Andrew Sean Greer
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Andrew, welcome to Waterstones. Thank you.
How did Andrew Sean Greer's novel 'Less' impact the host's reading journey?
I don't often do this at interviews, but I am going to start by thanking you because, as I sort of mentioned on our way up here, your novel Less came at exactly the right time in my life when I needed a book to kind of kickstart my reading passion again because I'd got a little bit stuck in the weeds. And there was something about the, it felt to me, effortless comedy of that book that I found so, so charming. But I know that it's not effortless. I'm sure you put a lot of work into it, and we will find out with your new book, Villa Coco, just exactly how that works. Before we get into that, I have to say I was intrigued by the little letter that was at the front of my proof, where you mentioned that this novel had its basis in real life.
There was a real Baronessa, and I therefore, of course, was like, I need to know more. I'm not expecting you to tell me all the details of her life, because as you say, this is a fictionalized version of things. But what was it about that experience that made you think, ah, there's a novel here?
I think it was when I first started working at this rural writer's residency and the septic tank overflowed on my first day, which is something that happens in the novel, and I understood that I had to deal with it. And that was also, I think, the first moment I really became a grown-up at age 46 when I thought, there's no one to deal with this. Yeah. Except the Baronessa was happy to help me deal with it. And I realized that there were depths to her that I had not expected. And so I started taking notes, not on her, on... the little details of life that surprised me every day or meeting a porcupine or what we had for dinner. And when I decided I wanted to write a kind of charm novel, a kind of lovely escape novel, I thought, oh, I have all this experience and I can invent some more.
Seeing as you've mentioned about the charm novel, why don't you sort of explain a little bit what you mean by that? And maybe some, I suppose, some other examples of sort of authors who've written charm novels. Well, I think it's actually a very British thing.
I can't think of a lot of American charm novels. Comic novels, yes. But something that touches on real human pain lightly, but with a sense of humor and absurdity, has its own absurd logic. And I think of the Mitford novels or a comedy like Cold Comfort Farm or Graham Greene's Entertainments. that are not absolute farce. People die, hard things happen, but you move on and everything is a sort of funny story. Or especially, I had in mind, Gerald Durrell's My Family and Other Animals, which is not a novel, but which is certainly an exaggeration.
Yeah, okay, that makes perfect sense. You've done that thing again, which I think is such a brilliant narrative trick, which is that the... the protagonist through which we see this story is always just slightly behind, I suppose, what's going on around him. And that's what makes him so endearing because he's sort of permanently catching up. Is that something you're very conscious of as a useful dramatic device? Because it's worked so well with both Les novels, I thought, as well.
Well, I mean, maybe it's part of my own personality.
What real-life experiences inspired Greer's new book 'Villa Coco'?
That I find myself not quite understanding what's going on. Or at least I understand that I'm the thing that's wrong in most situations. And I'm willing to change. But it is, of course, I exaggerate that property in the books. And also in this book, he arrives, he's 21, 22 years old. He thinks he's getting this very serious archivist job in Italy. And it's anything but. But the person telling the story is himself... in his 50s. So he's sort of looking back and seeing what a fool he was when he was young. A useful thing for all people to remember.
You all look back one day and go... Good attitude, yeah. I was really intrigued by... This novel is set in Italy, and I was really intrigued by one moment in the book where you describe the fact that a lot of people think of Italy as being a very old country, but actually...
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–0:02
2
How did Andrew Sean Greer's novel 'Less' impact the host's reading journey?
0:02–3:27
3
What real-life experiences inspired Greer's new book 'Villa Coco'?
3:27–10:19
4
What defines a 'charm novel' according to Andrew Sean Greer?
10:19–11:03
5
How does Greer incorporate humor and human pain in his storytelling?
11:03–17:35