there are readers who feel compelled by the emotional journeys of characters, not just the external plot gyrations.

And then the other responses that really moved me: When I gave a reading at ALA, after, several African-American and Latina women came up to me, literally with tears and their eyes, and said, "You've told my story."  One woman said, "My mother was a domestic and all those bits about wearing the hand-me-downs of your employers' kids and being embarrassed--that's exactly what happened to me."

I couldn't ask for more.  That's when I felt I was on to something.

Can you tell us anything about your upcoming work?  Do you think you'll be writing for a similar audience again, or will you do something different?

I write for both adult and young adult and fiction and nonfiction.  So, I have a new nonfiction book coming out that I've co-written with my husband, Marc Aronson, Sugar Changed the World: A Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, Freedom and Science.  The book follows one substance--sugar--and shows how it transformed the world, touched so many lives, creating the bitter reality of slavery and yet leading to our ideas of freedom.  This is a book we have been working on a long time, and if readers want to find out more, we've actually created a website for the book, with music clips, that should be up and running soon: http://sugarchangedtheworld.com

In terms of fiction, right now my plan is to finish an adult historical novel, "Sweetness," that I have also been working on for quite a while.  The novel is set at the very end of the 19th century, in India and the Caribbean, and is about the unlikely friendship of an Englishwoman and an Indian woman, as they take up saving an old sugar plantation.

I do plan to return to writing for young people--I love doing so--there's an immediacy to the work and as well, I feel there are so many stories of young people that I want to tell and have yet to be told.  I especially enjoy writing books for young people that are timely and contemporary.  Right now I am percolating with an idea that will be told from a male perspective in an urban setting.  I don't want to say much more because it's all in the execution.

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Thank you so much, Marina, and I look forward to your future work! =)

Speak Loudly, before others decide to speak for you

I begin this post with a confession and disclosure: I have never read Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson.  This is partly because it seems to always be out of the library when I'm in, sold out or not carried by bookstores, and unavailable on Paperback Swap, my three main sources of books (believe it or not, ARCs are not my main source, but that's a post for another day.)  It's also partly because I'm a little afraid to read it.  In the book blogging/writing community, it has become a touchstone of why censorship is bad, and in a way, I don't want the way I feel about the cause confused with my feelings about the book.  That's going to end with this paragraph.  Based on the frankly ridiculous events unfolding right now, and the overwhelming support found on Twitter (hashtag #SpeakLoudly), I'm vowing to you, my readers, and to myself that I am going to get a copy of this book and read it as soon as I possibly can!

Now, for a little background.  Laurie Halse Anderson, author of Speak and active spokesperson against book banning, posted this earlier today.  Long story short?  Wesley Scroggins, a passionate Christian, condemned Speak as soft pornography for its two rape scenes and strongly suggested that the book be banned, or at least kept out of the reach of the thousands of middle schoolers and teens whom the book has touched and helped over the years.  He also angrily spoke out against Slaughterhouse-Five and Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler (who has an active Twitter presence and chimed in about the banning).  I haven't read Twenty Boy Summer (though I'd like to), but Slaughterhouse-Five remains one of my favorite books of all time for its dry humor and honest look at what morality truly is.

The backlash against his piece has been enormous, with author heavyweights such as Judy Blume backing Laurie Halse Anderson up and bringing the case to the attention of the National Council Against Censorship.  Perhaps most heartening has been the response from much of the Christian book loving community, which is furious at its association with Wesley Scroggins and is strongly condemning book banning by schools.  A special favorite post of mine, by a public school teacher, can be found here.  While obviously on a smaller scale than something like the Middle Eastern conflicts, it is an excellent example of the fact that a religion is not defined by its extremists.

The irony of the whole thing is that this is happening only days before Banned Books Week.  Speak has been challenged before, but not in a way as flagrantly offensive as being called "pornography" - aka sexually exciting.  What about a rape should be sexually exciting?  I think the reason Speak has been seized upon so completely by the Twitter and blogging communities as an example is the fact that it has spoken so deeply to so many rape victims.  In the end, this is a double issue - censorship and rape, speaking out for what's right and the consequences of not doing so.

If book banning makes you furious, as you all know it does me, Laurie Halse Anderson offers suggestions for how to help in her blog post I linked to in the second paragraph.  There have been dozens, even hundreds of posts on the subject from across the blogosphere (I'm sure you'll find some in my blogroll!), and Bookalicious Spam offers a Mr. Linky to all your Speak Loudly posts as well as even more ways to help.  (Please share your links in the comments of this post, too!)

And if this doesn't make you furious, read the full school board presentation this guy came up with.  As long as you remain silent, this is the voice non-blog-savvy America will be hearing.  Is that really what you want?  There really are too many fantastic posts on this for me to link to.  Read as many as you can, and then share with non-connected folks!  I cannot stress how important this issue is.