THE YEAR WE LEFT HOME: AUTHOR INTERVIEW AND GIVEAWAY

 GIVEAWAY ENDED
THE YEAR WE LEFT HOME

BY JEAN THOMPSON

ABOUT THE BOOK:

From National Book Award finalist Jean Thompson comes a mesmerizing, decades-spanning saga of one ordinary American family—proud, flawed, hopeful— whose story simultaneously captures the turbulent history of the country at large.

Over the course of a thirty-year career, Jean Thompson has been celebrated by critics as "a writer of extraordinary intelligence and sensitivity" (O, The Oprah Magazine), "an American Alice Munro" (The Wall Street Journal), and "one of our most lucid and insightful writers" (San Francisco Chronicle). Her peers have been no less vocal, from Jennifer Egan ("bracing . . . boldly unconventional") to David Sedaris ("if there are 'Jean Thompson characters,' they're us, and never have we been as articulate and worthy of compassion"). 

Now, in The Year We Left Home, Thompson brings together all of her talents to deliver the career-defining novel her admirers have been waiting for: a sweeping and emotionally powerful story of a single American family during the tumultuous final decades of the twentieth century. It begins in 1973 when the Erickson family of Grenada, Iowa, gathers for the wedding of their eldest daughter, Anita. Even as they celebrate, the fault lines in the family emerge. The bride wants nothing more than to raise a family in her hometown, while her brother Ryan watches restlessly from the sidelines, planning his escape. He is joined by their cousin Chip, an unpredictable, war-damaged loner who will show Ryan both the appeal and the perils of freedom. Torrie, the Ericksons' youngest daughter, is another rebel intent on escape, but the choices she makes will bring about a tragedy that leaves the entire family changed forever. 

Stretching from the early 1970s in the Iowa farmlands to suburban Chicago to the coast of contemporary Italy—and moving through the Vietnam War's aftermath, the farm crisis, the numerous economic booms and busts—The Year We Left Home follows the Erickson siblings as they confront prosperity and heartbreak, setbacks and triumphs, and seek their place in a country whose only constant seems to be breathtaking change. Ambitious, richly told, and fiercely American, this is a vivid and moving meditation on our continual pursuit of happiness and an incisive exploration of the national character.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Jean Thompson is the author of Who Do You Love: Stories, a 1999 National Book Award finalist for fiction, and the novels City Boy and Wide Blue Yonder, a New York Times Notable Book and Chicago Tribune Best Fiction selection. She lives in Urbana, Illinois. Visit her at www.jeanthompsononline.com

AUTHOR INTERVIEW:
1. Welcome, and thank you for agreeing to an interview for BOOKIN‘ WITH BINGO. Is there any personal information you would like to start out with today?
I look so much better than my pictures.

2.  Where did you get the inspiration or idea for this book?
I seldom start out with an idea or a theme, but instead put characters in motion, and see where they take me.  I'd been to a small town wedding much like the one in the first chapter, and for some reason wanted to revisit it, reinvent it, and make it my own.  It was a brief glimpse into a world very different from mine, and it tugged at my curiosity. From there the book just grew, like a knitting project that keeps taking more yarn.

3. How did the title of your book come about?
I struggled with the title; there didn't seem to be anything obvious within the book itself.  Also, the novel covers thirty years time, and a whole gallery of characters, so no one person or incident stood out.  But I did keep circling the idea of home, and the tug of war between going out into the world and staying put - as different characters do at different times in the narrative.

4. Do you see yourself in your characters? Which characters are easiest or more difficult to write?
Part of the work of writing, at least in the sort of realistic fiction I write, is to try and stretch yourself to inhabit characters who aren't one bit like yourself.  So that I am none of these characters, and I am all of them.  When I was first beginning to write, I used more 'real' people as models, but now my characters are largely fueled by imagination. No one need fear finding themselves in my pages.

5. What is the next or current book/project you are working on?
I'm trying to get another novel started, although that means I have a kind of split screen attention span right now - involved in the writing, but also trying to enjoy the launch of the current book.  I keep reminding myself to take an extra fifteen minutes and celebrate my own publication date.

6. What is something about you that you would want people to know about you that we probably don’t know?
If there's anything people don't know about me, it's probably because I want it that way.

7. Do you own an eReader of any kind and how do you feel about their impact on books, as well as you as an author?
No, I don't have an ereader, though I'm not philosophically opposed to them, and I probably should equip myself with one, because I have way, way too many books in the house, and keep buying more.  I'm not sure e-books have yet supplanted actual books, nor are they likely to.  They do offer another option that appeals to some people. Publishers dreaded the coming of e-books for a long time, and stewed about how to incorporate them, that is, how to profit from them - but they've taken the leap, and landed on their feet, and now we can all get back to the business of reading and writing.

8. What is your advice to anyone, including young people, who want to be writers?
Advice?  Read a lot.  Then write a lot, and seek out other writers to give you advice, aid, and comfort.  Writing is isolated and often frustrating work, and you can go a long, long time without any reinforcement.  Realize that's the nature of the craft.  Learn to take joy in what transpires between you and the page; it's the only part of the process you can control.  Keep at it, keep at it, keep at it.

I want to thank Jean Thompson for taking time from her busy schedule to answer these questions. I hope you all will enjoy her new book 

MY REVIEW/THOUGHTS:
Watch for my review of THE YEAR WE LEFT HOME in just a few days where you will be able to comment and get more entries for the giveaway. (HINT: You want to have many entries so you can win as this book is a WINNER, trust me!)

GIVEAWAY

THANKS TO MARGARET AND MY GOOD

FRIENDS AT SIMON & SCHUSTER, I HAVE

3 COPIES OF THE YEAR WE LEFT HOME

TO GIVE AWAY

 
--U.S. RESIDENTS ONLY
--NO P. O. BOXES
---INCLUDE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS
IN CASE YOU WIN!
--ALL COMMENTS MUST BE SEPARATE TO 
COUNT AS MORE THAN ONE!

HOW TO ENTER:

+1 ENTRY: COMMENT ON WHAT YOU THOUGHT ABOUT THE DESCRIPTION OF THE YEAR WE LEFT HOME, OR THE INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR JEAN THOMPSON,  AND WHY YOU WANT TO WIN THIS BOOK

+1 MORE ENTRY: BLOG AND/OR TWEET ABOUT THIS GIVEAWAY AND COME BACK HERE AND LEAVE ME YOUR LINK

+1 MORE ENTRY: COMMENT ON SOMETHING YOU FOUND INTERESTING ON JEAN THOMPSON'S WEBSITE BY SEARCHING HER WEBSITE HERE

+1 MORE ENTRY: COMMENT ON ONE WAY THAT YOU FOLLOW MY BLOG. IF YOU FOLLOW MORE THAN ONE WAY, YOU CAN GIVE THEM ALL AS LONG AS THE COMMENTS ARE SEPARATE TO COUNT FOR THE GIVEAWAY

GIVEAWAY ENDS AT
6 PM, EST, MAY 27!