Prickly Difficult Characters
This is who I like to write about: people who don't have it all together, people engaged in a struggle, whether or not they acknowlege it at first.
I also like reading novels that deal with such folks.
I just discovered on Amazon a little essay from Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn that precisely mirrors my tastes. The piece begins:
"You might say I specialize in difficult characters. Damaged, disturbed, or downright nasty. Personally, I love each and every one of the misfits, losers, and outcasts in my three novels."
In two of my three novels, the main character does not seem at the start to be a misfit or loser; instead they usually seem to be doing better than they are. Then stress is applied from without and trouble begins within. In Revelation, Swain is a handsome youngish happily married minister, just a little too cool, tightly wound, and quick to anger. In Cobalt Blue, Andie is a successful artist, the envy of her other artist friends, but inwardly as parched and burned-out as a bomb site. Natraja in Sister India is the exception to the seemingly-okay character, being morbidly obese and hostile from the start while holding a job as an innkeeper.
I like to muck around in psychological depths, where all kinds of strange things are floating. Keeps me well-entertained.
Categories: 2013
Tags: Cobalt Blue, Gillian Flynn, Gone Girl, Peggy Payne, revelation, Sister India
Comments
Our book club read Gone Girl last month. I was surprised at the depths with which the main character went to get revenge on the people who did her wrong. I cannot imagine even thinking up that sort of person.
In Sister India, I wondered why Natraja had allowed herself to get so obese. I'm not sure that was ever answered – or if it was – I missed it. I read too fast and retain little, I am sorry to say.
She got fat partly as a way of going into hiding, submerging herself, and partly to keep from endangering any more boys/men.
Depths TO which – sorry