A. I love writing for children and teens, mostly because I always feel that is such an important time in a reader’s life. What you read at that point forms who you are as a reader. Each book comes to me as an adult novel or a children’s novel or a teen book or nonfiction. Some work comes to me as stories, other as novels. My themes are always the same: Love, loss, and survivorship. But the way I write about these themes differs, depending on the book.
Q. Of your writing, do you have a favorite work? Is there one character whose story you’d like to return to?
A. I often miss characters when a book is written. I have missed Rachel Pizzarro greatly. I often think she is the sort of woman I wish I could be. I’ve thought it might be interesting to know more about the world of Practical Magic. And I’ve just written a children’s book called Nightbird, and I very much miss the town of Sidwell, Massachusetts, that I imagined.
Q. Jewish life and history play a major role in your novels. What draws you to exploring Jewish themes?
A. For me, the Jewish themes very much related to my grandmothers and to their stories and to their struggles. It’s part of telling the story that hasn’t been told. I’ve enjoyed learning more about my own history and culture.
Q. To further the above question, your publisher said that you consider The Marriage of Opposites the “story of the ultimate Jewish mother.” Both Rachel and Madame Pomié are intense mothers. Are they modeled after anyone in your own life?
A. Rachel Pizzarro has something of a bad reputation, as being bossy and controlling, which is the stereotype of the “Jewish mother.” I wanted to explore this and understand what it is to be a mother in a dangerous world where you are an outsider and your ultimate goal is to protect your children no matter the cost. Again, my grandmothers were the model for women who would do anything for their children.
Q. Could you describe when and where you like to write? What does your desk look like?
A. I have to say, I don’t have a desk. I write wherever I am, whenever I can. Noise doesn’t bother me, and I prefer not to have a window, which would distract me. I write the way I read—on a couch, in a bed, on a train.
Q. In a 2013 interview with Writer magazine, you said, “The idea of magic and reality intertwined is really appealing to me. I lived in a working-class suburb in Long Island, right over the border from Queens, so it was very gritty. Every house was the same. There were no trees. It was neither here nor there. It was the least magical place. And yet it felt magical. If you can view that place with magic, any place can be filled with magic.” Are there any magical stories, histories, or eras that you haven’t yet explored in a novel that you’re interested in researching one day?
A. For me, magic is a part of every story. It is the original story—myth and fairytale— and I can’t imagine writing without some element of magic being a part of my work.
Q. We’ve read that some of your favorite authors include Emily Brontë, Toni Morrison, and Ursula LeGuin, among many others. Of your favorite books, is there one in particular you wish you’d written? Is there one particular book you return to often?
A. I love those authors. Toni Morrison is the greatest living author and I admire her more than any other writer. I am an Emily Brontë fanatic—for me, Wuthering Heights is the greatest psychological novel ever written. And as a fan of fantasy and science fiction, I have to say LeGuin transcends all genre writing—her worlds are astounding. I also often go back to childhood authors that meant so much to me, especially Ray Bradbury, who taught me so much about what it means to be a writer, and what it means to be human.
Q. Are you working on anything new? Is there anything you can share with us?
A. My next novel is something completely different—modern, edgy, set in New York, with a character named Shelby who is desperately trying to find her place in the world.
© DEBORAH FEINGOLD
ALICE HOFFMAN is the author of more than thirty works of fiction, including Practical Magic, The Red Garden, the Oprah’s Book Club Selection Here on Earth, The Museum of Extraordinary Things, and The Dovekeepers. She lives near Boston.
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ALSO BY ALICE HOFFMAN
The Museum of Extraordinary Things
The Dovekeepers
The Red Garden
The Story Sisters
The Third Angel
The Ice Queen
Blackbird House
The Probable Future
Blue Diary
The River King
Local Girls
Here on Earth
Practical Magic
Second Nature
Turtle Moon
Seventh Heaven
At Risk
Illumination Night
Fortune’s Daughter
White Horses
Angel Landing
The Drowning Season
Property Of
YOUNG ADULT NOVELS
Nightbird
Green Heart: Green Angel & Green Witch
Green Witch
Incantation
The Foretelling
Green Angel
Indigo
Aquamarine
NONFICTION
Survival Lessons
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Bibliography
Brettell, Richard R. Pissarro’s People. New York: Prestel, 2011.
Cohen, Judah M. Through the Sands of Time: A History of the Jewish Community of St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. Waltham, MA: Brandeis University Press, 2003.
Gjessing, Frederik C., and William P. Maclean. Historic Buildings of St Thomas and St John. London: The Macmillan Press LTD, 1987.
Lloyd, Christopher. Pissarro. New York: Phaidon, 1979.
Rachum, Stephanie. “Camille Pissarro’s Jewish Identity.” Tel Aviv University, Assaph 5 (2000): 3–29.
Raffaele, Herbert, et al. Birds of the West Indies. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2003.
Rewald, John, ed. Camille Pissarro: Letters to His Son Lucien. Boston: MFA Publications, 1958.
Roe, Sue. The Private Lives of the Impressionists. New York: HarperCollins, 2006.
Sherlock, Philip. West Indian Folk-tales. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1966.
Thorold, Anne, and Kristen Erickson. C. Pissarro and His Family. Oxford, UK: Ashmolean Museum, 1993.
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Interior design by Joy O’Meara
Jacket design by Jackie Seow
Jacket photograph by Joyce Tenneson, www.tenneson.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hoffman, Alice.
The marriage of opposites: a novel based on the life of Rachel Pizzarro / Alice Hoffman. —First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition.
pages ; cm
Summary: “From the New York Times bestselling author of The Dovekeepers and The Museum of Extraordinary Things: a forbidden love story set on the tropical island of St. Thomas about the extraordinary woman who gave birth to painter Camille Pissarro, the father of Impressionism”—Provided by publisher.
I. Title.
PS3558.O3447M37 2015
813'.54—dc23 2014047743
ISBN 978-1-4516-9359-1
ISBN 978-1-4516-9361-4 (ebook)