A few years ago, the proprietor of this blog was over at Eyeshot when he happened upon a story titled “You Are a 14-Year-Old Arab Chick Who Just Moved to Texas.” Swift in pace, hilarious and also heartbreaking, not to mention timely, the story caught the proprietor’s heart in such a way that he emailed the author, Randa Jarrar. A friendship began based around the completely original premise that both had unpublished novels.
Now, Jarrar has ruined that premise. Through loads of hard work and dedication to craft and story, she is releasing through Other Press her first novel, titled A Map of Home. It’s a “coming-of-age story” – if “coming of age” includes the backdrop of Middle Eastern political tumult, abuse, the shadow of Saddam Hussein, and Texas. Weaved into the storyline is Jarrar's Eyeshot short story, and, like that tale, the novel is receiving praise for being both hilarious and heartbreaking.
Jarrar is appearing at the Decatur Book Festival this weekend just outside Atlanta. It’s the launch of her fall tour for the book. A couple of nights ago, she talked with the proprietor of this site about her writing. It happened on gchat. Here’s the transcript.
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me: there you are
Randa: hold on a sec
me: okey doke
Randa: my kid and my boyfriend were discussing how to light soap on fire...and i had to extricate myself.
me: are they starting a fight club?
Randa: ha, no, it has to do with a japanese game show. how are you?
me: oh man, randa, can i just say: hi! how are you? how have you been??
Randa: hi! i'm great. i'm starting to wonder though if i'll ever write again because i spend all my time googling and getting ready to teach.
me: ah. but if i read your facebook status updates correctly, you spent some time in a maine cabin, writing this summer?
Randa: oh, yeah. that's true. good save! yes. it was amazing. there was no running water in the cabins, and so I spent my time peeing in the woods and hiking and writing. It's an island that's entirely reserved for the writers and artists. It takes 2 hours to walk around the entire island. I revised my second book.
me: that sounds great. ok. we got ahead of ourselves. second book. we need to talk about first book. first official question to you as you get ready for the release of our first novel, "a map of home": are you freaking the FUCK OUT?
Randa: Yeah, a little bit. I'm wondering if anyone will read it. Then, I wonder if my parents will read it. Then I freak out some more. But, as you know, it's been years and years since I finished the first draft, and I'm really fucking dying for it to be OUT.
me: i feel funny asking such official sounding questions, by the way. remember when i emailed you? after i read “You Are a 14-Year-Old Arab Chick Who Just Moved to Texas”? on eyeshot? and i complimented your story? and we started emailing each other? and then you said you had a novel?
Randa: Of course! That was so awesome. I think you sent me a one-line email, something like: "Great story." It's really funny that we became friends from such a small sentence. But yeah, I'd read your work there, too, and we both had novels, and I remember exchanging them. It was so great!
me: ok, let's start there. because we exchanged novels. mine has never been published, and that makes you ever greater for reading it. but yours - ok, so when i read it, that early draft, it was called "woman of wonder," i believe. and to be honest, i went into it with all the skepticism you should have when reading someone's first novel. it could have been horrible. chances are, it was going to be pretty bad. and then i started reading it, and i was immediately blown away and also thrilled because i knew that this was going to be a great novel, and i was going to be one of the first to have read it. ..... so ....... question ...... it didn't get picked up right away. can you talk a little about that process, from the time i read it to the time you got an agent and it finally sold?
Randa: Yes. It was a painful, but I've learned, necessary process. I'm really thankful now that it took so long. Here's how it happened: I finished a draft in 2003. I sent it to an agent. The agent called and signed me on two days later. I was in heaven. Then, a couple of editors liked it. I was going to be in NYC, so they invited me over to their offices. We talked about changes they thought the novel had to undertake, and I was totally resistant. A few weeks later, both editors rejected the novel. Then, a dozen more editors rejected. Then, a few more. So...I decided to revise. One of the editors sent me a letter with revision suggestions. But my heart wasn't in it. I revised anyway, but the editor saw that I was faking, so she passed on it. There were a couple more nibbles after that, but no real bites.
