| Books
Keyes to Writing a Good Book: Buying Good Shoes
By Rebecca Russell
click
on photo
to enlarge
 With
seven bestselling novels under her belt and her latest novel, Anybody
Out There? (William Morrow, $24.95), due to arrive in the United States
in May, Marian Keyes has no doubt succeeded as a novelist. This is despite
once saying she had no intention of ever writing a novel because it would
take too long.
Regardless of the amount of time put into her work, fans will no doubt
agree that what she puts into every book are amazing characters. Whether
they live in London or Los Angeles, regardless of if they are employed
in seedy hotels or offices on Central Park, each character is created so
carefully and with so much detail that they almost seem to transcend the
pages. It almost seems as likely to meet Rachel Walsh on a trip to New
York City as it is to cross paths with Marian in a Dublin shoe store, her
characters are that well drawn.
They have real struggles, real jobs, real achievements. They invite
the reader to laugh with them, cry with them, and celebrate the overcoming
of obstacles. They come to life through everything from bad hair days to
excitement over finding the perfect shoes.
They are all connected by a common theme, according to author Keyes.
She wrote in her online autobiography, "All seven of my books are different
but share a common theme of people who are In The Bad Place, and who achieve
some sort of redemption. I’ve been In The Bad Place myself many’s the time,
which wasn’t very pleasant while it was happening but has since come in
very handy for writing about it."
While one plans to end up In The Bad Place, Keyes didn’t even plan to
become a writer. "I decided to study law for the simple reason that I got
the grades and it pleased my parents. I was 18 and clueless and I wanted
to stave off real life for another three years and frankly I didn’t care
what I studied."
It would seem this experience might have helped out with creating Maggie
Walsh, the main character in Angels who spent some time as a paralegal
in Chicago, but that is not the case. "It didn’t help with Maggie Walsh.
I actually spoke to a woman who works as a paralegal in Chicago. To be
honest, I don’t think studying law has done anything to shape who I am
today – I engaged with it only on the most superficial level. Like I said,
I was 18 and clueless."
Researching her characters has become more important with every new
novel. "With each subsequent book, I’ve had to do more and more research.
I pretty much used up most of my misspent youth in the first three books,"
she said, "and after that I had to go out into the world and research my
subjects."
Though research has become almost paramount, it could also be described
simply as a necessary evil. "I find it very hard," Keyes said. "I hate
having to ask impertinent, probing questions, I feel like such a voyeur."
In the name of research, she’s also taken the time to live the lives
of some of her characters. "With Sushi for Beginners, I worked on
a woman’s magazine. With Angels, I lived in LA for two months. For
The
Other Side of the Story, I lived in New York for a couple of months
and hung out with firemen, as I researched JoJo’s story. For Anybody
Out There?, it helped that I was already doing a beauty column and
knew a bit about the beauty industry, so that was handy in satirizing it."
But even with the hands-on experience, interviews were still part of
the process, Being a beauty columnist was not enough create Anna Walsh.
"I talked to several beauty PRs and tried to get them to tell me how tough
their jobs really were – with varying degrees of success."
Keyes might need to rely on others’ help and input in describing the
livelihoods and life experiences of her characters, one aspect where she
will likely never need help is in describing their footwear.
While those little details are part of what help to make the characters
come to life, it becomes almost expected that her characters all be well-shod
when it comes to light that Marian once described her first love as a pair
of black patent platform wedges with an ankle strap.
"Shoes definitely call to me, but sadly because I have very small feet,
stores often – more of then than not, quite frankly – don’t have them in
my size and it doesn’t happen," she said. "It’s very sad!"
While Keyes could not say which of her characters she’d like to sit
down and have lunch with, ("I like them all!") she’s very clear with whom
she’d shop for shoes. "I wouldn’t go shoe shopping with any of them – they
might see the shoes I want and they might have them in their size but not
mine and I’d be jealous."
So while no one ever saw Rachel Walsh walking through New York with
her feet crammed into too-small lime green wedges, if anyone caught a glimpse
of a woman in Dublin wearing knee-high, bright purple Marc Jacobs boots,
that was probably Marian Keyes, an author with real character.
 
|
