By the Book: Helen Sadler

Response to Prompt #37

Sadler is a writer and teacher in Fort Myers, Florida, working in many different genres.  Her current projects include a long neglected novel, a novelette inspired by the music of Nanci Griffith, and an on-again, off-again memoir.  She writes a poem a day, is an avid journalist, and is a founding member of the Trail Brazen Writing Circle. 

What books are on your nightstand?

The Wrong Way to Save Your Life by Megan Stielstra, Lester Higata’s 20^th Century: Stories by Barbara Hamby, and The Revolutionary Year in Music 1965 by Andrew Grant Jackson.

What is the last great book you read?

The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy.  I have heard about this book for years, and it deserves every accolade.  Her descriptions are beyond compare.  I can see some of her writing process evident, which is going to force me to up my game.  The book is staying on my shelf as a reminder.

For nonfiction, it’s Steve Almond’s Bad Stories: What the Hell Just Happened to our Country.  His insights are required reading for all Americans.

What's your go-to classic?

Siddhartha by Herman Hesse. If any book saved me, it was this one. I read it about a month before my brother died, and it provided much needed perspective.   I return to it on occasion and still find it full of timeless wisdom.

What is the best book you've read that no one has ever heard of?

A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki has every single thing I’ve ever loved in any book I’ve read all in one place, and executed perfectly. The author is even a character – and it works!  I have talked this book up to everyone who will listen, but I don’t think I ever convinced anyone to read it.

Which writers --novelists, playwrights, critics, journalists, poets -- working today do you admire the most?

A novelist I’ve recently come to love is Turkish writer Elif Shafak.  Her Forty Rules of Love and Three Daughters of Eve and beautiful and revealing, with amazing structures.  I like reading NY Times columnist Gail Collins, and I rarely pass up an article by Steve Almond.  Poets Nick Flynn, Beth Ann Fennelly, Mary Oliver, David Kirby--to barely scratch the surface.  I love essayist Rebecca Solnit and Roxane Gay.  Young adult writers Kwame Alexander, Jacqueline Woodson, Jason Reynolds. And despite all his recent troubles, I still love the hell out of Sherman Alexie, no matter what he’s writing.

When do you read?

Occasionally in the evenings, but most likely on weekends.  I’ve recently been finding morning time as well.  I’m committed to finding more ways to get reading in.

What moves you most in a work of literature?

If the writer can give me a moment when I realize the book has a level of perfection evident, I am moved.  That happened recently with The God of Small Things.  I read a six paragraph description of the maid that completely blew me away.  It was a revelation – I swear the page lit up.  I could not move on without marking the page with a sticky note. I know you’re curious, so here is just one sentence:  “She looked like a bottled fetus that had escaped from its jar of formaldehyde in a Biology lab and unshriveled and thickened with age.”

What did I tell you?

What is your favorite memoir?

Memoirs became a thing when Frank McCourt published Angela’s Ashes, and certainly that was the king – until The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls came along and knocked it off the memoir throne. I thought that was it…but then I read Wild by Cheryl Strayed.  My jaw was on the floor the whole time – how did she think hiking that trail with no idea of the protocol was a good idea?  As good as all of those are, the one that has struck them all out is Rodney Crowell’s Chinaberry Sidewalks.  There is something about his gentle approach to the craziness of his childhood, the forgiving and redemptive nature of the life he has lived, as well as his incredible humor that made that book rise to the top for me.

What book(s) are you embarrassed to say you haven't read?

Three really:  Great Expectations, Pride and Prejudice, and Grapes of Wrath. I have no excuse. Every single one of these has been on my shelf for years.  Fact is, I love Steinbeck, and have read many of his. I’ve never read a lick of Jane Austen. Pretty lame for an English major.

Who is your favorite fictional hero or heroine?  Favorite antihero or villain?

Three heroes: Huckleberry Finn, Ponyboy Curtis, and Meg Murry.  And what other villain could there be but Iago from Othello?

What kind of reader were you as a child?  What were your favorite childhood books?

As most kids, I loved Winnie the Pooh and series books, like Beatrice and Ramona and Little House on the Prairie.  That was until I met Meg Murry in A Wrinkle in Time.  I was further spoiled when The Outsiders came out at the end of my 6^th grade year. I kind of lost the reading bug after that because there were no other books like it out at the time, so I lost interest.  This was a perspective I’ve only recently come to understand. The Outsiders was a game changer.  It took a while for publishers to catch up, and I got caught in the void.  I remember being encouraged to read To Kill a Mockingbird when I was in 8^th grade, and although it was good, it didn’t stick with me.  Scout was no Ponyboy, and there were just too many adults getting in the way.

Disappointing, overrated, just not good. What book did you feel as if you were supposed to like, but didn't.  Do you remember the last book you put down without finishing?

I’m not sure what the last book was, but I have never been able to finish the first Harry Potter.  I really don’t get it.  (Years ago I didn’t get Lord of the Rings, either. Am I defective?)  I find I drop books like a hot potato if there is a certain level of violence I cannot tolerate: such is the case with The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz, a continually highly-praised novel I think I closed the book mid-sentence.  This is not to say Diaz is an overrated writer.  I’ve read some of his stories.  I just don’t think he’s writing for me.

What do you plan to read next?

I’ve had a book sitting here for a couple of years by Laura McBride called We Are Called to Rise, and I think it is time to read it.  The title comes from an Emily Dickinson poem.  I’m also waiting for a brand new book from the library called There, There by Tommy Orange, the title coming from the quote by Gertrude Stein about Oakland, California: “There is no there there.”  Both books take place out west.  I guess it’s my theme for the summer.

You're organizing a literary dinner party. Which three writers, dead or alive, do you invite?

I couldn’t get myself to include anyone not living and breathing.  It seems like I need a dinner party that is immediate, alive, and relevant. Therefore, after much consideration, I’ve chosen Anne Lamott, Lin-Manual Miranda, and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.  They are all great writers and thinkers, and each who have influenced me as a writer and teacher.  Thank you.  Looking forward to our conversation.