Interview questions Angela Sanchez Vicente
Translation Alejandra Elisseche
Fiona
McFarlane´s debut
as a novelist shows us a world
full of fear, self-improvement, and the battle against aging.
Must people be
either good
or bad? Is everything black or white? Are there
gray areas?
In “El convidat nocturn” (The Night Guest), we can
deeply assess human beings and get in touch with our feelings. Relationships difficulties and
confidence give
this book an
introspective perspective.
Angle
Editorial makes
our approach to the writer and the person within it possible.
Let her introduce herself!
When did you
realize that the world of words was waiting for you? I was a very lucky child – both of
my parents read to me every day, and my mother worked in a bookstore before
becoming a children’s librarian. I understood that real people wrote books and
I can’t remember a time when I didn’t want to be one of those people. In fact,
I wrote my first “novel” at the age of six. It was eleven chapters long and
called ‘The Fake God.’ The mother dies on the second page, which my own mother
has never quite forgiven me for, but I knew how fairytales worked: that one or
both parents has to die in order to get the plot moving.
This novel
has had an overwhelming success in terms of reviews and sales. Was this success a surprise
for you? It’s all been a wonderful surprise.
When you’re writing a book, you’re completely alone with it. You hope readers
will exist for it at some time in the future, but I find it best not to think
about that as I write; I need to stay in conversation with the work as it
unfolds, rather than my future hopes for it. Then, after all this solitary
time, it’s so gratifying to find that readers really respond to the story you
have to tell.
We
consider you one of the most respected foreigner writers in current literature.
Could you tell us, in your personal opinion, who would you add to that
category? Thank you! The living
writer whose mind and work I most respect is Marilynne Robinson, author of
‘Housekeeping’ and most recently ‘Lila’. I love both her fiction and her
essays. She writes with great beauty, intelligence and compassion.
How did
the idea of a helpless woman as the plot´s core come up? I heard about an elderly
man whose cleaner convinced him they were married and tried to move into his
house. Unfortunately it wasn’t the first story of this kind I’d encountered –
you read about them all the time – but this one touched me particularly because
the man’s daughter was living overseas at the time, and so was I. At the same
time, I was thinking about a separate idea in which a woman came to believe her
house was haunted by a tiger. When I heard the story about the elderly man, the
two ideas came together, and the woman’s dementia began to make (partial) sense
of the tiger. So Ruth, my main character, was born. I don’t think of her as
entirely helpless. She does become more and more dependent as the book goes on,
but she remains opinionated, forceful and funny, and her mind is very powerful,
even as it’s altered by dementia.
What would you have thought about Frida when she first came up? Frida arrived almost fully
formed. I knew right away that she needed to take up a lot of space, both
physically and temperamentally, but that it should be difficult to define that
space, which is why she changes her hair so often and is so moody. Some people
suspect her from the very beginning and others are as enthralled by her as Ruth
is. Writing Frida’s dialogue and the physicality of her movements were two of
the great pleasures of working on the book.
Are you afraid of
aging? Of course. There are things I look forward to about aging
and I think healthy older age has the potential to be wonderful. I don’t look
forward to the losses that come with time, but what I really fear is infirm old
age and particularly dementia, which we often misunderstand and mismanage. Both
my grandmothers suffered from it, and although dementia isn’t usually
hereditary, I still have a superstitious fear that it’s in store for me.
What
do you think about the people that take advantage of those who are weaker? I think they’re despicable,
but there’s often a fascinating story behind an individual who chooses to
deceive another with such cowardice and cunning, and that’s a large part of
what drew me to the idea of The Night Guest. There’s rarely a fascinating story
behind the systematic, institutionalized exploitation of the weak, which is so
powerful precisely because it’s so faceless. But when we get to see the face of
a predator like Frida, it’s intriguing to explore her complexities and
ambiguities
Without
revealing the end, can you tell us if you believe that Ruth has given a clear
lesson to the entire society? A lot of people tell me
that they call their mothers as soon as they finish the novel, and I love the
idea of all those conversations taking place because of my book. I hope reading
it makes people reflect with compassion and patience on the way we approach old
age and aged care; I particularly love to hear from people involved in aged and
dementia care who have found my book respectful, illuminating and
unsentimental. Many people mention the darkness of The Night Guest, but I love
when readers respond to the fact that Ruth ends the book without fear. For me,
Ruth’s approach to and management of her fear is the most important story in
the novel.
Imagine that you can have dinner with a master of thrillers.
Who would you sit in
front of you? Patricia Highsmith. I’d be fascinated to observe the
elegance and intelligence of her brain as it worked in real time.
Finally,
we would like you to answer our trade mark question. Which is the question that you have
never been asked? Can you answer it?
Have you ever stolen anything? I once took fifty cents (which at the age of about eight
was a significant sum) from my father’s pocket change and felt so guilty about
it (later, having spent it on chocolate) that the next time I had fifty cents I
fabricated a whole story about having found it on the floor near where he kept
his change and gave it to him. That was the beginning and end of my career as a
thief. When I was writing The Night Guest I arranged to meet with a bank employee
in order to ask her what would be the best way to steal a lot of money from an
old person. She seemed rather suspicious of the whole thing! But she still told
me.
Thanks for your time and
attention. We really love your novel.
Wishing lots of success,
Regards,
Angela Sanchez Vicente
Translation: Alejandra Elisseche
