Brian Morton Interview, plus links to author biography, book summaries, excerpts and reviews

Brian Morton
Photo: David Kumin

Brian Morton

An interview with Brian Morton

Brian Morton discusses Florence Gordon, his 2014 novel about a woman who has lived life on her own terms for seventy-five defiant and determined years, only to find herself suddenly thrust to the center of her family's various catastrophes.

How did the idea for Florence Gordon originate?

Florence came first, before I had a picture of any of the other characters, before I had even a vague idea of the story. I really don't know why I started writing about her. She just showed up. The other characters took more time to come into focus. One of the most enjoyable surprises that occurred during the writing of it was the gradual deepening of the relationship between Florence and her granddaughter, Emily. I really hadn't anticipated that at all.

The title character is a feminist firebrand who made a name for herself as a women's rights activist and theorist in the 1970s. Was she modeled on a famous female in history?

No, she wasn't. I had a clear picture of Florence's contemporaries: I knew who she'd hung out with; I knew who her friends and rivals were. I'm thinking of people like Ellen Willis, Vivian Gornick, Alix Kates Shulman. But she wasn't modeled on anyone—and she'd be offended by the suggestion that she was!

What do you think of the preconception that male writers can't accurately write the female voice?

I'm not really sure that there is such a preconception—or at any rate, I don't think there should be. After all, has anyone written better woman characters than Henry James? And has anyone written better male characters than George Eliot? One of the things you're trying to do, when you write fiction, is to imagine what it feels like to be inside other people's skin. In Florence Gordon, Emily, after reading Middlemarch, thinks about Eliot's idea that each person is the "center of a world." Part of the fiction writer's job, it seems to me, is to try to do justice to that idea.

How has your position as director of the writing program at Sarah Lawrence influenced your writing?

The experience of teaching has influenced my writing in a number of ways. Seeing students take risks with their writing is invigorating. You see a student writing a good story one week, then an interesting failure, than a really wonderful story that she couldn't have written if she hadn't written the interesting failure—it encourages you to experiment; it keeps you loose.

It's also made me more appreciative of the importance of story, of what Henry James called "the magic of suspense." When I'm reading student work, I find I turn the pages much more eagerly when the writer has made me care about the simple question of what happens next. It's a lesson I try to keep in mind when I'm writing my own stuff.
But that said, when I sit down to write, I forget that I'm the director of a writing program. Being the director of a writing program seems to imply that you know what you're doing. When I'm writing, I'm just sort of stumbling around.

Unless otherwise stated, this interview was conducted at the time the book was first published, and is reproduced with permission of the publisher. This interview may not be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the copyright holder.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Books by this Author

Books by Brian Morton at BookBrowse
Tasha jacket Florence Gordon jacket
Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Read-Alikes

All the books below are recommended as read-alikes for Brian Morton but some maybe more relevant to you than others depending on which books by the author you have read and enjoyed. So look for the suggested read-alikes by title linked on the right.
How we choose readalikes

  • Rabih Alameddine

    Rabih Alameddine

    Rabih Alameddine is the author of the novels An Unnecessary Woman; I, the Divine; Koolaids; The Hakawati; The Wrong End of the Telescope; and the story collection, The Perv. In 2019, he won the Dos Passos Prize. (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    Florence Gordon

    Try:
    An Unnecessary Woman
    by Rabih Alameddine

  • John Banville

    John Banville

    John Banville, the author of seventeen novels, has been the recipient of the Man Booker Prize, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, the Guardian Fiction Award, the Franz Kafka Prize, a Lannan Literary Award for Fiction, and ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    Florence Gordon

    Try:
    The Blue Guitar
    by John Banville

We recommend 17 similar authors


Non-members can see 2 results. Become a member
Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Top Picks

  • Book Jacket
    Suggested in the Stars
    by Yoko Tawada
    In Scattered All Over the Earth, Yoko Tawada's 2018 lightly dystopian novel, a ragtag group of young...
  • Book Jacket: Shred Sisters
    Shred Sisters
    by Betsy Lerner
    "No one will love you more or hurt you more than a sister" is a wry aphorism that appears late in ...
  • Book Jacket: Model Home
    Model Home
    by Rivers Solomon
    Rivers Solomon's novel Model Home opens with a chilling and mesmerizing line: "Maybe my mother is ...
  • Book Jacket: The Mighty Red
    The Mighty Red
    by Louise Erdrich
    Permit me to break the fourth wall. Like any good reviewer, I aim to analyze a book dispassionately,...

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket

    The Naming Song
    by Jedediah Berry

    Miyazaki meets Guillermo del Toro.

  • Book Jacket

    The Bog Wife
    by Kay Chronister

    Five West Virginia siblings unearth secrets after the rupture of a supernatural bargain tying their fate to their land.

Book Club Giveaway!
Win Let Us Descend

Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward

Jesmyn Ward imagines the life of an enslaved girl in the years before the Civil War in this instant classic.

Enter

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

J O the B

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.