Daughters-in-Law (39 page)

What are the challenges and conveniences of telling a story from multiple perspectives? How do you decide which viewpoint to tell a certain incident from? For example, why did you focus on Mariella during the lunch debacle at Luke and Charlotte’s?

Just as changes of pace are important in a novel in order to refresh the reader as she or he goes along, so are changes of viewpoint—it’s hard work to read only from one person’s point of view for three
hundred pages. It also, I think, gives a novel vividness and charm to surprise the reader sometimes with an unexpected viewpoint, and when adults are behaving badly—as in the scene the question cites—that point can be subtly and powerfully made by seeing their conduct through more innocent (though not less knowing!) eyes. So each scene, in my opinion, is enhanced by being given, as it were, to an often unexpected character as the filter—it gives the narrative validity and energy.

You have written more than fifteen novels. How has your creative process changed over the years? Do you see an arc or progression in your work?

I don’t think the way I write has changed hugely—still the months of research, still the same plotting of the first quarter and then the end, still the handwriting—but I think my style has evolved, rather than changed, and is possibly more economical and lighter now. And that, I’m sure, is a direct response to the loyalty of readers that has (over what is now decades!) given me the confidence to pare everything down a bit and emerge with a way of writing that has more impact and less elaboration.

Daughters-in-Law
is full of women who find their strength. For example, Petra and Marnie are very different characters who both unexpectedly take control of their lives. Is this a theme you return to often in your work?

I love female strength and the female capacity for endless self-reinvention as themes for novels. It never ceases to amaze me how women can go on evolving all their lives, and how many of them go on opening their minds to new ideas and fads and fashions at almost any age. And of course, the longer you live, the more you turn into a person flavored by decades of experience, which in turn often rewards you with the confidence that growing up in a largely (still . . . ) male-dominated society (however lovely a lot of those men are!) isn’t there at the beginning. So, acquiring control is still a huge achievement for many women and makes a wonderful topic for fiction, as it’s no less than a kind of real triumph.

You once said that you did not see yourself as a feminist writer. What kind of writer do you identify yourself as?

A contemporary writer. If I’m doing anything, I’m trying to chronicle the way we live now—i.e., how we live as shaped and sometimes dictated by modern customs and morality. And as modern culture affects all of us, I don’t really think my novels are gender, or sociologically, specific.

Anthony and Petra both turn to nature to find comfort and inspiration. What are your own sources of inspiration?

Other people. I can’t get enough of them, whether it’s people known to me or perfect strangers observed on public transport. All fascinating and illuminating.

Are you an artist yourself? What kind of research did you do for Anthony and Petra’s drawing scenes?

Oh, I wish! I can’t draw and I can’t sing and I can’t dance, which is why I am so completely beguiled by people who can! I studied a number of well-known bird artists for this novel . . . and learned a very great deal, but I simply can’t
do
it myself.

The novel has a marked lack of villains, with the possible exception of Steve. Do you believe there are ever true villains in real life, or are there always extenuating circumstances?

It’s not so much malevolence that makes villains in real life (though there are beasts out there, I know . . .) as muddle. And I think most people are complicatedly shades of gray rather than black and white, good or bad. I don’t even think Steve is a villain. I think he’s an inarticulate man who resorts to anger when frustrated and doesn’t have the words or emotional maturity to express himself any other way. The aim was to make him credible, rather than a simple hate figure, which would have been unbelievable and clumsy—someone who arouses fear because he isn’t fully in control of his stronger feelings.

Is there any kind of message you hope readers will take away from
Daughters-in-Law
?

Only what I hope emerges from all my books, which is that a bit of empathy towards our fellow humans makes living with ourselves and other people a more successful business!

Why did you choose to focus this novel on the relationship between mothers and daughters-in-law?

Most women have, or are, a daughter-in-law, even in the loosest sense, and also I can’t help noticing that mothers behave differently to their daughters-in-law than they do towards their sons-in-law—even if this last statement is a generalization! And I like to investigate topics that apply to very many of us—I am more interested in the common ground than in any arcane situation that only concerns a very few. . . . And I’m at an age where very many of my friends are mothers-in-law!

1. Petra, Anthony, and Marnie are artists in their own right. Plan an art-related activity for the group. Consider visiting a local gallery or museum, taking a drawing class, or visiting a nature preserve to sketch with your book club members.

2. The Minsmere reserve, where Petra meets Steve, is a real place. Find photos, maps, and information about the bird species at Minsmere by visiting
www.rspb.org.uk/reserves/guide/m/minsmere/index.aspx
.

“[Trollope] aims for the heart and she hits it.”

—
The New Yorker

From superb storyteller Joanna Trollope comes an intelligent and emotional story about two families who must confront love and loss as an inheritance hangs in the balance.