This week’s installment of Ten Questions features Patrick Ryan, whose new novel, Buckeye, is out today from Random House. A sweeping novel that spans generations, Buckeye tells the story of two Midwestern families, starting with a moment of passion shared by two people upon learning of the Allied victory in Europe over the radio: Cal Jenkins, a man married to a medium and forever altered by his inability to serve in the war, and Margaret Salt, a married woman whose husband will soon return home from a cargo ship in the Pacific, where he served in the Navy. The ensuing affair entwines two intimate family narratives and American history through the second half of the twentieth century. In a starred review, Publishers Weekly called the novel “a stirring paean to the joys and sorrows of family.” Patrick Ryan is the author of the story collections The Dream Life of Astronauts and Send Me. His work has appeared in The Best American Short Stories, the anthology Tales of Two Cities, and elsewhere. The former associate editor of Granta, he is the current editor in chief of the literary magazine One Story. He lives in New York City.
Patrick Ryan, author of Buckeye. (Credit: Fred Blair)
1. How long did it take you to write Buckeye?
Eight years. I didn’t know I was in for such a long haul, but when I saw the shape the story was taking and got a better sense of what I wanted to do with it, I imagined it would take me two or three years to write it. It took six. I revise constantly while I write, so I don’t think in terms of drafts, but I imagine there were three full drafts before I turned it over to my agent. Then, after it was acquired, I worked for another two years with my editor. That was at least another three drafts. Barack Obama was in the White House when I started this novel.
2. What was the most challenging thing about writing the book?
The biggest challenge was hanging on—for years—to the belief that I could figure out how all the various threads needed to weave together and form an emotional knot at the end. I spent a lot of time honing and getting to know the characters, and once I knew who they were, I felt a sense of responsibility for them. I wanted to do right by them, and that meant observing and listening to them as much as it meant nudging them around. I find a lot about writing to be instinctual, and if it’s going well, some of the instinct will emanate from the characters.
3. Where, when, and how often do you write?
I write at home, in an “office” that’s really the dining area of my apartment partitioned off with very tall bookcases (bracketed together so that they don’t fall). There’s a narrow entrance, and inside is an ugly Ikea table that’s my desk, and a lamp, and a plain little two-tiered shelf my father made when I was little.
I write in the mornings. Sometimes I’ll take advantage of a free couple of hours in the evening, but that’s usually for revising or tinkering. One thing I changed about how I write when I started Buckeye: I decided that, no matter how busy I was (with my job as an editor at One Story, and with other responsibilities), I would spend at least a little time with the novel every single day. Sometimes that was two or three hours, but often it was just an hour, or a half-hour, or less. But I tried not to let a day go by wherein I didn’t at least sit down with the material and read through some of it. Spending time with it every day keeps it in your head as you do other things. It also helps fend off the resentment you might feel towards the things that regularly stand between you and your writing.
4. What are you reading right now?
I just finished a wonderful, creepy debut novel called House of Beth by Kerry Cullen, and I’m about to start another debut novel called Atomic Hearts by Megan Cummins.
5. What is one thing that surprised you during the writing of Buckeye?
After establishing, early on, that one of the main characters (Becky) believes she can communicate with the dead, I was surprised by my own decision to make her ability real, and to never explain why she has it or exactly how it works, because she herself doesn’t understand it. That led to my writing a few séance scenes—another surprise for me. And I was most surprised by the way Becky’s ability came to factor into the overall story and its emotional import.
6. What is the biggest impediment to your writing life?
My lack of confidence.
7. What is one thing that your agent or editor told you during the process of publishing this book that stuck with you?
Midway through the editing process, my editor wrote across the bottom of one page, “The secrets are more powerful than the confessions and confidences.” Which was a way of reminding me that tension is important when it comes to fiction.
8. If you could go back in time and talk to the earlier you, before you started Buckeye, what would you say?
Stop telling yourself you can’t do this.
9. Outside of writing, what other forms of work were essential to the creation of Buckeye?
Reading first-hand accounts by people who’d been through some of the things my characters go through. Reading relevant third-hand accounts by historians. Reading memoirs and novels that deal with the same time period.
Talking and listening to people who’d lived through that time period (including a nonagenarian veteran).
Editing One Story. Not only did it keep me employed while I wrote, it also kept me engaged with the world of writers while not having to share my work before it was ready.
Playing pinball. Okay, that’s not work, and there’s no pinball in the novel, but I wend my way through a lot of personal doubt playing pinball. It’s my happy place and my reset button.
10. What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever heard?
“Write the book you want to read.” Ann Patchett said that to me once, and I took it to heart. I’ve certainly had the experience of trying to write the book I thought I should be writing, or trying to write the book I thought would “sell.” Writing the book you want to read is the most honest approach you can take to a project you’re (hopefully) going to be pouring your heart into.
