They weren’t there originally but my editor, Amy Hundley, said this is claustrophobic and I said, “That’s what I was going for!” Then I thought about it and realized, yes, the story needs room to breathe, so I added those chapters and love how it turned out.īrian S: It’s still claustrophobic, but if I hadn’t had those brief moments, I might not have made it through. And after reading some of your essays, I already knew you had it.īrian S: Those third person sections were necessary, just to give me breathing space as a reader. I could see the psychological stuff being a “you either have it, or you don’t” thing. What has changed is the novel’s structure, fleshing out some of the secondary characters, and adding the third person sections. The psychological energy has been the same since the beginning.
I revised twice-both times, a couple of weeks at a time. I realized more of her story needed to be told and so I gave in and wrote the novel. Roxane: After I wrote “Things I Know About Fairy Tales,” Mireille just wouldn’t let me alone. Rebecca: How long was the revision process? It seems spot on, psychologically speaking, and I’m wondering if all of that was there in the beginning. I was also wondering how long you’ve been walking around with her… Rachel: I remembered Mireille from Ayiti, and had to go back and reread her story.
Roxane: I wrote it in the summer of 2011.īrian S: Just in one summer? That’s amazing. This Rumpus Book Club interview was edited by Brian Spears.īrian S: How long did it take you to write this book?
To learn how you can become a member of the Rumpus Book Club, click here. Every month The Rumpus Book Club hosts a discussion online with the book club members and the author, and we post an edited version online as an interview. This is an edited transcript of the book club discussion. The Rumpus Book Club chats with Roxane Gay about her new novel An Untamed State, fairy tales, and the reality of violence that women face every day, everywhere in the world.