Then, in 2005, I started revising in earnest. At the end of that year, I asked my agent if she would submit to smaller, independent presses. She submitted the revision to Other Press. They liked it and asked for two more revisions. I was really into reworking the draft at that point, and kept revising. In March of '06, they bought it. Then, I found it that it wasn't coming out for another two years, and I got into bed and curled up for an hour. I didn't know then that the longer a book stays at a press pre-release, the more excited everyone at the press gets about it...
Anyway, then, I did yet another revision with the publisher herself, Judith Gurewich. We spent hours on the phone last October. At some point, she wanted me to get rid of a rap song, and to convince her, I rapped. It was really amazing. I guess I've babbled. The main point is, it was a ridiculous process, really arduous, but I wouldn't have it any other way, because the book is SO MUCH better for it.
me: well, ok, two questions come to mind for me:
1) “You Are a 14-Year-Old Arab Chick Who Just Moved to Texas” was sort of a foundation for the novel, correct? The story went on to win 2004 Million Writers Award .... but is it still in the novel?
Randa: Yes...it's chapter 14. And no, it wasn't the foundation, not at all...I'd already finished a draft by the time I sent that story out to Eyeshot...
me: 2) what did you learn about fighting revisions? what did you learn about knowing what to keep, even if editors didn't want it, and what to let go of?
Randa: Hmmm, second question really good, really difficult. OK...first I'll say that a lot of people have talked about how sometimes you have to put your first novel in a drawer. For me, I was completely in love with this novel, and I really wanted it out in the world. I felt like I put so much of myself into it, so that was the first decision: to keep working on it. The thing about knowing what to take out: that takes time. Time is what makes you the editor of your work instead of the person who sat around for years writing it. As soon as a few years passed, it was easy for me to see what was really necessary for the narrative and what wasn't. And I made a few unnecessary cuts...then months later re-inserted them because I could feel, thanks to time, that something was really missing
In the past two years, I've gotten to really know the book, and so when someone suggested the wrong revision, it felt like they were suggesting chopping a finger off, Coen Bros.-style. And when what they said felt right, I instantly would chop the offending text out, because I knew it needed to go.
me: you touched on this in your answer ... that you put so much of yourself in it .... and your reference to your parents reading it ........ can you tell us how much of this story is your story? true to your life? and how much is more a part of the novel's narrative than your own life?
Randa: Hmmm, have you read Memoirs of a Catholic Girlhood? Mary McCarthy spends a lot of time in notes at the end of each chapter telling the reader how the preceding chapter was different from the real events. I think I'd almost have to write another book to talk about the differences between me and Nidali, my narrator. But, I will say this: the novel relies heavily on my own experiences, but I've mashed many of those experiences together, and the result is fiction. None of the stuff really happened, and the characters tend to be really out there, really exaggerated versions of the people I grew up with. But I wanted to write a book whose narrator was very close to my background because all my life I searched but never found a book like A Map of Home.
...so, you know how some kids with weird names never find their name on cups or keychains at touristy places? It was sort of like that feeling, magnified by a thousand.
me: in the press thing i was sent, one of the descriptive lines says the novel covers "Arab culture as we don’t know it.” this is timely, considering the events of recent years. what's your hope for the novel against this backdrop of stereotypes and prejudices against people of arab descent?
Randa: one of my hopes as I was writing the book was for its audience to be both Arab and non-Arab; for it to work with both camps. For Arabs, I want there to be a glint of recognition, and if not, a glint of, "Oh, wow, not all families are alike." For non-Arabs, I want there to be an Aha moment, and a larger realization where Arabs and Arab-Americans become more humanized, more particular. I wrote this post-9/11, while people were asking me the stupidest questions. I hope this book answers some of the smarter questions...
At the same time, I don't think the family in my book is representative of The Larger Arab Family. I wanted to celebrate the individual in this book; the right for people to be themselves, separate from larger entities.
me: can i just say, before i ask another question, that you're coming to my town in three days for the decatur book festival. and we're going to freaking party! or, at least, hang out at literary events and go, "uhh-hmm. yes, i respectfully disagree with what you are saying." i'm pumped!
