Who among us doesn't hail from a fractured family of some sort? Those families featured in Fractured Families in Fiction at Tucson Festival of Books moderated by Robin Shambach are fractured slightly more than average. Tayari Jones, Victor Lodato, Lisa Tucker and Diana Abu-Jaber discuss how they reveal secrets, share multiple perspectives to shape a story and use the role of place in their novels.

 

 

Secrets

Abu-Jaber likes the mystery that secrets lend her story. They provide interest for the reader, but they also serve to keep her interested in her writing. She tries to put clues together as she writes, but even with planning there's always something to figure out. How the characters cope with this secret is at the center of the story.

"As a reader, I like to feel like I'm in on it," says Abu-Jaber. As the reader watches the drama unfold, we know that the secret is not sustainable but we want to know who can deal with the truth and who can't.

Lodato says his characters often keep secrets from him. Half of the secrets revel themselves to him as he writes. "It's such an exciting moment for me and I want to preserve that for the reader," he says. "As a playwright, I want to get to a point where I don't know what happens next." Lodato says it is a process of discovery.

Tucker employs both techniques, that of reader knowing secrets and not knowing secrets. "I don't want the reader to worry, but they won't know all the details," she says. She wants that element of surprise and possibility without red herrings.

Perspective and Family Roles

While secrets shape character development, perspective allows authors to advance a story without fully revealing secrets to the characters. "I need a spy on the other side of the wall," says Jones. How does she decide which character's perspective to include? "One who has the best observations and most interesting point of view."

Abu-Jaber wants to examine a story line from the point of view of all the characters involved. They will have completely different perspectives that shifts the understandings of an event. "Shifting perspective gives you stories within stories," she says. We can appreciate that.

Jones writes unconventional families that include roles we don't typically see. She asks the question, "How far do we go to have a family?" Lodato elaborates that most novels are about being in a family or wanting to be part of a family. "Family is what literature is about and usually the more fractured the more interesting," he says. People relate to these unexplored family roles and the different ways in which we are fractured. Jones says she was struck by how many people revealed to her after the publication of Silver Sparrow that they are secret children.

The Role of Place

Jones sets her books in Atlanta in the 1980s because that time and place has passed and is no more. She says, "I want to record it because it won't be recorded as nonfiction." She sees Americans as growing more homogenous and feels that in the same way that accents inflect speech, the accent of place marks you. "If you don't set your novel in a certain place, you lose your accent," she says.

The setting in Abu-Jaber novel Birds of Paradise crosses over into her real-world family. She says, "I'm kinda jealous of Tayari's sense of place." She goes on to say she wrote about Miami, FL because, "if you have kids you have to commit to a place." Up to this point her writing has been "nomadic" she says, referring to the fact that she sets her books in different places. Facing family expansion, she explored the parental nightmare of Miami, particularly where it concerns body, beauty and appearances where women are concerned. She sees Miami as a "metaphor for a beauty cage."

Lodato, a native of New Jersey, didn't realize until later in childhood that his name ended with an "r". He couldn't wait to escape and none of his books have been set there, but that his new book is similarly lacking in "r"s. Like Abu-Jaber, he's at home in his next novel.

Tucker says she has a strong sense that this country is not homogenized. Being from Missouri she's especially sensitive to class issues. People from her hometown can't wait to get out only to find the opportunities they pursued aren't available to those with restricted means. The place of her characters are tied into their economic place.

On the List

Silver Sparrow by Jones
Mathilda Savitch by Lodato
The Winters in Bloom by Tucker
Birds of Paradise by Abu-Jaber

Moderator Robin Shambach is an obvious reader and fan. A Principal at BWS Architects, she constructed the sort of solid environment required when discussing fractured families. She framed a panel discussion that allowed for the authors to express their thoughts and audience members to inquire further, facilitating a conversation rather than pushing a point of view. Finally, she reminded us the importance of becoming a Friend of the Tucson Festival of Books.

You can find @Tayari, @LTuckerWriter and @dabujaber on Twitter. Follow @Bookmans on Twitter to learn where we are, what we're up to and who we're meeting.