What inspired you to write Marion Hatley?
My maternal grandmother, Cleo Coppock Brown, was very much in mind when I started writing the novel, and she happens to share Marion’s birth year (1897). Although Grandma received a college education (unusual for women of her time), she, like many of her peers, struggled against so many societal limitations that I can’t help but believe that some of her personal dreams—ones unconnected to the traditional roles of wife and mother—were thwarted. Through the character of Marion Hatley, I was able to explore the consequences of pushing back against some of the restrictions that Grandma and her peers faced. Another inspiration for the novel was my mom’s descriptions of the uncomfortable corsets that Grandma wore daily, even as she did all the hard work of helping to keep a small farm running. An additional inspiration was that farm, which remains in my family and which, in my mind, is the setting for much of the novel. (Recently, I wrote an essay about the importance of the family farm to my development as a writer.)
Do you see Marion Hatley as a social novel?
It depends on how you define that term. If you mean putting some type of social or political agenda ahead of storytelling or deep engagement with characters’ lives, I don’t see Marion Hatley as fitting that bill, or at least I hope it doesn’t. That said, I sought to immerse readers in the day-to-day realities that Marion and her peers face in the Depression-era setting. I wanted to show how these women struggle with—and, when possible, push back against—everything from societal judgments regarding unplanned pregnancies and sexual behavior, to domestic violence, to ideals of beauty that, all too frequently, sacrifice personal comfort. Often, these struggles happen quietly and privately, but that doesn’t make them any less powerful. Sadly, they are no less relevant today, and I’m hoping that readers will be moved by them.
On the topic of the novel’s social context, there’s also the character of Elder Baines, who is physically and emotionally scarred by his experiences in World War I. As with Marion, I sought to avoid preaching or moralizing concerning his character or his wartime experiences. Instead, I tried to immerse readers in his day-to-day struggles, which for the most part remain private.
How much research did you have to do into the historical aspects of the novel?
A decent amount. In terms of the corset angle, I had access to one important primary source (my mother), and this essay explores what I learned from her. There is also a wealth of sources that address the history of corsets and women’s undergarments more generally—for example, Valerie Steele’s wonderful book The Corset: A Cultural History and the endlessly engrossing witness2fashion blog, which explores the history of everyday clothing.
Before writing about Elder’s war experiences, I turned to the Library of Congress, which offers incredibly detailed and moving journals of American soldiers who served in the First World War. I also took another dive into Paul Fussell’s The Great War and Modern Memory. Once again, I was taken with Fussell’s exploration of the literature of the First World War and of how “every war is worse than expected.”
What made you decide to become a writer?
I don’t feel like it was anything I actually decided. Back when I was a kid, I started making up stories to entertain myself. And I just kept going—with some significant interruptions when I was trying to advance myself professionally, save for a home, pay the bills.
As a kid, I used to create my own books: handwritten, staple-bound, and illustrated. For some reason, a lot of them were about haunted houses or castles. In one of the haunted castle books, I gave a lead role to a Dr. Mookhazin, who was about the size of a Jack Russell terrier, equal to a JRT in sassiness, and unkillable. The story has him hiding out in a balled-up windbreaker on a narrow country road, until he’s hit by the car of an unsuspecting family, whom he eventually lures to the castle. Dr. M is the character I remember best from my childhood writing, and every so often he still pops into my mind.
Who are your favorite fiction writers?
There are far too many to mention, but here’s a sampling of writers who were essential to my development as a storyteller: Mary Gaitskill, John Cheever, Denis Johnson, Lorrie Moore, Toni Morrison, Alice Munro, Flannery O’Connor, Marilynne Robinson, and Edith Wharton.
What are you reading now?
I’m in the middle of reading several books that I’m planning to review for my SmallPressPicks.com website. I’ve been blown away by the novels and story collections that small presses have been putting out, and if people want to learn more about some of my recommendations, they can visit the site.
Marion Hatley is being published by a small press, Garland Press. What has that experience been like?
Very positive. The novel has received great care and attention from Laurel Dile King, publisher and editor of Garland Press, and from Garland’s advisory board. I also feel very fortunate that I was able to take part in decisions about the book’s cover. Often, large publishers give authors little or no say about covers.
You recently completed another novel, In This Ground, which is set entirely in a cemetery. Why did you choose that setting?
I absolutely love cemeteries—always have. Starting when we were in first or second grade, a close friend and I used to wander around a cemetery near our homes in a suburb of Pittsburgh. We loved checking out the stones, reading the names on them out loud, and making up stories about the lives we imagined these people to have led.
The notion that cemeteries contain countless stories has stayed with me, and a few years ago I got this idea of treating a graveyard as a stage on which different dramas—those of the living and those who have died—could play out and intersect. That’s how In This Ground got started.
What are you working on now?
I’m writing my very first crime novel, one that brings together aspects of a road novel and a Western.
Why did you decide to write a crime novel?
I want to keep myself entertained, just as I tried to do when I was a kid making up stories. For me, that means never writing the same type of book twice. Once I finish the crime novel, I’m pretty certain my next project will be a book-length ghost story. (Paging Dr. Mookhazin?) I have in mind a psychological chiller in the vein of The Turn of the Screw.
What interests me most in anything I read or write are characters’ interior lives. Literary fiction is said to focus on that, at least according to many of the widely varying definitions of that category. But I believe that genre fiction can, too. In any case, I’d like to think that characters’ interior lives are central to the books I’ve already written, and I expect that will hold true for all of my future fiction, regardless of its subject matter.
Is there anything else you’d like to say?
I think we’ve covered all of the important points, but I hope that readers will get in touch with me at bcastrodale@gmail.com if they have any other questions. Also, for anyone who’d like more insights into the books and stories I’m working on or into my writing process in general, here’s a link for subscribing to my newsletter: http://www.bethcastrodale.com/gold-river. (In exchange for subscribing, you’ll get an e-book, my novel Gold River.)
