Kingsolver revisiting Tucson to tout 'The Lacuna'

Cathalena E. Burch

Nov. 6, 2009 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- Barbara Kingsolver left Tucson in June 2004 with two years worth of files and notes for her latest novel packed among the towels, dishes and clothes.

Once she settled onto her Virginia farm, she began her research in earnest. It took her a total of seven years and thousands of miles of traveling between the U.S. and Mexico. There she spent endless days "in the human residences as well as the historical archives" of renowned Mexican artist Frida Kahlo; Kahlo's communist husband, painter Diego Rivera; and Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky. She got to know the history, the times and their stories, which she invaded with her fictional character Harrison William Shepherd.

When she was home on the farm -- hours from where she grew up -- she studied newspapers and magazines from the tumultuous 1930s through the '50s -- the time frame of her new novel, "The Lacuna" -- to get a feel for the era.

Then she started writing. And rewriting. And rewriting some more, until she completed what is being called her most ambitious book to date.

In an interview last week, as she prepared for a three-week book tour that brings her to Tucson next Friday, Kingsolver talked about why it took her so long to write "The Lacuna," her first novel in nine years. The book came out Tuesday.

You spent seven years with this. Is that a long time for you?

"That's a long time for anyone. It's a big book. The research was an enormous undertaking."

How did you settle on this topic?

"Well, I've been curious for many years about what strikes me as an uncomfortable relationship between art and politics in the United States. It's unique to this country. Other parts of the world, people consider it sort of an ordinary responsibility of artists to raise the big questions about power and social mores and the relationships between class, gender, ethnicity, power. . . . Mexico celebrates some of its most political artists as national heroes. We don't do that here, to put it mildly. . . .

"In 2001, after 9/11, when I saw that this country had an opportunity to really examine ourselves through the lens of the rest of the world -- the terrorist attack on the U.S. was sort of a moment of self-consciousness, when we really had to ask who are we in the world -- and what I saw was that the national mood did not lean toward self-examination or self-criticism.

"The extent of self-examination was expressed in 'Are you with us or against us?' That's when I realized that as a nation, we're not just uneasy with political artists. We're uneasy with self-criticism in general. . . . I thought it probably went back to the middle of the last century, to the McCarthy era, when this country censored artists quite severely. People lost their jobs and even went to prison for questioning the status quo.

"I had a hunch some legacy of that remained. That was my starting point, to dig into history and see what happened right after World War II that made us so nervous about self-examination."

Was it difficult inserting your fictional character into the lives of Kahlo and Rivera?

"It seemed quite natural. By the time I had done years of research and understood the era as thoroughly as I could, it was not a big step to put my character into the homes of real people. In some sense, my plot was scripted. . . . All of the stuff was real.

"I had to do an enormous amount of research just to know the superstructure of my story and then weave my own fictional plot through the bars of real events.

"I wanted this novel to address genuine questions. I wanted this book to be illuminating, to really lead readers to some answers about these questions. I needed to stick to a framework of real events while making up my own story that has its own kind of suspenseful narrative arch.

"The great thing about a novel is that you can get personal with history and you can bring people into a story in a way that they take it personally."

You tell Shepherd's story through diary entries. Was that your approach all along, or did it evolve as your story unfolded?

"The way I originally conceived of this story was as a lost-and-found manuscript that was presented in this very unconventional way. And I also knew that the narrative voice of this story would be this very unusual voice of this character. Although what you are reading is diary entries, he never uses the first person. He never says, 'I went to the fiesta'; you're just there."

Was it hard developing that unusual voice?

"Part of the reason this book was seven years in the writing, in addition to the research required, was the challenge of the craft in creating this very unusual voice. I wanted to make absolutely sure it was solid and convincing and it wouldn't feel contrived. So that took a lot of writing and rewriting. It took years of writing in this voice to make it my own, to feel completely comfortable in the skin of this narrator."

Are you working on a new novel now?

"I would love to be, but I'm working on answering questions about this book, which is pretty much a full-time occupation for the month. . . . As soon as I can return to writing, I will be working on the next book. And I have several next books cooking."

While you're in Tucson, what are some of the things you'll squeeze into your schedule?

"The top of my list will be the joy of a whole day when I don't have to get on a plane. . . . Every day begins with a flight and ends with delirium. . . . I will be so happy to look at the profile of the Catalina Mountains."

If you go

-- What: An evening with Barbara Kingsolver.

--Presented by: Antigone Books.

--When: 7:30 p.m. next Friday.

--Where: Berger Performing Arts Center, 1200 W. Speedway.

--Cost: $20 in advance at Antigone Books, 411 N. Fourth Ave.; $25 at the door. Proceeds benefit the Community Food Bank.

-- Details: 792-3715.

--Et cetera: Kingsolver will read from "The Lacuna" (Harper, $26.99), her just-released novel. It's her first novel in nine years. Afterward, she will autograph copies of the book.

About the book

"The Lacuna" opens with 12-year-old Harrison William Shepherd plunked into a Mexican island of Eden run by the devil himself, his mother's cruel lover. Half-Mexican, half-American, Shepherd straddles two cultures and identifies with neither as he grows into manhood. His life improbably leads him into the lives of some of history's most vivid characters and events -- working as a cook with famous Mexican artist Frida Kahlo; a stint as a plasterer for painter and communist Diego Rivera; working as Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky's secretary; and ending up as a novelist in North Carolina before finding himself in the center of one of America's darkest chapters, the McCarthy era.

The story is told through diary and journal entries managed by Shepherd's Appalachian stenographer, Violet Brown. It is an ambitious novel, clocking in at 528 pages, and it's Barbara Kingsolver's first novel in nine years. The story might seem as improbable as her character at times, but with Kingsolver's painstaking research and exquisite voice, we forget that this is a work of fiction. Shepherd's journey becomes much more than words on a page; it becomes the mirror that we hold up to this country's much-maligned artists who dared to question.

Contact reporter Cathalena E. Burch at cburch@azstarnet.com or 573-4642

Newstex ID: KRTB-0014-39504493