On Monday night some of my bookclub friends and I went to see an interview with the Irish Canadian author Emma Donoghue at the HotDocs here in Toronto. She just released her latest novel Paris Express a few weeks ago. The interview and the book signing at the end were for this book.
Ms. Donoghue had a lot to say about this book. The interviewer did not have to probe her much with questions. The stories from the author just poured out, and she kept us entertained for all of the one hour we spent with her. Also she was very quick on her toes as well as very articulate. A great author does not always translate into a good speaker, but that is not Emma Donoghue’s problem by a long shot. And that was amazing for us audience 🙂
She talked about how her living in Paris for 1 year, and being curious about her neighbourhood of Monparnasse brought her to the story of a steam engine train derailment in October of 1895, and looking at photos of the engine hanging out from the front of the train station Gare Montparnasse gave her the seed of the idea for writing this book. And with a year on her hand in the city of Paris, she was able to soak in the environment and stories that brought her book to life. She talked about all the research that went into writing a book about myriad of characters that could possibly have been on that train based on newspaper articles and archives of the people who were around in Franch at the time, or the events that were unfolding in that particular time in history. A number of characters in the book actually existed, including the train crew. With this mix of fictional and real stories, as well as people, Emma Donoghue has written a very interesting book about a real incident brought to life in fiction, but rooted firmly in the world that did exist as we are able to see it from today’s lens. It helped her that France bureaucracy keeps detailed records and archives of their citizens, and the author was able to access them for that particular time in history.
But besides her telling of how this book came to be, and all the work that went into it, she was also very candid about her writing life, her success with her 2010 novel Room, that got made into a successful movie, her brush with glamour at the Oscars, writing in different genre including screenwriting for Room…and the mention of her kids, and how she works with them around without waiting for the perfect environment that most people associate with writing.
She was funny, she was down to earth, and she was full of anecdotes and stories. The one thing she said that really struck me is that she keeps her writing going even in the midst of doing a book tour or traveling for work. Because in the middle of the ego trip or the complete annhilation of the ego that could be a book tour or reading based on how many people and who show up, her writing keeps her rooted to her real job of writing, and not get stuck in the noise of what people think of her and her work. That is one lesson I wish to keep from her talk yesterday.
If I was a fan of her just based on her work before this talk, I am now a fan of her as a person and a fellow creative too. I plan to look through her list of books that I haven’t heard of or read, and partake into those little gems…I know these are treats waiting for me…