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Author Chat
With Anita Diamant
Author, "Good Harbor"
Wednesday, Jan. 2, 2002; Noon EST
Anita Diamant became a nationally bestselling writer in 2001 with her first novel, "The Red Tent." Diamant is now back with another book about women's relationships with each other. Her new novel, "Good Harbor," is a tale that captures the bonds of female friendship.
Diamant was online Wednesday, Jan. 2 at Noon EST, to discuss her latest novel.
The transcript follows.
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Washington, D.C.:
What is the major theme that you would like readers to take away from, "Good Harbor," and how do you feel it differs from "The Red Tent?" Also, which book was the more difficult to write?
Anita Diamant: I think the major theme in "Good Harbor" is the importance of friendship in women's lives. I think most women would agree that their friendships with women help keep them sane. But those relationships are also not so visible. It's a secular kind of relationship as opposed to sacred like with a family. So they're not acknowledged for the power they have. So that's the basis.
That's similar to one of the major themes in "The Red Tent" which also honors the relationships between women.
Which was more difficult to write? I'd have to say I'm more in the touch with the difficulties of "Good Harbor." Writing them was very different.
Gaithersburg, Md.:
Ms. Diamant, what was the motivation for you to write your first novel, "The Red Tent?" I thoroughly enjoyed it. I've also found your texts re: conversion to Judaism and Jewish weddings to be very helpful as well! Each book I've read re: conversion has been helpful in its own way, but I found yours to be very personal and welcoming. Thank you!
Anita Diamant: The motivation isn't so inspirational. I had turned 40, had been a journalist for 20 years and wanted to do something different and didn't want to go back to school. I turned to the Bible as a source of story and myth and took a story from there. I was drawn to the stories of the women who are often silent in the Bible. That's why I chose it.
Washington, D.C.:
How do you find the relationships with women in your life are translated into your books?
Anita Diamant: Everthing in my own life gets translated into what I write. SO, of course they're informed by my relationships. I don'th ave any sisters, but have many wonderful women friends and mentors and so my committments to those women and theirs to me all find their way into what I write, although not in a direct autobiographical way, but in the importance and they way they sustain one through hard and good times.
Washington, D.C.:
Have you started on a new book yet and have you ever considered a collection of short stories?
Anita Diamant: I have started on a third novel and its also very different from the other two. It's in very early 19th century rural America. And I'm really just at the beginning so I can't say much about it yet.
I'm not a short story writer. It's not a form I'm drawn to.
Wichita, Kan.:
Are you still a practicing journalist? What kind of journalism do you do?
Anita Diamant: Very little at the moment. I do ocassionally write essays for magazines, but i wrote a year's worth of them for jewishfamilyandlife.com and mostly at this point just ocassionally. But I would consider going back at some point to do more.
Bethesda, Md.:
Are any of your books being considered for translation into major motion pictures?
Anita Diamant: Well, "Red Tent" has been optioned -- which means someone's bought the right to develop it. It's not imminent. "Good Harbor" has been optioned to an independent filmmaker.
Is it important to me? I have to say no. It's wonderful that people see its potential as film, but it's not high on my list... I don't think it'll change the way I write. It's not my dream come true. For people who are more visual, it is. It would be completely different if they get made into a movie, they would be someone else's creation. Not mine anymore.
Arlington, Va.:
Who are some of your favorite authors, male and female? And, which ones do you feel have influenced your writing style?
Anita Diamant: I have a lot of favorites. Sometimes whatever I'm reading at the moment. I've been reading Billie Collins and really enjoying that a lot. My influences often end up with the poets... Pablo Neruda, Whitman, William Carlos Williams. Other favorites include a non-fiction writer M.F.K. Fisher, who is a food writer mostly for the New Yorker, who writes beautiful prose. Really fun and beautiful writing.
I try to re-read "Pride and Prejudice" every few years, "100 Years of Solitude." Those are just a few.
Washington, D.C.:
Anita, how did you get into writing and how hard was it to get published the first time?
Anita Diamant: Writing fiction... I had already published several non-fiction books, but that didn't translate immediately. I learned that I had to finish "The Red Tent" before anyone would even represent it. A lot of people didn't think they could sell it. But then it did sell to a publisher in the first go-round, so that was terrific. It really is a different world.
