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I Had A One-Night Stand with Amy Bloom
May 22, 2008
So the "One-Night Stand" in question was the name of a delicious cocktail at
D.C.'s Bar Rouge that we both ordered. How
many opportunities does a lit blogger get for a header like that, after all? It would not be the same if my subject line were "Amy Bloom Borrowed My Reading Glasses," which is also true.
My actual night with Bloom was this past Tuesday, at the
DCJCC as part of
Nextbook's author series. Bloom is, of course, at the tail end of promoting her
bestselling novel Away, and she requested that the event be in an interview format rather than a lecture, which is how yours truly got involved. I wondered, when Nextbook first invited me, if this is because of Bloom's years as a psychotherapist -- perhaps she's more comfortable with a dialogue? But after doing my research, I discovered it's more likely Bloom prefers an interview because she's not a person to whom talking about herself comes naturally. Those years as a psychotherapist were, quite properly, about the other person, and Bloom is much more interested in other people than she is in talking about her own life.
It's a good thing
she does get interviewed (
I've interviewed Bloom before, too) since her own life is pretty interesting stuff. Random
tidbits: her current husband is an ex-football player, her daughter is "the coolest lesbian in the Northeast," and every summer she and her family throw a huge party replete with Red Stripe beer and jerk chicken (yes, Amy, I love the sound of that party!). She also told me a couple of stories about bad book-club attempts to get her to come speak that had me laughing out loud -- authors, beware the "Hadassah of Southern Southern New Jersey" and their entreaties: "And we have
lemon bahz!" (She also had a cool friend come to take her out to dinner,
novelist Richard McCann.)
So I really mean it when I say Bloom is at her most interesting (and most intense) when she talks about her work. I'm not certain if our interview was recorded or not (I'll find out, and if it is, will post it), and since I was busy presenting, couldn't take notes. However, a few things stayed with me. First, Bloom really loves the short story above all other forms; she likes the fact that there isn't room for anything extraneous in it. Second, she's said before that being a mother has shaped her as a writer, and when I asked her to expound on that, she said that having started out as a stepparent at 21, she's been a mother longer than she's been a psychotherapist or a writer -- she's accustomed to making sure everyone has an umbrella and has eaten breakfast.
Third, Bloom maddeningly did not tell us what she's working on now. She really knows how to keep the chase going. Amy, we'll always have the Bar Rouge...
Posted by Bethanne Patrick on May 22, 2008 | Comments (1)
