The Sweetness of Forgetting
What can you tell us about your new book The Sweetness of Forgetting?
The Sweetness of Forgetting is the story of Cape Cod bakery owner Hope McKenna-Smith, who discovers that her French-born grandmother, who now has Alzheimer’s, actually has a secret past buried in the Holocaust. As Hope sets out to Paris to put together the pieces of her grandmother’s history, she stumbles upon some deep family secrets and a love story 70 years in the making. And as Hope tries to make things right for her grandmother before it’s too late, she learns some important lessons about her own life, faith, and roles as a mother and recent divorcee.
The North Star bakery has been in the Hope family for generations, passing down recipes from mother to daughter, so is this something that you can relate to from your own mother?
My mother is a wonderful cook, so I think I inherited my passion for cooking from her. But it’s really my grandparents who I remember cooking and talking with as a child. In our family, food always told a story and carried pieces of the past with it, and that became an important part of Hope's journey in the novel too.
In the midst of a recession, your novel is very appropriate for its time, as Hope falls into financial trouble, is this something that was intentional or did the story simply lend itself to this?
When I began writing the novel, I was at a financial low point in my own life; largely because of the recession and the toll it took on the journalism industry (I’ve been a magazine writer for many years). So while I didn’t sit down and say to myself, “I’d like to write about the recession,” I think it came very naturally to me to write about someone who felt like she was buried under a mountain of debt and didn’t know what to do, because that’s how I was feeling in my own life at that time. I’ve found that when pieces of a character’s life reflect the most difficult pieces of your own life, they tend to be more realistic, and easier for readers to connect with.
Emily Giffin has been quoted in saying 'such insight and heart-the characters will stay with you', so how does it feel to have such praise from a world famous author?
Oh, it was wonderful to receive such a nice blurb from Emily. I think the world of her. She and I actually met a few years ago in Atlanta, Georgia, when we were doing a charity book signing at the same time. We were assigned seats next to each other, and when we were introduced, I was thrilled to hear her say that she had read – and loved – my books too. I had always been a fan of hers, but it was a wonderful and flattering surprise to find out that she was fond of my work as well. We live in different cities, so we don’t connect often, but I like her very, very much, both as a writer and as a person.
You have published three novels previously, so what can you tell us about these?
Believe it or not, I’ve actually written six novels previously, but my two young adult novels (When You Wish and After) weren’t published in the UK (largely because they were with a different US publisher with a different foreign rights structure), nor was my second novel, The Blonde Theory, which my UK publisher at the time felt was a very American story (and thus wouldn’t appeal as much to British readers). The three that have been published in the UK by Headline/Little Black Dress are: How to Sleep With A Movie Star, The Art of French Kissing, and Italian for Beginners. The first, How to Sleep With a Movie Star, was my debut novel. It came out in the US in 2006, but I actually wrote it in 2003-04, when I was 24 years old. It’s very reflective of who I was at the time: a young journalist trying to find her place in the world. It’s about a magazine writer whose love life is a disaster – until the whole world mistakenly believes, almost overnight, that she’s having a fling with Hollywood’s hottest movie star. It’s very light and fun, along the lines of Notting Hill. The Art of French Kissing came out in the States in 2008 and is the story of a publicist who flees her life in Orlando to work for a zany rock star in Paris –and who falls in love with someone unexpected in the process. That was a fun one to write; I lived in Paris in 2002, and it’s my favourite city in the world, so I got to insert a lot of my own experience and my own favourite places into that book. Italian for Beginners was about a woman who returns to Rome to find herself –and who uncovers a family secret in the process. All of my previous books were a lot lighter than The Sweetness of Forgetting. I’m quite proud of them, and I think they’re loads of fun, but they represent a lighter, less developed side of me. I think of The Sweetness of Forgetting as the beginning of the next phase in my career, one in which I retain the same approachability and easy writing style that drew readers to my early books, but in which I also delve deeper and tackle weightier, meatier subjects with greater consequence. I’m very proud to have taken this step forward in my career.
You are an experienced journalist, so how much has this background aided your fictional writing?
I think it has helped quite a lot. I believe it has made me approach novel writing like a job (as opposed to an abstract art), which makes it easier for me to stick to deadlines. I also think it has helped me to write realistic dialogue, because I’ve spent years interviewing people and transcribing their quotes. The biggest challenge in going from journalism to novel writing is length; in my articles for People magazine (the magazine I wrote for most regularly) I was encouraged to stick to 250 words for one-page feature stories. A novel is more like 100,000 words! What a difference!
You are a TV presenter for The Daily Buzz, so what can you tell us about this role?
It’s loads of fun! I’ve been working with the program, which is a national morning show across the United States, for about nine years now. I appear once or twice a month. I used to do book and movie reviews for the show, then I spent a year or so doing dating advice, but now I primarily cover travel for the show. That has allowed me the opportunity to travel to some really wonderful places and to share those experiences with our viewers. I’m actually headed to Liverpool and London next month for a television segment! Last year, I got to visit Much Wenlock (the birthplace of the modern Olympics, in western England), and the Isles of Scilly for the show; both were fascinating and lovely places!
You are well travelled between Paris, Los Angeles, New York and Orlando, so which destination is your favourite?
I’ve lived in all those cities, although I now currently live in Orlando. I suppose I’d have to say that Paris is my favourite city in the world. It’s such a writer’s city, such an inspirational place to write. But Orlando is where my mother, my boyfriend and many of my friends live (and where I’ve had a permanent home for a decade now), so I think my heart is there. I also have many dear friends in Los Angeles and New York, so I try to get to both places often. I also love London, Boston and Cork (Ireland), among many other cities!
What is your favourite novel?
Oh, that’s a wonderful question – and I don’t have a good answer! I don’t think I have a favourite, as a matter of fact. In my teens, my favourite novel was the classic The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald. John Green’s amazing young adult novel The Fault In Our Stars is a recent favourite, as is The Book Thief, but I don’t think either would qualify as my favourite book of all time. Perhaps I’m still searching for my favourite book!
What is next for you?
I’m working on two young adult novels, which will be out in 2014 and 2015 in the States (and hopefully in the UK too!), as well as another women’s fiction novel with a target publication date of 2014.