In an email interview, the author talked about how “Flashlight” grew out of a short story, and what it would be like to read James Joyce the way her grandfather did. SCOTT HELLER
What books are on your night stand?
This is constantly in flux, but right this minute Viet Thanh Nguyen’s “To Save and to Destroy” and Marie-Helene Bertino’s “Exit Zero.”
Describe your ideal reading experience.
I just experienced it. I had started reading Amity Gaige’s absolutely riveting new novel, “Heartwood,” and I literally could not put it down, but I had sworn to myself that I would go to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden to see the cherry blossoms, because this is one of my very favorite times of the year. So then I had this huge internal struggle — blossoms or book? — which was resolved when I took the book to the blossoms.
What’s the best book you’ve ever received as a gift?
My older son gave me Ben Lerner’s “The Hatred of Poetry” for Christmas one year, I think to express his own feelings, since I actually love poetry. Remembering this cracks me up. I don’t think I’ve properly answered the question.
What’s the last great book you read?
See under “Heartwood,” but actually I feel I’ve read nothing but great books recently. I just finished André Alexis’ new collection, “Other Worlds,” and true to the title I was transported. It’s incredible.
Are there any classic novels that you only recently read for the first time?
“The Wall,” by Marlen Haushofer, which was first published in 1963 and has attained what The New Yorker calls cult status; a colleague of mine at Johns Hopkins had assigned it to our grad students and they couldn’t stop talking about it. It’s one of the most beautiful and most harrowing books I’ve ever read, as well as one of the best, but I’m not sure I could read it again.
What’s the last book you read that made you laugh?
Austin Kelley’s novel “The Fact Checker.” I was a New Yorker fact checker, as was Kelley, and it was such a pleasure to return to that subculture thanks to another writer who also knows it inside out.
What’s the last book that made you cry?
See above, under “Heartwood.” But I also did a lot of crying while researching the North Korea sections of my book. One of the less well known first-person accounts of getting out of North Korea that I found so moving was Masaji Ishikawa’s “A River in Darkness.” I wish every person in this country would read just one first-person account of life in North Korea, and understand the exceptional value and fragility of our democracy, and how urgent it is we protect it. Now I’m going to cry again.
What’s your favorite book no one else has heard of?
I don’t think I can designate a favorite, but one I love is a story collection by Hisaye Yamamoto called “Seventeen Syllables.” Yamamoto was born in California — a U.S. citizen, obviously — and was held in an internment camp with her family during World War II. At the same time as she and her family were being held prisoner for the non-crime of being ethnic Japanese, one of her brothers died in combat in Italy fighting with the U.S. Army. That experience deeply influenced her writing, which is beautiful and luminous like the work of Chekhov.
Do you think any canonical books are widely misunderstood?
Of course! I’m sure I’ve misunderstood more than I’ve understood of most canonical books, especially the ones that have been so extensively processed into symbols that it’s almost impossible to read them even for the first time without your brain being crammed full of preconceptions. “Ulysses” and “To the Lighthouse” are two books that make me wish I could go back in time to the 1920s and read them right as they were published, without having already endured the critical avalanche both books spawned. I think of my grandfather, who actually was instrumental in introducing Joyce to Korea. I wish I could be in my grandfather’s head when he first encountered Joyce’s work.
You published the short story “Flashlight” in 2020. When, specifically, did you decide there was a novel in this material?
I like the adverb in this question. When, specifically? Specifically, never. Even before the story was published, I was hoping I could find a novel in the material, but I couldn’t figure out how to do it. Then over time I wrote heaps and heaps of material about the characters, still hoping to find a novel, but unable to do so. Finally at some very nonspecific point, the thing was just so large it was clear that, whether or not it was a novel, it could no longer be a story.
What kind of research did it require?
So much! Research on the abductions, on the Zainichi, on North Korea, on Imperial Japanese education policy. I love research and usually worry I’m indulging myself with too much research as opposed to getting down to the writing, but with this book I felt like I’d never be able to do enough.
Have you ever gotten in trouble for reading a book?
What an interesting and disturbing question. The answer is no. When I was young I was only ever encouraged to read whatever caught my interest, both by my parents and my teachers, and that’s why I’m a writer. No one should ever be punished for reading a book. I wish such a thing was unthinkable, but we know that it isn’t.
You’re organizing a literary dinner party. Which three writers, dead or alive, do you invite?
Virginia Woolf and whichever two friends of hers she would most like to bring.
The post Susan Choi: ‘I Feel I’ve Read Nothing but Great Books Recently’ appeared first on New York Times.
