Local author Patti Callahan Henry is currently undergoing a few life transitions. She recently deposited her eldest child on the campus of Auburn University. She is living across two states; Georgia and Alabama. And after 21/2 years of writing (the longest stretch ever for a single project), she has just released her eighth novel, "Coming up for Air" (St. Martin's Press, $25).
"When somebody says, ‘So this is your eighth novel,' I feel like they are talking about someone else," said Henry, who is hosting a launch party to benefit the Savannah College of Art and Design's Cultural Arts and Writing Scholarship Program. "I feel like my career grew up with my kids."
That growth has come with self-assurance. "I am much more confident in the way I would say something," Henry said. "The readers who like my work like my voice, so why would I try to say it any different than I do?"
In her latest effort, Henry brings us the voice of Ellie, the firstborn daughter of a firstborn daughter named Lillian. After Lillian's unexpected death, Ellie uncovers her mother's interesting past via journal entries made each New Year's Eve beginning in 1953. Ellie heads to the Alabama coast to dig up the truth, including her mother's secret involvement in the civil rights movement. Things get complicated when Ellie's ex-boyfriend resurfaces just as Ellie's marriage is crumbling.
Locations including Atlanta and the Alabama coast are almost as integral to the plot as the characters -- something Henry's readers have come to expect.
"In all eight of my books, home and family and being rooted in community is vital to the story," said Henry, who lived a nomadic life as a preacher's kid. "Maybe I'm trying to give that to myself, as well as to my readers."
Henry took a few minutes to chat with us about her latest work.
Q: Buried secrets seem to be a recurring theme in your books. Why?
A: The theme is that we often make decisions not knowing the full story. Things are not always what they appear to be. How many times have you met someone and thought they are so this and so that, and then you hear the story behind the story and you have a big heart for them? My books are also about someone being at a crossroads, and in order to be able to go left or right they had to get the full story.
Q: Ellie is dealing with a crumbling marriage coupled with temptation from a past love. How do you keep her from becoming a horrible person?
A: We had this same dilemma in my first book, "Losing the Moon." I was trying to show [Ellie's] struggle was not against some major blowup. It is a subtle disintegration. That is not just harder to write, it is harder to read, and we all read stories through our own filter. This book took me longer than any of my other books to write, about 21/2 years, and it was the subtlety that was so challenging. I was working hard to get that right so you could see her internal struggle. There will be people who disagree and I hope they do, because then there is something to talk about.
Q: The civil right era seems to be having a moment in popular culture. Your book takes a look at some of the goings on of that time. Why do you think it has become a big topic for writers?
A: I truly believe in a collective unconscious. These themes come rippling through our consciousness and without anyone talking about it, anyone who is an artist, writer, etcetera taps into it. Also, we live in Alabama now, and part of me really wanted [my kids] to understand that this isn't the civil war, it wasn't that long ago. I was a baby. They think nobody would ever do those things, and it was just 50 years ago.
Event preview
Book signing
"Coming up for Air," by Patti Callahan Henry (St Martin Press, $25)
7-9 p.m. Monday. Free.
Room & Board, 1170 Howell Mill Road N.W.
404-682-5900. RSVP to rsvp@mrpratl.com by Aug. 14.
About the Author
