Three Answers: Ben Ehrenreich

by Dick Donahue, PW Daily -- Publishers Weekly, 12/12/2005

Three answers this week are from Ben Ehrenreich, whose first novel, The Suitors, will be published by Counterpoint in April.

Publishers Weekly: Has being the son of author Barbara Ehrenreich helped or hindered your own writing career?

Ben Ehrenreich.: I can't be too naïve and think that her name didn't make things easier for me, but I've always been very careful—more for my own self-respect than anything else—to make sure that I did things on my own as much as I possibly could. But I'd like to think that she provided a model in terms of a certain independence of spirit, with her hunger for knowledge and fearlessness about setting out ideas that not everyone would agree with. And the only hindrance I can think of is that growing up as the son of someone who spent every day in the basement office reading and writing spoiled me for any other real job. It created a model for an adult work habit that didn't fit with going to an office every day.

PW: Did your mother ever give you advice about your writing, and did you take it?

B.E.: (Laughing) Let me think if I can make any of that advice public. I probably shouldn't; there might be editors who'd be angry at me.

PW: Are you worried about a sophomore slump?

B.E.: I haven't truly thought that through yet. But never having published a book-length work of fiction, there's a certain degree of liberating obscurity to work in. You have no idea if anybody's ever going to see this other than your friends, and if they're even going to take the trouble to read it. While that can be dismaying at times, it's a good place to be working in because there's not much self-consciousness. It makes me a little nervous to think about losing that.