Hannah Pittard

Hannah Pittard talked a bit about this book at a reading I went to this evening, in which she shared: if she had it to do over again she would actually leave out the character of Nora Lindell. The initial germ of the novel was her observation that her male friends looked back nostalgically on the past in a way that she didn't notice her female friends doing; and indeed this focus on the past, particularly a certain age range (what Bruce Springsteen was singing about in "Glory Days" I suppose) is what this book is about, not what happens to Nora. Nora, who was supposed to be dead in the novel's conception, except that Pittard couldn't bring herself to actually write Nora's death into creation, leaving her fate up in the air.

I really liked this novel when I read it when it came out in 2011; now that it's re-entered my consciousness I'm gonna have to go re-read it, I do believe.… (mais)

This is a tough book.

It's well written and compelling but it's also confusing and unpleasant. I do not know how true to life this version of life from the POV of boys and men is (especially since it's written by a woman) but I really, really hope that it is way off base. It makes most men seem very unpleasant. Unpleasant and immature to their core.

As for what happened to Nora (an unpleasant, confusing, unlikeable character) I guess I'm not sure. I think I know the truth but like "the boys" who narrate, I will always wonder a little bit about those bones.




… (mais)