New York Times Book Review Essay
My essay is in the New York Times Book Review!
I’m really excited about this essay. I had a great time doing all the interviews—I interviewed over 25 authors, librarians, publishers, editors, and booksellers about the current state of YA literature, and the fine line between YA and adult lit, and I learned so much about the YA genre and the publishing industry. Over the next few weeks, I’m going to be posting excerpts of the interviews that couldn’t be included in the essay (it’s only 1400 words, so many of the great quotes got cut.) So check back if you want to hear more from Mark Haddon, Markus Zusak, Justine Larbalestier, and others on this subject.
One funny thing about these interviews: in Brooklyn, we lived in a small apartment where the only door was the bathroom door. Since it was the only room that had any privacy and quiet, I did most of the interviews for this essay in the bathroom, on the phone. (My sister told her friends that I did the interviews in the bathroom, and they thought she meant in person. “Your sister interviewed Sherman Alexie and James Patterson in her bathroom?” one friend asked.)
Um, no. Though I kind of like the idea of sitting in my bathtub, interviewing Sherman Alexie. Or maybe he would be the one in the bathtub? Either way, it’s a nice thing to imagine. (Though perhaps not exactly complying with proper journalistic ethics.)
Now that we’re in Austin, I have my own office, and I don’t have to conduct interviews in the bathroom. We have a really nice bathtub though, so maybe I’ll call some writer up and interview them there, for old time’s sake.
Filed in Books 14 Comments so far
Liz B on 19 Jul 2008 at 10:12 am #
Loved the article! A lot of good stuff to think about. And I’m kind of liking the idea of a talkshow called “in the bathroom.”
Miss Erin on 19 Jul 2008 at 11:33 am #
I really enjoyed the article. I can’t wait to read more of the interviews.
TadMack on 19 Jul 2008 at 12:09 pm #
Wow — I still can’t believe that someone said — to your face that it was a “shame,” but …I should believe it, after everything. I actually had a “friend” ask me if I didn’t ever want to write “something better” someday.
The bit about doing watercolors of cats cracked me up — Looking forward to the rest of the interviews.
Alison on 19 Jul 2008 at 1:08 pm #
Great essay! I’m in nearing the end of my first draft of something that I believe is a “crossover” story and I hope it finds the right spot on the bookstore shelves, wherever that may be. I look forward to reading your book.
Deeker on 19 Jul 2008 at 6:59 pm #
You go, YA girl! I will buy extra copies of the Book Review for you tomorrow. So great to read the actual essay after living through accounts of its genesis. How’s Sewanee? How are the gin and tonics?
Helen on 20 Jul 2008 at 8:27 am #
I am so proud of you, ME Rabb. I woke up early this morning to grab copies of the NY Times. I loved the article and it inspired me to order more copies of Cures for Heartbreak to send to friends.
Go YA!!!
Margo on 20 Jul 2008 at 11:35 am #
Liz, do you think I can get PBS to host my “In the Bathroom” talk show? I wouldn’t mind a new career as a Charlie Rose/Barbara Walters type, but in a bubble bath…
Erin, TadMack, and Alison, thanks so much for your comments!
Thanks, Helen!!
Deeker, it’s not the same without you here. And you’re not going to believe this: Pop’s Happyland closed two years ago. It’s terrible. I don’t know how the conference can exist without it.
Heidi Estrin on 21 Jul 2008 at 2:06 pm #
Hey Margo, GREAT essay! The quotes are hilarious and I love the way you made it all hang together so well. Plus, it’s important for people to realize what they’re missing by not taking YA (and even children’s) lit more seriously. One of your interviewees said adults wouldn’t wander into the YA section to look for something to read for themselves, but she’s wrong. I do that.
