Harbor Light News

Author, summer resident, turns to family history for latest novel

Literature



In the ten years it took me to write the book, I couldn’t have anticipated the impact of social media, the rise of the religious right, of nationalism, of immigration as an incendiary issue, of #MeToo, of Black Lives Matter.To understand what is happening today, you really have to understand our foundational issues in the years leading up to (and after) the Civil War. -Terry Gamble (Photo courtesy Harbor Springs Festival of the Book)

In the ten years it took me to write the book, I couldn’t have anticipated the impact of social media, the rise of the religious right, of nationalism, of immigration as an incendiary issue, of #MeToo, of Black Lives Matter.To understand what is happening today, you really have to understand our foundational issues in the years leading up to (and after) the Civil War. -Terry Gamble (Photo courtesy Harbor Springs Festival of the Book)

Editor’s Note: The fourth annual Harbor Springs Festival of the Book is set to take place throughout Harbor Springs Friday- Sunday, Sept. 27-29. In anticipation of that special event, Harbor Light feature writer/editor Emily Meier is speaking with a number of the authors that will be a part of the Festival. Here she speaks with Terry Gamble, whose family has long summered in Harbor Springs and has deep ties to this area. For more information on the Festival including schedule and tickets, go to www.hsfotb.org

Terry Gamble is the author of The Water Dancers, Good Family, and,

The Eulogist. The Eulogist, her most recent novel, was inspired by her own family’s migration from Ireland to Cincinnati, Ohio in the 19th century. Set in the decades leading up to the civil war and narrated by the strong voice of Olivia Givens, this historical novel is one a reader becomes deeply invested in from the very first pages. Publisher’s weekly described this book as “a standout depiction of family dynamics.”

 

Writer, Anne Lamott describes Gamble’s writing as “elegant, precise, evocative…highly intelligent, skillful, and, most importantly, full of heart and soul.”

Gamble lives in California but continues to come to Harbor Springs several times a year as she has done all her life.

It was an honor to speak to her about her latest book and her love of this area.

EM: You grew up spending summers here in Harbor Springs, commuting from California by train. Did your family come every summer?

TG: It’s my understanding that our family has been coming to Harbor Springs since the late 1880s. My great-grandparents built their cottage in 1890. Even after they moved west, they made the annual trek. I have vivid memories of train travel when I was a young child – a three-day trip on the Super Chief, changing trains in Chicago, and coming up to Petoskey. The only summers I’ve missed were the summer I was born and the summer my grandfather died.

EM: I know you still have family here. How often do you make it back?

TG: We try to visit once in the spring, for several weeks in the summer, and again in the fall.

EM: Lake Michigan, and this area in particular, inspired both of your first two novels. An author once told me that he could never write about the place where he was living, but that the places he had lived, and still longed for, were always showing up in his work. Have you found this to be true? Is there a California novel in the works?

TG: I love that notion of longing for a place. It’s true for me – even the longing for an idealized place or for a place where you haven’t lived but which is part of your family or cultural myth. I haven’t written much about California, even though my studio sits in a grove of oak trees looking out on a pasture in Sonoma. At the beginning of The Eulogist, the Givens family is preparing to move west. I’m intrigued about what will happen when they get there.

EM: Your recent novel, The Eulogist, is inspired by your father’s side of the family and their immigration from Ireland to Cincinnati, Ohio. What first sparked your interest to explore this history? And at what point in researching did you feel like you had enough to build this rich history into a novel?

TG: After my father passed away, my sister and I were going through family artifacts and came across a commission for a monument to be erected in Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati. Along with the letter were receipts for the exhumation and reinterment of bodies in the new plot. I began to wonder, Who were these people? What were their challenges? Their views? I started with the Gambles’ actual emigration from Northern Ireland in 1819 and proceeded to create the fictional family Givens. I did a lot of research before starting this novel because I knew nothing about Cincinnati or this period. I could have gone on forever, but at some point you have to write a scene, even if it doesn’t end up in the book. Knowing that there were race riots on a hot August night in 1829, I wrote the scene of William’s birth.

EM: This book takes place between 1819 through to almost 1850. There was a lot going on in this time period in regard to the economy, immigration, religious movements, race relations, and even technology. How much research did you have to do for this book? And was there anything that really surprised you about this time that you were unaware of before?

