An Interview with Lise Haines
by
Kathryn Pope
The
newest novel by Lise Haines, Small Acts of Sex and Electricity, shows the
complex relationships between two women who have been friends since childhood
and the questions that are raised when one of these women disappears. Throughout
the story, Haines illuminates the complex realities of family, friendship, and
envy, showing the ultimate triumph when a woman chooses her own life, rather
than the life of another. In this interview, we hear about how Small Acts of Sex
and Electricity was written.
KP:
I'm curious about how you began working on Small Acts of Sex and Electricity?
LH: I’m one of those writers who simply start with a picture, word,
phrase, or voice. I don’t work with a plot or outline. The first image I saw was
Mattie and Jane meeting when they were eight years old. I saw one girl, rather
insecure, sitting on her steps, then Jane approaches with this magnetic energy
that Mattie is both intimidated by and attracted to. Initially, I didn’t plan to
write about their adult lives.
KP: How did that happen?
LH: That’s one of the playful aspects of fiction writing. I was curious
about their relationship and I realized, eventually, that it extended out for
years.
The entire book was a long haul, and I went through a couple of large revisions,
which meant moving a lot of material around. So the beginning became the point
at which their relationship comes unglued, rather than their first meeting.
KP: In many ways, your story is a look at both attachment and detachment,
as Jane and Mattie try on different lives. Did you know the story would progress
this way when you started?
LH: It definitely has to do with attachment and detachment, how they both
attempt to detach painful things. Mattie has a difficult time forming lasting
relationships with anyone, really, except Jane and her family. We also see a
scene in which Jane is sitting in her living room folding socks and how part of
her simply wants to walk away and detach from the family she’s created. Both
women deal with childhood abandonment, and abandonment certainly produces a
complex set of responses around attachment and detachment. That’s part of the
reason they’re drawn to each other, because they have that common ground.
KP: As I read, I was particularly intrigued in the rhythm of your
dialogue – especially in Mattie’s original and almost syncopated voice. How did
you come to write Mattie’s voice this way?
LH: I wrote it in the same way that I address all dialogue, which is to
hear the characters’ voices in my head, to see an interior film of Jane and
Mattie sitting on the deck or walking down the beach, imagining what Mattie
would say and how Mike would respond. Mattie’s had so many conversations with
Mike in her head that she's practiced what she'll say to him.
But she holds a fair amount of hesitancy and guilt. She’s being cautious, trying
not to say the wrong thing to Mike. And there’s a rhythm to her desire and how
she’s trying to win him, seduce him, or be closer to him through words. Mattie’s
a storyteller and storytelling takes on rhythms. And of course there’s the scene
where she’s telling a story as they’re making love.
KP: She seems like a hesitant person.
LH: Yes, she’s pretty insecure. As an art appraiser, she’s afraid that
someone’s going to find out that she’s not talented enough, not smart enough.
You can see how this happens when you meet her parents and see how they operate.
She was never praised or even really welcomed into the family. Mattie’s parents
are sailors and drinkers and spend their time at yacht clubs or off sailing, so
Mattie has this desire to go out on the boat, to understand this thing that’s
crowded her out. Her mother quickly dismisses the idea, of course, and Mattie
stays landlocked.
KP: I got the sense that Mattie became more self-confident in time.
LH: Mattie’s willing to let Jane and Mike go. When she returns to Chicago
and starts working on a mansion there, she indulges in and manipulates that
world as if she owns it. When she wants to drive one of the estate cars, she
learns how to hotwire it. Then when Livvy comes to visit, Mattie sees herself in
Livvy and she’s able to parent, in her own dopey way.
KP: I'm curious about how Mattie’s job as an appraiser came to be part of
the story?
LH: I saw the grandmother’s house on Miramar Beach, filled with fine arts
and antiques, and it made perfect sense to me that this would be something
Mattie would be attracted to. She wanted to be part of Franny. She wanted to do
something that would please Franny. And this career is well-suited to Mattie's
m.o. She’s detail-oriented and curious.
KP: What made you choose Miramar Beach as your setting?
LH: It’s my favorite place to walk. There’s coastal access, and the
distance between the homes and the water is very narrow, so not only are you
engaged in breathtaking nature but you’re also aware of the homes. Some are
narrow or small, but they’re right on the edge of the water. A friend said
recently that it’s as if Mattie has had to go to the edge of the continent to
understand who she is.
