The Hiding Places: An interview with Catherine Robertson
Catherine Robertson penned her bestselling ‘Imperfect Lives’ trilogy between 2011 and
2013. Robertson’s fourth novel, The Hiding Places (published April 2015 by Penguin
Random House NZ), launches her writing into new territory. The Hiding Places is
host to an intriguing family of characters and explores grief and the search for autonomy
and home. The novel also sparks with references to mythic characters and one of the most
infamous divine journeys in literature.
1. What sparked The Hiding Places? Was it an idea, a character, a place?
The books from childhood that have stuck with me are nearly all based around folklore and myth. My all-time favourites include Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising series, Alan Garner’s books – particularly The Owl Service that is based on a story from the Welsh Mabinogion, Lloyd Alexander’s Chronicles of Prydain (the Mabinogion again) – TH White’s superb and poignant re-telling of Arthurian legend, The Once and Future King, and Diana Wynne Jones’ Eight Days of Luke, which is a cracking take on Norse mythology. For my sons, I bought Geraldine MaCaughrean’s The Stones are Hatching, a book that hurtles you through British folklore that’s brought to vivid and menacing life. I treasure my copy of Faeries by Brian Froud and Alan Lee, for the stories as well as the beautiful illustrations. And despite it being a bit stodgily Victorian, I’ve always appreciated Charles Kingsley’s stories, The Heroes.
So my short answer, after that long introduction, is that I wanted to see if I could capture some of that delight and mystery in a book of adult fiction.
I also wanted to show how all these stories loop together – how a Greek mythical figure, for example, can appear in a different guise but with the same role in English folk tales. In doing so I did rather go mad, piling in references to other works that meditate on the same themes: what we fear and what we welcome, how we explain life and death, how we define good and bad. In The Hiding Places there are oodles of references to Dante’s Divine Comedy, which provides the basic framework for the novel – a journey upwards to light and a journey down to darkness. And I’ve snuck in nods to TS Eliot’s Four Quartets and The Wasteland because, for one thing, that poem starts with a quote from Dante. Everything loops…
2. There is the aphorism ‘Time heals all wounds’. The Hiding Places explores grief and the pressures and desires associated with ‘moving on’. How does main character April perceive her situation and the mourning process? As a writer, what questions were you interested in posing around grief?
I’m interested in how we deal with grief, and particularly in the concept of forgiveness – how we learn to make the distinction that forgiveness does not make a behaviour or action right, but allows us to let go of anger, blame, shame, or any emotion that is making us unhappy and keeping us stuck in the grieving state. That’s incredibly hard to do, especially, as in April’s case, when the person we are blaming is our self.
3. April meets some interesting locals when she takes up residence in her new English home. Did you have all the characters in mind when you began, or did they emerge as you went along? Was there a character you particularly enjoyed writing about/spending time with on the page?
In my previous books, the stories have formed around the characters. In The Hiding Places I needed the characters to fit the story (and sub-stories). I had April in mind when I started, and Jack, but all the others emerged from and were shaped by the story. As you can probably guess I had the most fun with Sunny, because I relish writing about strong-minded, unfiltered women. I loved writing about Oran too, not only because he is funny, but also because I enjoyed finding ways to make his story a modern take on an ancient Greek myth. I won’t give away which myth, but I will tell you that there’s a big clue in his name.
4. Peter Ustinov said, ‘Comedy is simply a funny way of being serious.’ Humour is a big part of your writing. Is this something that comes naturally to you? In what ways is humour a powerful or interesting tool for you as a writer?
I get enormous pleasure from crafting humorous lines. It’s so easy to resort to cliché or to borrowing from the masters, and so difficult to come up with an original take (what you hope is original, anyway). I work some lines as hard as an American might work taffy, pulling and twisting again and again, until I feel it’s in exactly the right form.
I agree with Mr. Ustinov (I have his autograph, by the way, lucky me). But I would take it a step further to what Neil Gaiman said about Terry Pratchett – he wrote because he was angry. In my opinion the best and truest comedy is powered by anger, and directed at injustice, inequality, the arbitrary nature of tragedy, and at people who get away with being rotten scoundrels. Humour for me is a way to tackle darker subjects and vent without leaving readers feeling cudgeled about the head.
5. You are completing an MA in Creative Writing this year. What motivated you to do an MA and how is it shaping up?
I’m not that well known yet as an author, so I don’t feel obliged to produce the same kind of novel year in, year out. (As opposed to, say, Lee Child. There’d be an uprising if he canned Jack Reacher, and I’d be right up there at the front of the mob shaking my fist.) The Hiding Places is a different novel from my first three because I felt constricted by the ‘chick lit’ genre, particularly its expectation of sweeter, more sympathetic female characters. With this book, I wanted to explore darker, more complex territory and be free to create at least one strong-minded, outspoken woman. Now I’d like to stretch myself even further, into literary fiction, and use this year to really experiment with structure, form, and theme. I’ve no idea if I can, but I’m up for the challenge, and I’m particularly looking forward to the support and ideas I’ll get from my class-mates and teachers. Writing is a Billy No-Mates task, and it will be nice to have company for this year at least.
6. You are also a well-known reviewer and features writer. What literary issues are you thinking about the moment?
I’d like to unpick the problem of why our country buys so little New Zealand fiction compared to fiction by international writers. Is it due to an ingrained perception of what New Zealand writing is (i.e. not as good), or is it simply a matter of awareness? I don’t know yet but I’d like to find out. My initial sense is that to solve that problem we need to break down the perceptions of “better” and “lesser” genres of fiction and instead promote the full range, rather than focus the majority of our attention, as we do now, on literary fiction. For example, I think it’s a crime that we only take notice some of our commercial writers after they’ve made it big overseas. I would like the balance of emphasis to be more even, and for New Zealanders to be encouraged to recognise and value quality writing in every genre. More readers reading more widely – I believe that’s the ticket to a healthy local book industry.
7. What are the most recent books you’ve read and what do you have lined up next?
That question fills me with panic. I read five books every four weeks for my reviews in The NZ Listener. My April contemporary fiction round up contains Nora Roberts’ The Liar, Goodbye Sweetheart by Marion Halligan, Not Quite Nice by Celia Imrie, Kiwi writer Ann Glamuzina’s debut Rich Man Road, and Coming Rain by Stephen Daisley. I have required reading for the MA, at least one extra book a week. I recently read The Chimes by Anna Smaill and Five Minutes Alone by Paul Cleave for the inaugural NZ Book Council ‘Talking Books’ podcast (due to be published on Booknotes Unbound soon). On top of that, I’m speeding my way through the back catalogue of David Mitchell. I’m chairing a session with him at the Auckland Writers Festival in May, and I’d better be well informed. So my answer is, I’m reading ALL the books! That’s what it feels like anyway.
Catherine Robertson’s debut novel, The Sweet Second Life of Darrell Kincaid (2011), hit the New Zealand bestseller list immediately, making its way to number one. She quickly followed up with The Not So Perfect Life of Mo Lawrence. The third volume of her trilogy is called The Misplaced Affections of Charlotte Fforbes. Hailed as ‘a new national treasure’, Catherine was a featured author at the 2012 Frankfurt Book Fair. Her fourth novel, The Hiding Places (Penguin Random House NZ, 2015), was released on 2 April 2015. You can read more about Catherine Robertson in her Book Council Writers file.
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