Interview with Vulpes Libris

Vulpes Libris has published an interview with Maria.

You can read the full interview (by Lisa Glass) here.

Here’s a little taster:

LG: Yes. Your characters are young and appear to be exploring what’s what in the world. They also seem uncomfortable in their own bodies. I’m thinking of Patrick’s physical awkwardness, Lou’s emerging sexual power and tendency to blush and her voyeurism and John’s abnormal height and…

MJH: I think the insistent bewilderment about being alive goes hand in hand with physical awkwardness. I think, therefore, I’ll always give my characters some kind of deformity (small or large) as a kind of motif, if nothing else, to highlight or reinforce this lack of ease. Ultimately, I want to write tragedy; good, arresting tragedy. I want to achieve a plain authenticity of tragedy, in unadorned prose, the writer made invisible, with all artifice hidden. I want, also, to deal in the ‘unconscious life of the mind’ (to borrow a phrase from Knut Hamsun.) And to this end, my characters will always have something conspicuously wrong with them; mind and body, but not so grotesquely as to become characters that a reader can’t readily identify with.

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One Response to “Interview with Vulpes Libris”

  1. Lesley Connelly says:

    When I read ‘This is How’ I could not help but have in mind a person whom I know well. I think that his behaviour is easy to both understand and explain, given that he was violently abused by his step-father. He suffers from constant pain in his neck and shoulders and frequent headaches. Drinking helps to alleviate the pain. This does not surprise me, given his background and that he is alone and has a very stressful job. He is prone to outbursts of rage. He is also highly intelligent, well educated and has a quick and cutting wit. When I read the book, I felt unsettled by the lack of explanation for his behaviour. I discussed this with my book group. Several of them were of the opinion that it was your intention that he was autistic. They believed that his awkwardness, inability to understand the consequences of his own actions and his obsessive behaviour were indications of this. I wonder, what your own understanding of Patrick’s behaviour is as I found this explanation unsatisfying. Are they right? Was I wrong?

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