TG: It’s amazing where research takes you. You start reading about The Second Great Awakening in the evangelical church, and the next thing you know, you’re learning about the theological differences between Methodism and Presbyterianism. Who knew that was important? But it’s extremely important in understanding the motivation of a character because it involves the conditions for their salvation. My biggest takeaway was how the issues in the 19th Century laid the foundation for what our country is still dealing with today. In the ten years it took me to write the book, I couldn’t have anticipated the impact of social media, the rise of the religious right, of nationalism, of immigration as an incendiary issue, of #MeToo, of Black Lives Matter. To understand what is happening today, you really have to understand our foundational issues in the years leading up to (and after) the Civil War.

EM: How do you balance the research and the writing? Many writers get bogged down in the research and never get to the actual writing. How do you know when you have done enough research?

TG: Luckily for me, I have a wonderful writing group that gently intervenes when one of us isn’t writing. When I started attending Civil War Roundtable events in motel conference rooms, I knew I had gone too far.

EM: The novel is written from Olivia’s point of view. She is the middle child and only girl of the family. She is an independent thinker and a non-conformist. However, during this time period women were very limited in what they could do, experience, and be privy to in the professional world around them. This narrative choice is wonderful but had to have been challenging. What made you pursue her voice?

TG: Short answer: my editor, Jen Brehl. Originally, I wrote the book from three or four points of view, depending on the scene. When I sent early chapters to Jen, she responded that she liked the book, but felt it would be best told from the point of view of Olivia. This set me back years because, as you say, it’s challenging to get a female character of that period into situations that are critical to the story. Her brothers have much more agency since women at the time were expected to stay home, do their needlework, exhibit piety, and bear children. That Olivia would rebel against such constraints made her more interesting. It also created more conflict, all of which is good for a story.

EM: What is your writing process? Do you outline? Write a book proposal first? Or do you dive right into the writing?

TG: I wish I could have an idea, scribble an outline, et voilá! But alas, that’s not the case. I have to forage. I have started several novels that have pancaked… usually when I veer off into magic realism or dystopia. I could work on something for a year before I decide whether to stick with or abandon it.

EM: When you are actively involved in writing a novel,are you able to read for pleasure? Are there books or genres you avoid while you are writing?

TG: I believe reading leads to better writing. That said, I’m protective of my own work, so generally avoid reading novels that might intersect with my subject matter lest I get derailed by invidiousness. Now that The Eulogist is launched, I’m free to enjoy Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad and Charles Frazier’s Varina.

EM:What are some of the other books you are reading now?

TG: As I mentioned, I flirt with dystopia, so I’m reading Margaret Atwood’s Maddaddam Trilogy. And I’m always scouring non-fiction works. Currently, I’m re-reading the New Testament gospels for a short story I’m writing about Mary Magdalene. And I love moderating panels because it gives me a homework assignment. This fall, I’ll be on a panel with Tobias Wolff and David Thomson discussing Alfred Hayes’s My Face For All The World To See – a noir classic.

EM: One of the first writing classes you took was with Anne Lamott, author of the very famous book Bird by Bird. What was that experience like and was there any big takeaway from your time in her class?

TG: Annie was a huge influence. I had written copiously in school, starting in the fourth grade and on through college, and then I sort of stopped. The whole enterprise seemed out of reach. But when I gave birth to my son, I took time off from work and decided, on a lark, to take her class at a local bookstore. It reignited my passion and led to my writing group that has met every other week for 27 years.

EM: Can you speak a bit about what this area (Harbor Springs) means to you and your feelings in regard to the festival?

TG: Like most of us, I am in love with Harbor Springs and Northern Michigan. It’s a soul place for me, my family, and our friends. Certainly, it’s changed a lot, but that’s the nature of “place” – the one we hold in our heart and memory as well as our reality. To some degree, Harbor Springs capitalizes on nostalgia – that longing you spoke of. And that’s fine to a point. But it is events and efforts such as the HSFOB that reinvigorates the cultural life of a region. It brings in new people and creates connection.

EM: Is there a question about this novel that hasn’t been asked? What is it and how would you answer.

TG: When a writer finishes a book, there ensues a period of grieving. What was it like not to have Olivia’s voice whispering in my ear? It may sound woo-woo, but she was always in the corner of my eye in her long dress and mutton-chop sleeves. I could imagine her commentary on current events, the roll of her eyes. She’s smart and funny and terrific company. I am grateful for her patience.

(In addition to her participation with the Harbor Springs Festival of the Book this fall, Terry Gamble will be speaking in Petoskey with McLean & Eakin Thursday, August 8th at 6:00 p.m. This event is free but reservations are required. For more information and to reserve a seat call 231-347-1180 or email event@mcleanandeakin.com )