Arlington, Va.:
Do you ever intend to write any books more broadly focused than just on women? Or just focusing on men?
Anita Diamant: The book I just started seems to have a lot more men. It's not my intention to write just about women and my non-fiction is for both men and women. It's important to me, it's who I am, but it's not a goal of mine to be a writer about women.
Washington, D.C.:
Do you feel there has been an evolution in the types or characteristics of friendship women display to each other now as a result of feminism and equal opportunity rights since the 1960's? I'm wondering if those social ideoligies have skewed what it means to be a women thereby forever changing the framework of female to female relationships.
(If the type of friendships females now have with each other are more reflective of male to male relationships).
Anita Diamant: I disagree with that notion that women's friendships are more like men's. When I talk to audiences about Good Harbor, women often refer to me "Isn't it interesting how different women's friendships are then mens?" I actually think that feminism didn't particularly change the nature of friendships, but put them in greater relief. We see them more, acknowledge them more. The male buddy movie is the paradigm -- like movies of men in war, and women's friendships were less visible in media, movies and plays. They were made out to be more cutthroat. The way we give them more respect as the result of feminism.
Baltimore, Md.:
Hi Anita, I know this isn't related to your new book, but I just want to thank you immensely for "The New Jewish Wedding." It was a great resource to me while I planned my wedding, and I know has been useful to many other Jewish brides! (your book is constantly recommended on message boards at The Knot and WeddingChannel.com). Thank you for making my planning a little less stressful! Good Luck with your new book.
Anita Diamant: Thanks! I love hearing from people who've used the Life Cycle books. And to go back to the male/female thing I think "The New Jewish Wedding" is one of the few wedding books written directly to grooms as well as brides.
Bethesda, Md.:
Do you take part in any writing workshops? If so, how can we get information about them?
Anita Diamant: No, I don't know how to teach people to write. It's an amazing skill, but not one I have. I'm in a writing group, though.
Washington, D.C.:
Has breast cancer touched your life and why did you choose to write about it?
Anita Diamant: It hasn't touched my life physically, but way too many friends have been diagnosed -- friends of friends, sister-in-laws... so it feels so much the part of the universe of American women and I think for women like me who haven't had it personally, the one in eight number always haunts us. Facing the demon was a way to think about it and think through it. It was important to me to have a character who didn't die from it.
Falls Church, Virginia:
I am from Gloucester,MA and spent most of my summers on Good Harbor Beach. I want you to know that when I read your book I could smell the Ocean. I really felt I had come home.
My family stillbelongs to the Synagogue in Gloucester. You made many changes there. Did you every speak with Rabbi Geller about the Jewish Community in Gloucester
Thank you
Anita Diamant: I know Rabbi Geller, but I really fictionalized the synogogue. I did not base it on the one that is actually there. I fictionalized all the institutions.
It's wonderful to hear that I got the landscape correct, but in terms of the institutions -- those I fictionalized. I didn't interview the rabbi, because it's not a story of someone who actually lives in Gloucester.
Red Tent...:
The book blew me away - thank you so much for it! I cried, and not just a tear or two, but body-wracking sobs. It was so well written and so real. True quality that I enjoyed completely.
Anita Diamant: Thank you.
alexandria, virginia:
i am in a bookclub that has selected THE RED TENT as the selection for the january meeting.
because there are a lot of writing in the group, i thought it would be interesting to hear from you how you approach the craft of writing and specifics about THE RED TENT including how long it took your to write it. Also, because it was your first novel, how did you go about getting it published?
in advance, thank you.
Anita Diamant: Well, it took three years to do "The Red Tent." It was my hobby, my project.
I think for me in writing fiction one of the biggest issues is to get out of my own way. The sense of your superego saying "you can't do that" or "this is no good." Quieting that voice is one of the biggest challenges. Especially when breaking into a new genre.
Anita Diamant: This is my first time doing an online chat. It's interesting and it strikes me how nice it is for readers to compose questions. I speak at events a lot and people ask questions via microphone and that often inhibits people from getting up.
It's great to be in a more comfortable setting.
Thank you.
washingtonpost.com:
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