Ayse Erin on 21 Jul 2008 at 2:12 pm #
I discovered you thanks to this article. This blog is great (you can’t go wrong with food and books can you?) and I can’t wait to read more of your work, no matter how it’s labeled! I have written a short story that received a prize last month and I couldn’t say what type of literature it is! It is called “Le petit parachutiste” (the little parachutist – I am writing in French) and it’s the story of a firework that ends up on the back of a whale. In marketing terms, I don’t think there’s such a thing as appealing to everyone, but I hope that literature will be less divided into narrow categories to enable people to discover stories that a wrong label would have kept away from them.
Andrea Rapp on 23 Jul 2008 at 7:17 am #
I, too, have found some of the best reads in the YA, or J section of a library. Esther Hautzig’s memoir, The Endless Steppe, is one of my all-time favorites; I’ve recommended it to several women, and they all loved it.
Lois Lowry’s The Giver is another book that I think had a fascinating plot and food for thought for all ages.
I’m looking forward to reading Margo’s newest (albeit YA) book; it arrived at our library last week.
Margo on 23 Jul 2008 at 11:40 am #
Thanks, Heidi–I shop in the YA section too, and have all my life…
Ayse, congratulations on your story prize. I also think short stories can “crossover” too–Seventeen magazine used to excerpt adult novels such as The Lovely Bones. I agree with you that hopefully, someday, all these literary categories will disappear.
Andrea, I’m going to check out The Endless Steppe–thanks for the recommendation.
Lisa Silverman on 25 Jul 2008 at 3:02 pm #
A couple of people sent me the link for your essay and I thought it was really thoughtful and very well written. I am a librarian and always have to read so many things, but the way I keep up with YA lit mostly is by listening to it on audiotape. These productions are so well done, usually, that it is such a pleasure to decide which one to hear next. Can you convince the powers-that-be to make an audio version of your book? Sherman Alexie read his himself, and it was wonderful. “In My Hands”, by Jennifer Armstrong and Irena Gut Opdyke, about Irena’s experiences saving Jews in Poland, was so brilliant that I recommend it to adults all the time. Same with “The Endless Steppe”. The Phillip Pullman –Dark Materials was done with a full cast and adults would love it. Virgina Euwer Wolff and Nancy Farmer have titles that would interest adults too, and we have discussed “The Giver” and “Summer of My German Solider” and the fabulous “Book Thief” in my adult book groups in the past.
Things are complicated and I love the idea of making a general section of good books without the YA label. Where would you put “Tree Grows in Brooklyn” or “I Capture the Castle”? They would be great as YA books, but I guess they’re not considered as such.
Anyway, great work getting this problem noticed with such a good essay!
Andrea Rapp on 29 Jul 2008 at 7:09 am #
Margo, I went to my first AJL (Assn. of Jewish Librarians) convention in 1993, only because Esther Hautzig, author of The Endless Steppe, was going to be there. BTW, Endless Steppe was the first book, I believe, to receive a Sydney Taylor Award.
Anyway, when I saw Mrs. Hautzig, I went up to her and told her, I came to New York to this convention, to meet you! To me, she was like the proverbial “rock star” that I wanted to see and speak with.
There was one incident in her book (finding her way home in the snowstorm, for others who may remember, and the mystical thing that happened) that I had to ask her about–did it really happen?
When my oldest son was 10, and I still read aloud to him, I read him a chapter a night from The Endless Steppe. When I got to the last page, last sentence, for some reason, we both burst into tears!
The vignettes in another book of hers, called Remember Who You Are, are also very vivid and moving. I’ve seen Remember Who You Are classified as both adult and YA.
Margo on 30 Jul 2008 at 5:54 pm #
Lisa, thank you! I really hope there will be an audio version sometime. I Capture the Castle is one of my favorite books of all time. It’s published as adult, but I’m sure if it was written today, it would be published as YA. “I write this sitting in the kitchen sink” is one of my favorite first lines in all of literature.
Andrea, that’s so cool that you got to meet Esther Hautzig in person. A librarian I met at AJL actually knew Sydney Taylor herself–I was in absolute awe.