'It's how we go on'

 

“A good novel is an out-of-self experience. It lifts you off the ground so that you have the sensation of flying. It says, 'Look at the world around you; learn from the people in these pages, neither quite me nor quite you, how life is lived in so many different ways.’” – Julia Glass

 

In 2002, Glass’s debut novel Three Junes got off to a very good liftoff, indeed, winning the National Book Award for Fiction.  Since then, she’s led a very good writing life having half-a-dozen more novels published, all to excellent reviews, her most recent being Vigil Harbor.

 

Born on this date in 1956, Glass said, “My life has been wonderful, but if I had to live the life of someone else, I'd gladly choose that of Julia Child or Dr. Seuss: two outrageously original people, each of whom fashioned an idiosyncratic wisdom, passion for life, and sense of humor into an art form that anyone and everyone could savor.”

 

A native of Boston who grew up in Belmont, Mass., she took a couple of divergent life paths, first moving to Brooklyn, NY, after college (at Yale) to become a painter, then trying her hand at magazine editing at Cosmopolitan before taking a stab at creative writing.  She now lives back in Massachusetts, teaches fictional writing at Emerson College, and continues to write as a journalist and novelist.

 

“All the best novels are about one thing: How we go on,” she said.  “The characters must survive the fallout of their own cowardice, folly, denial or misguided passion. They squander what matters most, and still they pick up the pieces.”