The Possibilities: A Novel (27 page)
Read The Possibilities: A Novel Online
Authors: Kaui Hart Hemmings
A Conversation with Kaui Hart Hemmings
Q. How did the experience of writing
The Possibilities
compare to that of writing your first novel? How does writing a novel differ from writing short stories?
A. It was such a different experience. My story collection,
House of Thieves
, prepared me to write
The Descendants
. I had been ruminating and immersed in characters whose lives, feats, and defeats take place in Hawaii. I was reading Hawaiian history and trying to let research translate into prose. I was seeing how culture, race, economics, and the past inform the present. So there was a lot of pre-production, and then when I sat down and wrote that first sentence in
The Descendants
, in general it was pretty smooth sailing.
The Possibilities
—let’s say the pre-production time was much longer. It took me a lot of drafts to find the story and the character who was going to deliver the story. I wrote this novel so many times—one all in the father’s POV (it had a completely different plot), one in Kit’s, one from all of them. In my documents folder I have SARAH ST. JOHN, SARAH ST. JOHN 1, SARAH 2, on and on, and finally SARAH HOLY F(*#@INS!*T!
Q. Both this book and your previous book,
The Descendants
, are set in the wake of tragedy. What is it about grief and coping that inspires your writing?
A. It brings out the worst in people, it brings out the best in people, and it terrifies me. Imagining these things, this pain. I guess I write about it because it’s small and private, and it’s huge. It’s life. We will all have this—grief, loss, pain—in common. It’s both unimaginable and inevitable.
Q. Did you do any research for this book? If so, what was your process like?
A. I lived in Breckenridge after I graduated from Colorado College, so that planted the seed. I met my husband at that time, too, at a bar called Fajitas, which is no longer there. I worked in a ski shop; he worked in at Steak and Rib as a dishwasher. When I was ready to write the book, I read books about avalanches and rescue, books about the ski resort industry, as well as a book on the founders of ski resorts like Aspen, Breckenridge, and Vail. Then I visited, of course. I found the houses the characters would live in, the places they’d go, trying to envision moving through this town. The Breckenridge Heritage Alliance and the Welcome Center were great resources. I wrote a lot of the novel in Breckenridge. I’d go to Cool River Coffee House to write and during happy hour at Modis. Tourists probably had no idea why someone was working at a happy hour, but during the drafting process I wanted to see how people played in this town, what they dressed like, what they drank, the merriment—and how all this would be so jarring for the St. John family.
Q. Is there one character in the book whom you relate to or sympathize with the most?
A. Perhaps Kit—her thirst for adventure, to shed her upbringing and forage for her own life; her eventual fear and shame, and then her eventual confidence. I share Sarah’s sense of humor, and I sympathize fully with all of them. There isn’t a correct way to grieve or to celebrate the life you have, and I understand the ways they try.
Q. Both this book and
The Descendants
take place in what many would consider to be vacation destinations. How did you decide to set
The Possibilities
in Breckenridge? Is there something appealing about showing the more “normal” side of life in an exotic locale?
A. I’m interested in locales. And I happen to live (and have lived) in places that are vacation destinations. It’s a challenge I give myself—to show the crew of a place; the culture and economy. I have no interest in breaking the illusion of paradise. I just like exposing the inner workings and the people with historical ties to a place who live, work, and both adapt to it and change it.
Q. Are any of the hot spots mentioned in
The Possibilities
real or based on real places (restaurants, bars, hotels)?
A. Yes! The Whale’s Tale, Rasta Pasta, the Gold Pan, Fatty’s, Modis Restaurant (which is fabulous), Steak and Rib (where my husband was once a dishwasher); The Village Hotel and the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs are also real places that are significant in the novel.
Q. What are your favorite and least favorite parts of the writing and publishing processes?
A. My absolute favorite part is the revision process and working with an editor. It’s often the first time I have any feedback on something I’ve written. It’s also when I get to play with the work. I’ve worked, I’ve gotten it on the page, and now I get to sculpt.
Q. Have you ever ordered something from QVC or the Home Shopping Network?
A. I haven’t. I’m not a shopper—I love to throw things out vs. accumulate. That being said, I’d love to see Lyle’s stash.
Q. What’s up next for you? Are you working on a new book?
A. Yes, a young adult book,
Juniors
, out in Fall 2015.
Enhance Your Book Club
1. Have you read Kaui Hart Hemmings’s first novel,
The Descendants
? Pick up a copy (or rent the movie!) and discuss any similar themes between these two stories.
2. On the way to Cully’s memorial, they pass through what Lyle says is
“a bumper sticker town.”
Are you a fan of bumper stickers? What kind of slogan would you be most likely to display? Have you seen any funny ones lately, or can you recall any classic bumper stickers from your childhood?
3. Sarah is very particular about words. She hates the word
moist
. She hates when people call Bloody Marys “bloodies.” On page 102 she says about guy she used to date, “I’d try so hard not to cringe at his overuse of the word
grieve
. It was like
nipple
, or
vagina. Grieve. I’m grieving
. Gave me the creeps.” Are there any words that give you the creeps? Share them with your book club and talk about why they’re so cringe-worthy—is it simply the way they sound? What they mean? Is there a particular connotation that they carry?
About the Author
Kaui Hart Hemmings is the author of the story collection
House of Thieves
and the novel
The Descendants
, a
New York Times
bestseller that has been published in twenty-one countries and made into an Academy Award–winning film. She has degrees from Colorado College and Sarah Lawrence College, and was a Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University. She lives in Hawaii with her husband and two children.
www.facebook.com/KauiHartHemmings
www.instagram.com/kauiharthemmings
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authors.simonandschuster.com/Kaui-Hart-Hemmings
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2014 by Kaui Hart Hemmings
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Simon & Schuster Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.
First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition May 2014
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Designed by Nancy Singer
Jacket design and illustration by Christopher Lin
Jacket illustrations © Getty Images
Author photograph by Christina Simpkins
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hemmings, Kaui Hart.
The possibilities : a novel / Kaui Hart Hemmings. — First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition.
pages cm.
1. Sons—Death—Fiction. 2. Bereavement—Fiction. 3. Colorado—Fiction. 4. Life change events—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3608.E477P67 2014
813'.6—dc23 2013027385
ISBN 978-1-4767-2579-6
ISBN 978-1-4767-2581-9 (ebook)