9.30.07 WR Virtual Book Club: Dani Shapiro, author of Black & White
From the author of Family History (“Poised, absorbing . . . a bona fide page turner”—The New York Times Book Review) and the best-selling memoir Slow Motion, a spellbinding novel about art, fame, ambition, and family that explores a provocative question: Is it possible for a mother to be true to herself and true to her children at the same time?
Clara Brodeur has spent her entire adult life pulling herself away from her famous mother, the renowned and controversial photographer Ruth Dunne, whose towering reputation rests on the unsettling nude portraits she took of her young daughter from the ages of three to fourteen. The Clara Series, which graced the walls of museums around the world as well as the pages of New York City tabloids that labeled the work pornographic, cast a long and inescapable shadow over its subject. At eighteen, when Clara might have entered university and begun to shape an identity beyond her sensationalized, unsought role in the New York art world, she fled to the quiet obscurity of small-town Maine, where she married and had a child, a daughter whom she has tried to shield from the central facts of her early life and her damaging role as her mother’s muse.
Fourteen years later, Ruth Dunne is dying, and Clara is summoned to her bedside. Despite her anguish and ambivalence about confronting a family life she has repressed and denied for more than a decade, Clara returns. She finds Ruth surrounded, even in her illness, by worshipful interns, protective assistants, and her conniving art dealer.
Once again, she is Clara Dunne, the object of curiosity, the girl in the photos. Except this time she has her own daughter to think about—a girl who at nine looks strikingly like the girl in Ruth’s photos—and she yearns to protect her, to insulate her from the exposure that will inevitably result when her two worlds, New York and Maine, collide.
As Clara charts a path connecting her childhood with her adult life, Shapiro’s novel weaves together past and present in images as stark and intense as the photographs that tore the Dunnes apart. A brilliant examination of motherhood—a novel that pits artistic inspiration against maternal obligation and asks whether the two can ever be fully reconciled—Black & White explores the limits and duties of family loyalties, and even of love. Gripping, haunting, psychologically complex, this is Shapiro at her captivating best.
About the Author: Dani Shapiro’s most recent book’s include Black & White (Knopf, 2007), Family History (Knopf, 2003) and the best-selling memoir Slow Motion. Her short stories and essays have appeared in The New Yorker, Granta, Tin House, Elle, Bookforum, Oprah, Ploughshares, among others, and have been broadcast on National Public Radio. Her books have been translated into seven languages. She is a visiting writer at Wesleyan University and a contributing editor at Travel + Leisure. She lives with her husband and young son in Litchfield County, Connecticut.
Read Chapter 1
Visit Dani Shapiro’s website
Small Spiral Notebook interviews Dani Shapiro
First of all, I loved the book and I couldn’t put it down. There is something about the story and the beautifully crafted relationships in it kept me going from one page to the next.
Now on to the questions:
1. One of the first thing I’ve been curious to know is where or how you found the inspiration to write this book.
2. The complicated, conflicted and wounded relationship between Clara and Ruth was very fascinating to me. It is raw, that I find myself looking into my own relationship with my mother. Has this book made you look into your own experience as a mother? How has your experience as a mother affect your writing this book?
3. I like how Clara came to her own closure and acceptance in the end. It made me think that really, with all the layers of misunderstandings between kids and their parents (and as with all relationships), both get some clarity and understanding of their family dynamics with age and maturity. Have you ever thought of ending the novel differently?
This book was hard for me to read, because I almost didn’t want to turn each page and feel more of Clara’s pain. I just have one question, which I’ve had in my mind since the moment I finished the book: Why did you choose nude photography as the catalyst for Clara’s hatred of her mother? I ask because at first, I thought that Clara must have been sexually abused in some way, because of how visceral her reaction was to just the thought of having to go back home, or to having her daughter find out that she had a Grandma. Obviously Ruth was taking advantage of Clara, and the scenes depicting the photography sessions showed that Ruth cared more about getting the shot than for Clara’s comfort level, but why that in particular? Thank you.
I enjoyed the book, even though it was hard for me to relate to, I felt it was very well written.
Questions:
1. Was it a conscious move to stay away from the relationship between Clara and her Husband for roughly the first half of the book? Did you want the reader to fully understand Clara’s relationship with Ruth and what she had been through as a child before delving into how it affected her future relationships?
2. There were very few male characters in the book and none of them was very present. While this may have just been a consequence of the story you were telling I wanted to ask if you have any trouble writing male characters?
Black & White tells a powerful story…deeply evocative and complex. This is just one of those books that stays with the reader long after the final sentence. Thank you for the opportunity to participate in the discussion of such a bittersweet and gripping novel. I have a few questions I plan to ask in tomorrow’s discussion:
1.) What is the role of setting in Black & White? New York City is obviously a cultural and artistic center, so it makes perfect sense that this where Ruth Dunne would be located–did you at any point consider anywhere else? Likewise, what made you decide to use Mount Desert Island in Maine as the backdrop for Clara’s present day location? I have spent time there and feel that you did an excellent job of establishing the sense of place. Is this a geographic area you are familiar with or did you have to research this?
2.) Women writers have long explored the intersection of motherhood and creativity–and the tenuous balancing act of attempting to have both children and art. In Black & White, clearly, Ruth Dunne is a woman who has chosen art over her child, while Clara has insulated herself almost exclusively within the confines of motherhood and family. Does this tension in Black & White suggest that women cannot have both? Do you have any thoughts about this in particular or on motherhood and creativity in general?
3.) Hemingway said, “There’s no rule on how it is to write. Sometimes it comes easily and perfectly. Sometimes it is like drilling rock and then blasting it out with charges.” What was the “nuts-and-bolts” process like for you as you wrote Black & White? Was it a challenging book to create? How long did it take you to complete? Was the research process intensive or was it written more intuitively?
Thank you, once again for considering all of these questions! And thank you, Felicia, for the opportunity to be a participant.
Best wishes,
Delia
I, too, could not put down your book. It was wonderful! The characters were wonderfully multi-faceted.
My questions:
Clara and Sam have diametrically opposed childhoods. Were you thinking of them as a human extension of black and white? And is there room for shades of grey in child raising?
Clara and Robin seem to view their childhood and parents in terms of black and white - good and bad. Was it difficult to keep the shades of grey out of their characters?
What inspired you to write this book? Were you inspired by the work of one artist in particular? Or was it a metaphor for mother/daughter relationships in general?
It feels like Clara has a hard time coming to terms with her mother’s photographs of her partially because she was an ambivalent participant. What thought process did you use when creating their relationship? The push and pull between the feeling of wrongness and the love of attention is very powerful.
Thank you for this opportunity! I look forward to talking with you.
[…] evening at 6pm Eastern time, I am lucky enough to be a participant in the Writer’s Revealed podcast with author Dani Shapiro. We will be discussing her book, Black & […]
[…] evening at 6pm Eastern time, I am lucky enough to be a participant in the Writer’s Revealed podcast with author Dani Shapiro. We will be discussing her book, Black & […]
I just wanted to say thank you, Felicia, for having me as a participant in this discussion. Thanks to Dani as well for giving her readers this unique chance to ask questions about Black & White!
Best wishes,
Delia
http://cdeliascarpitti.com
Hi everyone. I enjoyed being with you tonight. Thanks for your great questions. If you have any lingering thoughts or questions feel free to ask!
To Dani & all our wonderful guests - thanks again!! What a terrific chat. Here’s the link to the podcast, enjoy!
http://audio.nowlive.com:443/stream/miniplayer/9636-070930-481191192533.mp3
Cheers, Felicia
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