Today I’m delighted to have on my blog
fellow Capital Writer Jane Riddell answering questions about her new novel Things We Choose To Hide.
After
ending a long-term relationship, Rachel Grosvenor goes to stay with friends in
Florence, where she meets the attractive Sicilian businessman, Tommaso. Despite
her friends’ concerns, she marries him weeks later, only to learn at the end of
their honeymoon, that he’s been less than honest with her. Gradually she
stumbles upon more unpleasant secrets in his life. Set in Italy and India, this
is the story of one woman’s experience of deception, jealousy and finding love
in unexpected places.
1. There is a fantastic sense of place in
the book, Jane. I’m guessing Italy is a country you know well? And Positano in
particular?
I love Italy, both the northern lakes and parts further
south. When our son was little, we
had several holidays in Positano which is a particularly charming old town on
the Amalfi Coast, near Naples.
2. It looks wonderful! The sights and
sounds and smells of India and Kashmir jumped off the page too and were a great
contrast to coastal Italy. Are these countries you have travelled in?
Yes. After
living in New Zealand and Australia for several years, my friend and I
travelled back through SE Asia and India. One of the highlights was Kashmir
where we stayed in a houseboat on Lake Dal for four days. The thing I remember
most clearly was the fantastic purply light in Srinagar. My memories of other
parts of India during that trip are vivid but more mixed. On the one hand there
were wonderful buildings and landscapes and a sensual magic everywhere. On the other, was the brutal poverty
confronting us.
3. What came first – the location(s) or the
character of Rachel?
The location.
I did what I’ve never done before when writing books. One afternoon in Positano, I decided to
locate my next novel here and sat on the beach, determined to think of a
storyline. This was many years ago, and for a long time
this novel was my “go to” one whenever my current work in progress was being
read by friends. On many occasions, just as I was easing myself into writing it
again, I’d receive feedback on the WIP and return the Italian book to the back
burner. I’ve always been
determined to finish it, but the final version is markedly different to the
original draft.
4. Rachel rushes into marriage with Tommaso
despite her friends’ misgivings – and she manages to distance her own doubts
too. There are other times throughout the book too when she ignores signs that
everything is not as it should be.
Do you think the traumas she suffered in
her teenage years made her hope, despite the evidence to the contrary, that
things would turn out well?
Having seen how close her parents were, Rachel was keen to
find someone who could make her equally happy and I think she would have felt
like this even if she hadn’t lost them at a relatively young age. A bigger influence in her choice of
partner, however, was her frustration at the limitated relationship with a
steady but perhaps rather dull man. After this experience, she was amenable to
falling in love with a more exciting and less predictable man.
5. Apart from Tommaso, there is someone
else in the book who is keeping a huge, life-changing secret. Is that lack of
communication between couples something you like exploring (fictionally!)?
Very much so.
In general, I am intrigued by the communication in romantic relationships:
the surface interactions and what underlying tensions and secrets may be
bubbling away underneath.
6. There is a feeling, I think, in the
first-person narrative almost as if Rachel knows she is a heroine in a book and
so is writing rather dispassionately about the events in her life. Did you ever
consider writing her in the third person?
No, I
always planned to tell the story in first-person because of the immediacy this
can bring to it. In wanting to
guard against having a protagonist who bemoans her situation too often, I may
have ended up with one who appears to be dispassionate about what has happened
to her. However, this wasn’t my
intention! One thing I’ve learned
about characterisation is that readers will have varied reactions to the degree
of emotion displayed by key characters.
What one reader considers to be overly emotional, another will view as
being lacking in feeling.
7. Following on from the above, your lovely
writing, the character of Rachel and the perfidy of some of the men around her,
remind me of Anita Brookner’s novels. Would you go along with that?
Probably not.
I don't regard Rachel as being similar to an Anita Brookner female
protagonist who has settled for a relationship where her love is returned with
indifference. The men she becomes
involved with do love her and in the case of the one she marries, keep their
secrets through fear of losing her.
Not that I’m justifying such behaviour! In terms of style, there’s a delightful quiescence in Anita
Brookner’s writing which she carries off this due to her rich and descriptive
language. I suspect I couldn’t be
so successful, but thanks for the comparison!
8. The book covers about ten years in
Rachel’s life and that of her friends and family. Did that time span take some
working out or flow naturally? In other words are you a plotter or a pantser?
Essentially I’m a plotter but sometimes find that
characters take off somewhere without having checked with me that this is
okay… As long as they return to
the “main road” I am fine with this.
The time span did cause
some headaches from time to time.
9. What are you working on now?
I am writing a humorous story about a group of people who
come to a retreat which offers original therapies for their unusual problems. It began as a longish short story, is
now at novella length and may end up being a novel as more ideas come to me.
Thank you for answering
my questions, Jane.
Things We Choose to
Hide is available from Amazon – and here is another gorgeous view of Positano.
