Author Profile: Wally Lamb

Wally Lamb

BIO

Wally Lamb is a nationally honored teacher, critically acclaimed writer and bestselling author. His work includes the #1 New York Times bestseller, SHE’S COME UNDONE (Pocket Books; 1992) which also hit USA Today, Los Angeles Times, Publishers Weekly and other national bestseller lists; published fiction and non-fiction in The Missouri Review, Allure, USA Weekend, Northeast, The New York Times Magazine, and editor of the poetry collection, Always Begin Where You Are (McGraw Hill; 1979). His second book, I KNOW THIS MUCH IS TRUE (ReganBooks), was released in June 1998.

SHE’S COME UNDONE was chosen as a finalist for the 1992 Los Angeles Times Book Awards’ Art Seidenbaum Prize for first fiction.  It was named a notable book of the year by numerous publications, including The New York Times Book Review and People.  The book was also chosen by the Oprah Winfrey Show as a "Book Club" selection in early 1997, and is one of the bestselling titles chosen for that honor.

Lamb is the recipient of the 1998 Governor’s Arts Award, State of Connecticut, a past recipient of the NEA grant for fiction and is a Missouri Review William Peden fiction prize winner.

He was the director of the Writing Center at the Norwich Free Academy, Norwich, Connecticut from 1989-1998, and is currently an Associate Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Connecticut’s English Department.  He holds a B.A. and an M.A. in Education from the University of Connecticut and an M.F.A. in Writing from Vermont College.  Lamb lives in Connecticut with his wife and three sons.

INTERVIEW

The Book Report's Senior Writer Judy Handschuh interviewed Wally Lamb. They delved into his love of writing and how he approaches his craft. Join us here and see what this bestselling author had to say:

TBR: I know that your characters are very important to you.  William Faulkner once said that he didn't really write stories --- he just followed his characters around and took notes.  Could you comment on this?

LAMB: This is exactly the way it is for me also.  People always say, "But you're in control of what happens."  That's not true.  I start with a character's voice, and that voice leads me into the story.  I never know where I'm going and getting into the character leads me into realizing the story. I don't love writing.  I feel compelled to write.  It's the characters.  I develop them --- then comes the need to find out what is going to happen in their lives.

TBR: Do you live with your characters?

LAMB: Yes, I do.  I live with them for some part of every day.  I work in an apartment away from the house --- it's a place dedicated to writing.  And for the time I'm there, I'm living with my characters, watching them and wondering what they will do next.

TBR: Do you worry about them?

LAMB: Very much so.  And sometimes I try to put them on safer paths or have them make better choices.  But whenever I do that, my writing becomes hollow.  So I've learned to let them go their own way and just wait to see what happens.

TBR: Do you miss them when they're gone?

LAMB: No, not really.  Finishing a book, for me, is sort of like sending children out into the world.  I've gone along with them and have had an investment in their lives, but once they're gone, all I can do is wish them well.

TBR: So you don't envision a sequel to either SHE'S COME UNDONE or I KNOW THIS MUCH IS TRUE?

LAMB: No, I don't think so.  I've done all I can with them --- now they're on their own.

ARTICLE

How to write a novel--textbook style:

Decide on a setting.

Write a synopsis of your plot.

Create an outline of your plot.

Draft detailed descriptions of each of your characters.

Create an outline of each chapter.

Begin writing.

How to write a novel Wally Lamb-style:

Find a character that interests you.

Follow that character around.

Write down everything that character says and does.

Characters count for Wally Lamb, far more than the plots or the settings of his novels.In a recent interview he said that characters are the engines that drive his work.

It is this focus on characters that sets him apart from most contemporary novelists.  For Lamb, the characters' lives are the story --- as opposed to most novels which are driven by their plots and consign the characters to the back seat.

And, oh, the characters Lamb creates. Vivid, memorable people populate the pages of his novels. Interesting, temperamental, emotional human beings attach themselves to us like barnacles on the bottom of a ship. Characters that engage us --- have us laughing, crying, hoping and praying for them as they stumble through life --- trying to make sense of it all.

No one who has read SHE'S COME UNDONE will ever forget Dolores Price, sitting in front of her television set, stuffing her face with Mallomars and potato chips.  But Dolores was not just a foodoholic. She wanted desperately to belong. She was confused about life. She made mistakes. Sometimes she learned from them, and sometimes she didn't.  But we loved her for trying.  And we worried about her as we turned every page.

Who couldn't relate to this woman?

Dominick and Thomas Birdsey --- the principal characters in I KNOW THIS MUCH IS TRUE --- arouse many of the same feelings. They are identical twins, physically alike but emotionally poles apart. They grow up in a family dominated by an abusive stepfather. Early in life Dominick learns that his stepfather punishes weakness, and he learns to hide his feelings.Thomas never shields his emotions, and suffers as a consequence. Eventually he develops schizophrenic paranoia and is confined to a mental institution.

Who can't relate to Dominick as he struggles to create his own life? Just where does responsibility to a family stop and responsibility to yourself begin? And what do you do with all of the people who are telling you what to do?

It is impossible not to feel terribly sad for Thomas.

Wally Lamb has created another set of unforgettable characters --- ones that will live with you long after you have finished the book.

There's a reason for that.

To paraphrase Pogo (from the comic strip of the same name) we have met the characters and they are us.

Who can't relate to this?

Judith Handschuh (JHScriba)