Randa: Me tooooo! And I'm dying for some good soul food. I hope there's good soul food in Decatur, yo.
me: so, describe nidali for me. like, pretend you're telling me about your friend nidali. who is she?
Randa: Nidali is super cool, very profane, in your face, energetic, sassy, a bit selfish, confused, witty, and really into masturbating. She's obsessed with her family history, and loves re-telling stories she's overheard. Oh, and she is a hip-hop girl, through and through.
me: and when people ask you what you're novel is about, what have you learned to say, and not say?
Randa: I say, "It's a coming-of-age novel set in the Middle East and Texas." I don't say, "It's about liberating Palestine." The last time I said that, as a joke, the person I said it to was all, "Oh, I love Indian food." It trips me up that people still don't know what/where Palestine is...
me: i bet. ...... ok, so, novel coming out. reviews ..... what's your thinking on REVIEWS. you gonna obsess over them? or ignore them?
Randa: Well, the first two were starred reviews, and I read them over and over again. Then, I let it go. The few that came after them, I read once, then put away. So yes, I'll read them, but I'll try to be healthy about the whole thing...
me: How has the process of seeing your novel get published changed you as a person? and as a writer? and as a teacher? and as a mother?
Randa: As a mother, I think I'm a little more patient (my son would probably disagree). Before, I used to sit up at night worrying that my son would suffer as a grown up; now, I know he will, and I also know it'll be good for him. As a teacher, I feel a lot more confident, and because I know that writing is all about process, I try to tell my students to be easier on their work. Female students tend to be really hard on themselves. And as a writer, I think I'm still learning to be easier on myself, but I think it's taught me to write about whatever the hell I want to write about, not what I think I ought to explore. As a person? I think I'm still changing.
me: so - the other side of being a writer - now you have to go out and promote your work. i've seen you read before - in a parking lot outside criminal records. you were magnificent. but are you nervous about facing this kind of stuff? do you feel like you have to become something or someone different to "sell" the book? or what?
Randa: Thanks! I think the key is for me to really be myself. When I'm genuinely myself, I'm really comfortable, and I have an easier time being confident. I'm a little nervous about radio interviews, because I say "like" and "awesome" a whole lot. But, hey. I'm really thankful that my boyfriend Russell will be hanging out with my kid when I'm on tour. Wouldn't be able to do it without him.
I am definitely nervous, but I would say the overwhelming feeling is that of excitement. I'm really just like, "Fuck yes! I can't wait to read this at some of my favorite bookstores! Wearing my hot pink heels! Yeah!"
But I'm sure by week 4 of the tour, I'll be all, "Fuck no! I can't wait to be on my favorite couch at home! And take these fucking heels off! Yeah!"
me: so, now that it's official, you are published as a novelist, you are officially "living the writer's life." can you describe your life for us? work, play, etc. please, burst our bubble. and then ..... tell me about this second book.
Randa: I lead a very glamorous life. In the morning, I feed my cat in my PJs. Then, I make myself breakfast and force my son to eat. Then, I try to write. Then, I read emails and the news. Then, I go to the Y and swim laps. Then, I make dinner with my family and sit on my porch and read. It's very supa supa glam.
The second book is a collection of stories. I am a really huge and dedicated lover of short fiction. There are twelve stories in all, and most of them are in the first person. A few of them are magical. They're set all over the place, in NYC, Texas, Egypt, the Puget Sound, Zaire, Gaza, and a few other places. They were really fun stories to right, and hell to revise. I can't wait for you to read them!
me: last question … decatur book festival:
Randa: Yeah!
me: are you excited about anything in particular? aside from soul food? or are you like most and think, 'what is decatur? and what does it have to do with atlanta? and why is there a book festival there?'
Randa: No, I think I totally get the book festival thing. It makes sense for it to be there, I think, and I'm really excited about being around thousands of people who love books! I think that's what I'm most excited about. Then, meeting the other writers. Then, the soul food. It's gonna rock!
