Up Close and Personal with Francine Prose
On October 21st, acclaimed author and the current Sidney Harman Writer-In-Residence, Francine Prose came to Baruch College and shared a reading of one of her short stories, “Hansel and Gretel.” Although we expected to hear an excerpt from her newest novel Goldengrove, Prose wanted to read something different, after all there’s “only so much you can read on a book tour.” Afterwards there was a Q&A where Prose provided great insight into her personality and style of writing.
In her book Reading Like a Writer, a New York Times best seller, Francine Prose writes that “a workshop can be useful, a good teacher can show you how to edit your work…but writers learn by reading the work of their predecessors” (2). Her extensive knowledge and understanding of effective language is clear as she devotes each chapter to a specific aspect of writing, “Chapter 1: Close Reading, Chapter Two: Words…” The very skills she wrote about were apparent in her descriptive and unique characters, as we learned about Lucia who “doesn’t believe in seatbelts – [a] fascist plot,” Polly’s “strange, blond, handsome” husband, Nelson, and Lucia’s gorgeous yet “doomed” daughter, Marianna.
Prose pulled the readers in with her unconventional story of Polly, who spent a torturous weekend upstate with Lucia. Her fluidity and vivid imagery translated through her precise reading as the audience felt the pain of this weekend gone terribly wrong. Prose’s voice brought life to the words on the page as we imagined Lucia’s eccentric and inhospitable demeanor. Prose’s effortless humor entertained the audience when she ended her reading and reminded the crowd that there’s “nothing to fear but your lover disguised as an Albanian.”
During the Q&A Prose revealed that the story was fiction, but contained some of her own experiences. She stated that it’s almost inevitable not to include details in your work that don’t reflect your personality. While some fear revealing too much of themselves or pressures of writing a certain way, Francine Prose mentioned that she writes without boundaries. In fact, Prose openly discussed that she doesn’t have the plot twists before she begins her writing; although she “wishes she did,” after doing “one hundred thirty drafts” before finishing Goldengrove. Prose’s genuine and unrehearsed answers allowed the audience to connect with her, and realize that not even renowned authors write award-winning novels on the first try, or know the plot direction beforehand. Prose exposed her true character and admitted that she writes because she “couldn’t do anything else,” stating, “I can’t even drive!” Perhaps one of the most important pieces of advice Prose shares is what she wished she knew before graduating high school, “whatever your life is now – it’s going to change.” Beginning as a young girl who started writing ghost stories to scare and ultimately quiet the children she babysat, to finishing her recent book tour where she joked, “I wish I could take a nap and read – that’s what I’ve been doing,” Prose’s life has been quite an unexpected and rewarding adventure full of change.
