Anne Tyler

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화요일, 1/11/2024

 

장편소설로는 두 여성 작가 George Eliot과 Anne Tyler의 작품을 나는 가장 많이 읽은 것 같다. 그래봐야 각각 대여섯 소설이지만 말이다. 어제 뉴욕 타임즈에서, 83세에 스물다섯 번째 소설을 내는 Anne Tyler 인터뷰 기사를 읽었다. 그 소설이 오늘 출판된 걸 보니, 예상대로, 인터뷰 기사가 통례로 출판 하루 이틀 전에 나오는 서평의 대신인 걸 알겠다. 기사 제목처럼, 그리고 내용처럼, Tyler가 신작 얘기를 굳이 피해서였다.

 

"나는 책에 대해 이야기하기를 잘 못해요. 읽고 나서는 던지고 새 책을 읽어요." Tyler가 인터뷰에서 한 이 말이 내게는 쏙 들어왔다. 나도, 읽고 나면, 읽으면서 생각했을 테니, 하고 다음 책이나 다음 것들을 읽고 싶은 마음이 늘 앞서는 까닭이다. 읽는 것을 즐긴다. 이것에 대해서도, 이 포스트 맨 아래 인용한 대로, Anne Tyler가 잘 표현했다: "There’s something addictive about leading another life at the same time you’re living your own.”

 

Anne Tyler에 대해 재밌게 읽었다, 여느 단편소설 못지않게. 아래 기사에서 (혹 관심이 가지만 뉴욕 타임즈 온라인 구독자가 아닌 이를 위해) 좀 많이 발췌한다.

 

At 83, Anne Tyler Has a New Novel. She’d Rather Talk About Anything Else.

By Elisabeth Egan

Elisabeth Egan’s first Anne Tyler novel was “Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant.” Her favorite is “Ladder of Years.”

Feb. 10, 2025

 

When her first book, “If Morning Ever Comes” was published in 1964, the Times’s critic described it as “an exceedingly good novel, so mature, so gently wise and so brightly amusing that, if it weren’t printed right there on the jacket, few readers would suspect that Mrs. Tyler was only 22.”

 

She won a Pulitzer Prize for “Breathing Lessons” in 1989, and is a three-time finalist for the National Book Award. Her novels have sold 13 million copies worldwide, and a few have been made into movies, including “Earthly Possessions” (1977) and “The Accidental Tourist” (1985).

 

“I don’t do well discussing books,” she said. “I read it, toss it, read a new one.”

 

She quit writing reviews years ago.

 

In 1991, Tyler weighed in on “Object Lessons,” Anna Quindlen’s debut novel, for the Times. “It was a mixed review but I learned something from it about how to blend back story into plot,” Quindlen wrote in an email. “More important, I learned that it was possible to be a literary household name and yet be open and generous with someone new to the game.”

 

Moriarty continued, “Sometimes when I sit down to write I will pick up an Anne Tyler book, read a page, and then tell myself, ‘OK, Liane, just do that.”

 

Tyler admires authors like Claire Keegan, who’s only written a couple of novels; she fears she’s written too many and wouldn’t mind lopping off the first few on her list. She recommended “Behind You is the Sea” by Susan Muaddi Duraj, whom she met through her novelist friend Madison Smartt Bell.

 

 

 

사진(위, 아래): 위 기사에서

 

 

 

Anne Tyler가 인터뷰에서, 나도 인상적으로 읽은, 아일랜드의 Claire Keegan 같은 작가에 감탄한다며, 굳이 요청받았는지도 모르겠는데, 단 한 소설 Susan Muaddi Darraj의 "Behind You Is The Sea"를 추천한 게 궁금해서, 마침 도서관에 있길래 당장 빌려 왔다. 우선, Darraj가 젊은 팔레스타인계 미국 작가이고 Tyler처럼 볼티모어에 살며 소설의 주제도 발치모아에 사는 팔레스타인 이민들의 삶인 것을 알겠다. Keegan. Darraj. 역시 Anne Tyler구나.

 

 Anne Tyler 소설은 이 블로그에서 검색해 보니 2019년에만 4권을 읽었다. George Eliot도 그러면서 떠오른 거였다. 책 세일에서 우연히 눈에 띈 "Silas Marner" 이어 "Middle March" 등, 삼사십 대에 한동안 소설은 그녀의 책만 읽다시피 했을 거다. 내 블로그 포스트 "Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant"에서 거기 'link' 시킨 "Attention, Please, Ann Tyler Has Something to Say"를 지금 또 읽어 보는데 이런 구절이 있다:

 

As a child she read a lot — sometimes books like “Little Women” over and over again — but even in high school it never occurred to her to be a writer, because she was assigned books like “Silas Marner,” and “Julius Caesar” and she knew she could never write like that.

 

두 구절 더 인용한다:

 

When she was 14, living outside of Raleigh, she had a revelation when she read Eudora Welty’s “A Curtain of Green and Other Stories.” ... " I was just flabbergasted. I said, she’s writing my life, people I know, and it’s not Shakespearean English. She’s just telling what’s real out there that she sees."

 

She has no plan to retire. “What happens is six months go by after I finish a book,” she said “and I start to go out of my mind. I have no hobbies, I don’t garden, I hate travel. The impetus is not inspiration, just a feeling that I better do this. There’s something addictive about leading another life at the same time you’re living your own.”