Chatting with author Jane Smiley

Administrator: Hello and welcome to the latimes.com live chat with Jane Smiley! Jane is here and ready for your questions. Thanks, Jane!

Administrator: What can you tell us about your writing process? Do you have a set method, do you write every day or when inspiration strikes?

books4ever: Jane, I’ve heard you don’t like Mark Twain. Is that true? And if so, is it him as a person or his writing?

Jane Smiley: Inspiration never strikes if you wait for it. You have to summon it by being disciplined and inquisitive. Also, you never actually know if what you think is inspired will be considered inspired by anyone else, so you just have to keep trying and hope for the best. Novelists aren’t like poets. They keep on doing it and hoping that something accumulates.

Ayofemi: for someone writing their first novel, what is the advice you would give them?

Ayofemi: (p.s. I lived in Josslyn Hall at VC when you were there)

Jane Smiley: Actually, I never knew Mark Twain as a person. I did write an article in which I said that I don’t especially like Huck Finn. At the time, this was viewed as a sort of heresy, but I still don’t especially like Huck Finn. The best thing about the novel is that you can like whatever you want to like and dislike whatever you want to like, too.

Jane Smiley: I give lots of first novel advice in 13 Ways of Looking at the Novel, but I think the most important thing is keeping going on the first draft until it is complete, then going back and making it better. Until you’ve gotten through the whole first draft, you really don’t know enough about it to improve it.

Kakie Urch : Jane: In your “Thirteen Ways of Looking at The Novel,” you come up with a list of 101 novels that everyone should read. What do you think people might consider the most unexpected of those picks?

Jane Smiley: The 101 novels are not the ones I think everyone should read, but the ones thatI read. When you are constructing a reading list, the important thing is to let it unfold accorrdng to your own tastes and pleasures. That said, I didn’t expect to like JUSTINE, but I really did like it and find it revelatory, though not “enjoyable”.

books4ever: What was it you liked about Justine?

books4ever: I’m dying to know!

Administrator: Was there a particular novel that gave you the desire to become a novelist yourself? What were your early inspirations?

Jane Smiley: Justine as a lot of energy, and it is comprehensive! Every possible member of the French ruling class seems to be represented among those who rape and torture Justine. Also, lots of conversation about moral issues, and also the fact that Justine is never daunted. And I love the ending, which I will not give away.

books4ever: yes! i agree. i thought de sade’s ideas in ‘justine’ were incredibly interesting but boy, what an unappealing read at times.

Jane Smiley: When I was a child, I read The Bobbsey Twins and Nanacy Drew and lots of horse books. I think novelists always remember reading for pleasure and escape. I loved Sherlock Holmes, too, and Agatha Christie.

Administrator: What were your favorite horse books? Do you ride?

Jane Smiley: I do ride. My favorites were The Black Stallion, and also books about a mounted girl scout troup. I would read them over and over.

Administrator: You said earlier that the 101 novels aren’t necessarily ones you think everyone should read. But are there any books that you think ALL aspiring novelists should read?

Administrator: (Besides yours, of course.)

Jane Smiley: I think all aspiring novelists should read the books they enjoy and would like to reproduce. I know thriller writers who never read the sort of books I write. I don’t think they should. Reading and writing novels should be about having pleasure.

Elizabeth: If you liked Sherlock Holmes, you might like the book Arthur and George, or George and Arthur, a good read about Sir Doyle getting a falsely accused man off.

Jane Smiley: I did read Arthur and George. I liked it a lot, but I thought it was a very English book, not so transferable to American readers.

Administrator: Are you a voracious reader? Do you read more or less (or the same amount) for pleasure when you’re in the middle of one of your own novels?

Jane Smiley: I love to read novels and also history. I never really watch TV, but I do spend a lot of time reading online news. Just finished Orlando Figes’ cultural history of Russia, and I also have recently enjoyed Zola’s The Ladies’ Paradise.

dave1: Are you going to write anymore books about horse racing?

Jane Smiley: Yes! I hope to write a novel about Eclipse, and a book about TBs after they leave the track. If I had a Derby winner, I would write a book about him (or her).

Kakie Urch : Your new book is a “Jane Smiley novel,” but its also part of the growing “Hollywood novel” genre. I’m thinking Nathaniel West’s great book crossed with The Player. How difficult is it to portray an “unreal” world like LA without being a parody of parody?

books4ever: i love zola. jane, did you read therese raquin?

Jane Smiley: I tried not to think of that world as unreal--I think it is perfectly real to those who live in it. So I tried to think about it as an insider would, not as an outsider.

Jane Smiley: I didn’t like Therese Racquin very much, but I’ve loved many Zolas--La Curee is wonderful, and Le Ventre de Paris.

Administrator: What history books can you recommend?

Kakie Urch : Who do you like in the Derby? Nobiz Like Shobiz? :)

Jane Smiley: The Figes book was really good. I can’t remember the others. He is a very good writer.

Jane Smiley: Joe Drape, who writes for the NY Times, says No Biz is the one. I don’t know.

Administrator: Thank you all for participating in the chat! And thank you, Jane!

books4ever: Thank you