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First Published:
Sep 2006, 288 pages
Paperback:
Apr 2007, 288 pages
Book Reviewed by:
BookBrowse Review Team
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This article relates to Rise and Shine
Q: In dreaming up this
novel, what came to you first: the sisters, the setting,
or Megan's on-air slip? And how did your storyline
evolve from there?
Anna Quindlen: I always begin a novel with a
theme. Black and Blue, for instance, began with
the theme of identity, Blessings with the theme
of redemption. Rise and Shine grew out of
constant thoughts about the disconnect in modern
American life between appearance and reality. The more
I thought about that disconnect, about how we've all
come to believe that what looks good is good, the more I
thought I should write about someone famous. That's
where the dissonance is greatest, it seems to me, and
the public interest weirdest. And then I thought that
the story would be best told by someone on the outside
looking in. (Yes, I have read Gatsby.
Many many times.)
Q: Do you share any qualities and/or characteristics
with Meghan? Bridget?
AQ: I am like both Meghan and Bridget. For years I had
the sort of laser focus that Meghan had, and I have some
of her rather cynical attitudes about the affluent
around her. But, like Bridget, I have always been
interested in trying to do something about the situation
of the poor and disenfranchised in New York and the rest
of America, in my case through the columns I've
written.
Q: Your portrait of New York is loving, yet you see the
city–and its residents–for what they are. What do you
love about the city? What do you hate? Can you ever
imagine leaving New York, or is it home to you?
AQ: I made New York City a major character in
this book because I thought it would make my task as a novelist easier.
I've covered New York for more than 35 years as a reporter and columnist, and I
know from long experience that it's a story teller's dream. It's so
polyglot, so vivid, so sharply drawn, that writing about it is as easy as
finding a cab outside the Carlyle (or finding crack on certain corners in
certain parts of the Bronx). But like any great character, part of its
greatness, part of its power, is in its manifest flaws
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This article relates to Rise and Shine.
It first ran in the May 10, 2007
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