There’s elation in being in that environment, and I envy the people who get to
live there – or rent those homes for the summer. I was interested in
understanding what it would be like for a character like Mattie to have her nose
pressed against the glass. Her parents are so transient that they never bother
to unpack, and you feel that they always find a way to have someone else pick up
the tab at the yacht club, that they’re scammers who run out on the rent. Mattie
isn’t poor, by any means, but she longs to have what these other people have.
KP: Including Jane?
LH: Exactly. It’s all manifest in Jane and her family. Even if much of
this is illusion.
KP: How was the process of writing Small Acts of Sex and Electricity
different than writing your first novel (In My Sister’s Country)?
LH: My first novel came out whole. The majority of the book was written
in 6 months, and then I did some revision, but really it came out pretty whole.
I wrote it when my daughter was young and took naps. The second she would drop
off to sleep, I would write. How I got so much done, I don’t know.
Small Acts of Sex and Electricity came at a time of upheaval and
transition. I didn’t have the nice rhythm to my day that I had when I wrote the
first book. I was in graduate school as well so my ability to get it out whole
didn’t happen, though that’s the way books work: some come quickly, some take a
long time.
KP: You’ve also been a poet?
LH: I wrote poetry for many years. I had a chapbook of poems published at
one point, but when I decided to shift to fiction, I abandoned poetry, because I
wanted to understand how to write fiction.
KP: What made you make the switch?
LH: It was a combination of things. I liked the idea of a new challenge
and I always loved reading novels. I think it also came out of a conversation
with a poet, Kenneth Rexroth. This was many years ago. He talked about the fact
that women on the poetry circuit made a great deal less money than men—something
he disdained. Across the board, they just didn’t fare as well as male poets—in
academia, in publication. Knowing this influenced my thinking in some way. What
I should have asked him, of course, was how women novelists fared. I’m sure it
would have been the same lousy answer. I was probably just looking for an excuse
to explore fiction.
KP: How do you think your background in poetry affects your fiction?
LH: My love of language was nurtured through toiling in poetry, through
listening to Auden and Bishop. Mulling over each phrase, each word, each
sentence is crucial to how I work. Yes, I’m thinking about the story and the
characters and the small actions and so forth, but I read each word aloud over
and over again until, for me, it sings. I owe that to a love of poetry. I
remember being read poetry to, as a child.
KP: What has been the hardest thing for you as a writer?
LH: The career. I feel very lucky (knock on wood) that I can sit down and
write, day in and day out and always feel engaged and love the process. Some
writers are tormented by their work. But establishing a reputation is a daunting
task. It means building a readership, convincing editors that this book is the
book that they need to publish instead of the ten thousand they’ve got waiting
on their desks, and then going through the anxiety of promotion. We all know
friends who have instant success, the ones who hit it early and well. But the
average author would have a tough time supporting herself on her books alone.
Everybody longs for a movie contract.
KP: I’m guessing there are a lot of writing students who feel this way.
LH: As a teacher, you want to give your students the best chance in every
respect. I talk with them about the big picture of their work and I line edit.
But I also educate them about the publishing process. I try to convey something
about the reality of the career without discouraging them—and I give them
shortcuts where I can—so they can get their work read and published.
KP: Can I ask if you're working on another project?
LH: I am working on a new novel. And I’m in the superstitious mode -- not
wanting to talk about it yet. It’s a big departure from what I’ve done in the
past. Each book is very different. I may follow the career of someone like John
Fowles, who took on a different book every time he wrote. I’m having a good deal
of fun with the new work.
In
addition to Small Acts of Sex and Electricity (Unbridled Books, 2006),
Lise Haines is the author of In My Sister’s Country (Putnam, 2002). Her
short stories and essays have appeared in many journals, including Ploughshares,
Agni, Crosscurrents, Third Rail, and Post Road. She has been a finalist in the
PEN Nelson Algren Awards and for the Paterson Fiction Prize. She has been Writer
in Residence at Emerson College and is a Visiting Briggs-Copeland Lecturer at
Harvard. She has also taught at Stonecoast and the UCLA Extension Writers'
Program. Ms. Haines received her MFA from Bennington College and a Creative
Writing degree from Syracuse University.
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