October's Featured Author: Liz Jensen
Interview by Rachelle Gagne
How would you describe The Rapture for your old and new readers?
It’s basically a psychological eco-thriller about all hell breaking loose.
Bethany is a psychotic, matricidal teenager: her ECT treatment in a mental institution has triggered an uncanny ability to predict natural disasters.
But naturally enough, no-one believes her. Finally, and with huge reluctance, her therapist Gabrielle realizes she’s not making it up. But she doesn’t
know where to begin trying to convince anyone. Her work situation is shaky, and she has been fighting her own demons since being paralyzed and bereaved
in a car accident. Then along comes a physicist…
Your successes have come with a comic undertone, why did you stray from such a winning formula with The Rapture?
My first departure from comedy was in 2004, with an earlier psychological thriller, The Ninth Life of Louis Drax; it’s a mystery told from
the point of view of nine-year-old boy in a coma. It was a scary venture. But by then I had already written four comic novels, and I felt
up to exploring some Darkness, and also I was keen to try out a new genre. I followed up Drax – as a sort of de-tox - with a very light comedy
called My Dirty Little Book of Stolen Time, which was about two time-traveling cleaning –ladies. That done, I felt ready to plunge back into
something dark. And that’s how The Rapture was born: through a sort of zig-zag process.
How much influence do you think specific religions have, as it pertains to how societies perceive what is physically happening to the world around us? Do you think that their fundamentals are enough for them to make a substantial change in the way they live their lives in order to avoid catastrophe?
When it comes to global warming, which is what my novel is about, I think any kind of fundamentalism that refuses to countenance evolution – and indeed the
geological reality of our planet – has the potential to do huge damage. That said, religion in general has the potential to raise awareness and be a great
force for change. In Britain, spiritual leaders have started talking publicly about our responsibility to the planet, and that’s something to be celebrated.
After all, it’s the greatest ethical and moral issue of our time. And the sustainability of the planet is all about greed-management in the end.
When writing an apocalyptic thriller with cataclysmal events, when and where does the being a parent play a role?
Any of us who have children or grandchildren have a stake in the future of the planet. My generation hasn’t made it a better place to live: we’ve made it
more polluted, and less sustainable, and we have caused mass extinctions in the natural world. Our kids will be paying a high price for our mistakes. The
potential for disaster is with us more than ever. That said, I feel that the seriousness of the situation will give rise to a new kind of global cohesion,
in which nations think in global and not just national terms.
In what way do you think writing has the ability to change people’s lives?
I’ve always thought that the command to ‘write about what you know’ is a mistake. You should write about what you don’t know, in order to explore it.
And read about what you don’t know, too. Reading has changed my life enormously in many ways over the years. Books give us food for thought. And we all
need that. The more we can know about the world, the more minds we can explore, the better we can understand the world we live in, and the different people
in it. It’s all about sympathy and empathy.
How does it feel to have been nominated for The Orange Prize, three times no less, so early in your writing career? And how does it affect you when your trying to work on your next project?
Writers who fret about prizes are wasting good writing-time on something random. It would be great to get a prize, but I’m a practical pessimist, so I’m not holding my breath.
What do you love to read? Who are your favorite authors?
These things go in phases. At the moment Cormac McCarthy is top of the list, along with Michael Cunningham and the British writer David Mitchell. I’m
reading Tobias Wolff’s short stories at the moment, and enjoying them hugely. As a teenager I loved Edgar Allen Poe, Gunther Grass, Mervyn Peake, Jane
Austen, William Thackeray, Thomas Hardy, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and George Orwell. Angela Carter was an iconic figure for me. Later came Salman Rushdie,
Ann Tyler, Margaret Atwood, and thriller writers like John Le Carre and Martin Cruz Smith. Actually I could go on for ever here, so I’ll stop now!
What social cause do you feel the most passion for, and are you active within that circle? How so?
Like a lot of writers, I’m not a natural joiner. But I recently started working with Friends of the Earth, and I’ll be going to the Copenhagen Climate
summit in December to do some reporting and campaigning. I’m also very into literacy. Not being able to read or write is a huge handicap, and a social
stigma, too.
What is the one thing you’d like to see/do/accomplish before you die?
I’m very content with what I have managed so far: I think it’s quite a miracle in fact!
Name a random thing that your readers would be shocked to know about you?
I am a porn virgin. By which I mean, I have never watched a porn movie. (Will this shock Canadians? It seems to shock Brits.) Why haven’t I? I’m not opposed
to porn as such. But I do suspect it probably skews things. Especially for kids who haven’t yet had sex. There’s a very good website which addresses this,
called www.makelovenotporn.com, set up by a friend of mine, who is into hardcore porn but concerned about its effects.
We ask this questions of all our interviewees: What advice can you give for all the aspiring writers out there?
READ. At least two books a week. Explore all genres, even ones you think you’ll hate. And read books in translation.
Because yours is not the only rich culture.
What are you working on now? And do you have a readership in mind?
Another thriller, set on an island: it’s about cults and identity.
Tell us about your book tour.
I’m appearing on various radio shows, signing books in bookshops in Toronto, and appearing at the Harbourfront Festival with fellow-writers Lorrie Moore
and Tess Callahan on 30th September.
TheNovelBlog.com would like to thank Liz for her time and answers.
Rachelle Gagne
Chief Reviewer/Blogger
TheNovelBlog.com