Blog #5 - Kathleen - Putting Your Book in Perspective

I first read Faulkner's book, The Sound and the Fury, one summer on the beach when I was a teenager. My father had just had a heart attack and I was struggling to make sense of our fresh vulnerability as a family. I was also struggling to make sense of that book. I couldn't figure out who was talking in each section, but it didn't really matter to me, I just liked the jumbled mass of glorious words. I had to read it a second time before I figured out that each of the first three sections was narrated by a different brother of Caddy Compson's, and that the fourth section was the objective part, told by an omniscient narrator. I became intrigued by the concept of multiple viewpoints in a novel, of variations on a theme, and how it gave a fuller, richer picture of the characters and action in a book.

I was in my twenties by then and decided I wanted to write a book like Faulkner's, with different narrators for each section. And, I thought, why not make the book about eyesight, while I was at it? A book about a girl who is having a cornea transplant, told from multiple points of view. I began with her mother's perspective, giving details about the teenage girl and how her corneas were destroyed when she pulled an open bottle of bleach down on her face as a toddler.

The second section was written from the perspective of the younger brother, who had simply made a list, a very charming list, of all the things he wanted to show his sister when she could see again. The third section belonged to the doctor who explained the surgery and its possible failings, as well as described the psychological issues that newly sighted patients often face. The fourth and final section belonged to that ubiquitous omniscient narrator, who let the reader know if the surgery was a success or not, in a very subtle way.

I wrote it all down, just as I'd planned, then typed it up. And when I'd finished, I had about 16 pages total. Sixteen measly pages. What kind of book was that? Not much of one. So that was that. I wonder where I even put that thing.

The book I am working on now is a travel memoir, so the point of view is all mine - and that never changes. But my perspective changes in the three sections of the book. In the first, I am alone in Ireland, writing about myself; in the second, I am alone with my husband, writing about our hikes in the Burren and the Connemarra, as well as our marriage; in the third, we have our children back with us and I am writing about our family life and the time we spent together on two Irish farms. Like Olive, I've learned some life lessons over the years. I think I now have the drive and the discipline to go the distance - and get the book done.