The History of Us (41 page)

4. Pair your reading of
The History of Us
with one of Leah Stewart’s other novels, such as
Husband and Wife
or
The Myth of You and Me
. Visit
www.leahstewart.com
to learn more about the author.

A Conversation with Leah Stewart

What initially inspired you to write
The History of Us
?

I was interested in the ways in which identity and place overlap—in other words, how and to what degree we define ourselves by where we live. At first I had in mind a really complicated structure, modeled on George Eliot’s
Middlemarch
, that followed about ten different points of view. But that was unwieldy. After I decided to focus on one family, the relationships between adult siblings and between adult children and their parental figure became important.

The city of Cincinnati and the Hempels’ house are important to both the narrative and to the characters. Why did you choose Cincinnati as the backdrop for this novel? What kind of research did you do on 19
^th
century houses in order to include such intricate details like the following:
“the wrought-iron grille on the front door, the leaded-glass windows…the chandelier in the entryway, the elaborately carved woodwork, the tiles around the fireplace with their raised seashells, the walls of the living room, upholstered in a faded pink damask with a pattern in gold”?

I moved to Cincinnati in 2007, and I’ve been increasingly fascinated by the city’s history—the abandoned tunnels of the never-finished subway, and the road that used to be a canal, and the neighborhood that used to be home to 300 saloons. I think that’s in part because the heyday of the city was in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and there hasn’t been the money since to tear down and replace buildings that there has in other cities. So daily life here involves a number of buildings that are around a hundred years old, including my own house, and I love the architecture of that time. There’s also something compelling to me about the city having once been a cultural capital—Queen of the West—and no longer being one, so there’s all this evidence of former glory around. That seemed to go along with the characters’ situations, or maybe it would be more accurate to say it inspired those situations.

I know a lot, now, about living in an old house and the upkeep an old house requires, as I and most of my friends here live in them. The house in the book was inspired by an actual house here, which I’ve been in once, because it belongs to friends of friends.

You write on your website, “I’m a believer in writing from emotional truth but not necessarily literal truth. In other words I have to put my characters in situations where I’ll understand what they feel, and to do that I mix elements of my own life with details from other people’s lives and add a healthy dose of stuff I made up.” What real-life elements of your own life made it into
The History of Us
?

My observations about Cincinnati, though I don’t feel ambivalent about it like Eloise does. My feelings are closer to Theo’s—I’ve really fallen in love with the place. Otherwise, hmmmm. It’s striking me this has less from my life in it than my other books. I have a younger brother, and my husband has two younger brothers, and I’ve been with him so long they might as well be my brothers, too. So probably some elements of those sibling relationships, plus what I’ve observed watching my children interact.

You write of Josh’s character:
“If people could be divided into cats and dogs, he was the latter, pliable and obvious in his affections.”
Are you more of a cat person or a dog person?

Oh, cat person, definitely.

Jane Austen is referenced a few times in
The History of Us.
Which of her books is your favorite?

I sometimes wish I could be more original in answering this question, but it’s
Pride and Prejudice
, followed by a tie between
Sense and Sensibility
and
Emma
.

Your descriptions of what it’s like to be a ballerina and specific details—like how many pairs of shoes a dancer goes through in a year—are fascinating. Is this a topic with which you have firsthand knowledge, or did you research it specifically for the novel?

I got interested in dance about three years ago, after my daughter started taking ballet lessons. The ballet offers a dance/workout class called Rhythm & Motion, and I started taking that. Then I bought season tickets to the ballet, and now I go fairly often to modern dance performances as well. I think it’s partly the discipline that fascinates me, and partly that, being mostly a mind person, I’m fascinated by the idea of being a body person. Especially in the case of making art with just your body. When I started working on this book, I interviewed Sarah Hairston, who is a principal dancer with the Cincinnati Ballet, and a number of the details, like the one about pointe shoes, came from her.

A major part of the story is centered on Eloise’s struggle with a sense of place and her desire to be “elsewhere.” Did you know from the start where she would ultimately decide she wants to live, or did her decision evolve during the writing process? Why was this an important theme to include in
The History of Us
?

It’s where the book started. For a long time it was called
Elsewhere
. Because there’s a perception in this country that the big things happen on the coasts, and the rest of us live in a vast, bland space called flyover country, and some people who live here are afflicted with that perception and are made unhappy by it. So I got interested in that. I’m always interested in the ways people make themselves unhappy.

I can’t remember whether I always knew Eloise would stay, although thinking about it now it doesn’t seem like there was another choice.

You reference popular bands and musicians, such as The National, Frightened Rabbit, and Grizzly Bear. What songs would be on
The History of Us
playlist? Do you listen to music while you write?

I do listen to music. I fixate on certain albums and play them over and over, so that at a certain point putting them on triggers the writing mood. For this book, it was The National’s High Violet, Frightened Rabbit’s The Winter of Mixed Drinks, all three of the albums by Band of Horses, Bon Iver’s first album, and Neko Case’s Middle Cyclone. For the book I’m working on now, so far it’s The Head and the Heart’s self-titled album, and the two albums by Blind Pilot.

I could probably make two playlists—one of the songs I listened to while writing it, and one of the songs I imagine the characters would listen to. I know Eloise, for instance, is a Lucinda Williams fan, and Theo likes Neko Case. Josh I imagine having my husband’s musical tastes—Grizzly Bear, Pavement, the Beach Boys, the Replacements. I also think he’d like Papas Fritas, whose members are friends of ours, and whose experience informs most of what I know about being in an indie rock band.

The History of Us
explores both romantic and familial relationships. Which do you find more challenging to write about?

Probably romantic ones, at least new romantic ones. Because you have to convince the reader these two people would fall in love, whereas all you have to do with familial relationships (and I’d put longtime romantic partnerships in this category) is say they exist and then proceed to describe them.

You currently teach in the University of Cincinnati’s creative writing program. What is one piece of advice you would give to someone who wanted to write professionally?

Be tough.

Your novels have explored infidelity, women’s friendship, murder, and motherhood. What do you plan to write about next?

How weird—all of the above. The book I just started is about an elderly woman, living in an isolated place, who befriends a new neighbor and her four-year-old son, then discovers the other woman was suspected of, but not charged with, killing her unfaithful husband. She fixates on finding out the truth, and turns out to have some secrets of her own.

© SKIP FRANCIES

LEAH STEWART
is the author of the novels
Husband and Wife, The Myth of You and Me
, and
Body of a Girl
. The recipient of an NEA Literature Fellowship, she teaches in the creative writing program at the University of Cincinnati and lives in Cincinnati with her husband and two children.

www.leahstewart.com

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COPYRIGHT © 2013 SIMON & SCHUSTER

ALSO BY LEAH STEWART

Body of a Girl

The Myth of You and Me

Husband and Wife

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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2013 by Leah Stewart

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