LJ Talks to Lisa Carey
by Andrea Tarr, Corona Public Library, CA -- Library Journal, 9/12/2006
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Photo Credit: © Timothy Spalding, 2003 |
LJ: The narrative in your novel interestingly alternates between Lena’s first person narrative and Owen’s third person narrative. Why did you decide to present their stories in such a way?
LC: I have used multiple narrators in all of my novels. With my first book, The Mermaids Singing, it started as an attempt to transition from the short story. I was so worried that I couldn’t write a whole novel that I switched between three narrators to keep myself going. While I was writing In the Country of the Young and Love in the Asylum, I realized I liked the effect of seeing the same situation from completely different points of view. When I use my characters’ voices, I understand their motivations. When I create a new narrative voice, I usually try it in first and third person, present and past tense, and go with the one that sounds right.
Photography is used in an interesting, eye-opening way in the book’s plot. Can you shed some light (no pun intended) on how you decided to make it such an integral part of this novel?
I’ve taken a few photography classes and the darkroom details were always something I wanted to write about. I think photography is an attractive medium to teenagers because everything is so urgent and ephemeral when you’re that age, and pictures are a way to capture things. At least, that’s how the teenagers I knew felt.
Though Lena chooses to skip a good deal of high school, she acquires an education by taking part in Harvard Square’s 80’s punk scene, dressed as a boy. What brought you to the decision to have Lena take this risk?
I wanted Lena out making discoveries rather than stuck in high school. Perhaps because I spent a lot of time in high school roaming the streets with my friends, that’s what felt natural to me. Harvard Square was the scene of Hugh’s social life. When Lena decides to research him, she throws herself into this world completely. The more she looks for him, the more she loses herself, and the growing pressure of truancy and failing school eventually gets her in so much trouble that her grieving, isolated parents aren’t able to avoid her anymore.
You deal with family dysfunction, homosexuality, missing children, angels, adolescence angst, and cross-dressing. Can you share your thoughts on including these elements?
Before I write a novel, I spend a lot of time thinking about it. It is never enough for me to start with one simple story. It isn’t until I’ve thought up multiple plots that I actually feel ready to write. It’s almost as if I have to gather ideas for four or five novels to write one. I’m not sure why. It’s just the way I’ve always done it. I like a story to be full.
The title comes from a Thomas Aquinas quote. How strong does religious or spiritual belief figure into this story?
Spirituality is a big part of this novel, though it takes many different forms. The father once toyed with being a priest, and then became a theology professor. The family is Catholic until Hugh disappears. Owen is the most interesting to me spiritually. He had only the beginnings of a religious education before his family left the church, and needs something to fill that void. He searches for his own religion, and finds it with Hugh as his guardian angel. To me, Owen is an example of pure spiritual instinct—feeling there is something more than what you can see in this world, but not quite sure what form it takes.
The Fureys are a family torn apart by grief. How hopeful are you as the Furey family faces the future?
I am always hopeful for my characters, no matter how bleak things seem. The Fureys are in big trouble at the start of this novel, and I think by the end they could go either way. In my mind, the parents have a choice. They can hold on to grief and anger and lose their other children, the way they lost Hugh, or they can decide to save them. My money is on the latter. Lena and Owen are not going gentle into that dark night.
