Today it gives the Speculative Fiction Showcase great pleasure to interview Norah Woodsey, whose novel The States has its debut on April 30.
What was the beginning of your novel The States and how does it relate to lockdown in 2020?
The States started out as my project for 2020’s NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). Prior to COVID, I had spent years researching and writing my much darker novel, The Control Problem. When the world became even darker than the one I was writing, I needed to take a step back. I considered what was pulling at me the most. I missed traveling, I missed my mom, a nurse who was working through the pandemic. I missed seeing my very funny siblings back home in New York. I also missed my grandmother, who had passed away years earlier. She had experienced a lot of suffering in her life. Though she loved me, she was difficult to please and her advice often cold and harsh. In the end, longing for Ireland and for my grandmother had the most potential, and I nestled those into a love story. I used my journal entries from past visits, photos and text messages to relive my travels. I listened to various podcasts, including one that reminded me of my great-uncle (shoutout to “The Old Galway Diary” from The Galway Advertiser). I got to sink myself into an imaginary world, while in reality I was helping my family survive a plague. I hit the word count on the final day of November, then went back to working on The Control Problem. I promised myself to turn The States into something, one day. Now, here it is!
The States marries Jane Austen’s novel Persuasion with an Irish/American contemporary setting, and a hint of the supernatural. What inspired you to bring these elements together?
I like the challenge of weaving themes and story elements into something new. Setting a modern Persuasion in Manhattan, a city of immigrants, and Ireland, a country romanticized by millions of Americans, seemed logical. From there, the dream machine is a way to show Tildy Sullivan using her memories to treat her surface level desire for change with fleeting experiences, rather than face reality. All together, I tried to create a cohesive tale of longing, not just for her lost love, Aidan, but for a place and people and possible life that Tildy foolishly chose to abandon.
What made you choose Persuasion as the matrix for The States and how easy was it to adapt it to a modern narrative?
Initially, it wasn’t a choice. When I reviewed the initial version of The States at the end of 2022, it was clearly a thin retelling of Persuasion. Persuasion is my favorite of Jane Austen’s novels, so the idea of retelling it was madness. I either had to rewrite it or make the similarities honest. I spent a month closely re-reading the book, marking up a paperback copy and appreciating how Austen structured the story. I also listened to the audiobook while I did housework or exercised, and I folded laundry while I watched (most) of the movie and miniseries adaptations.
There were things that were fun, like recreating certain scenes from the original with a modern spin. There were challenges, too. You don’t realize how many characters are in an Austen novel until you start analyzing the story. Some did not fit in my novel, which meant the loss of some great characters and scenes. But, with the additional material of Tildy’s mother and Nana, I think it grew into a novel that stands on its own, while still being a faithful retelling.
What aspects of Anne Elliot’s situation did you keep and what did you change?
First, I tried to keep Anne’s values in Tildy. Both are responsible, hardworking, and calm under pressure, and are invested in their fathers’ well-being disproportionate to his worth as a human. Maintaining these qualities are essential for sympathizing with their circumstances at the start of both stories. They listen to bad advice and act on it, and give good advice and are ignored.
I veered away from the original, of course. Women in contemporary NYC and Ireland have more opportunities for independence. The rigid Regency-era misogyny is missing. In contemporary America, we have Ultra High Net Worth families with private jets in place of landed gentry with no jobs. It required careful consideration of Tildy’s internal struggles. Also, Anne only had her collection of newspaper clippings, naval books, and past letters from Wentworth to keep in touch with him at a distance, while Tildy has search engines. Tildy’s methods would be sorcery for the first readers of Persuasion, but the intention is the same.
How about other characters in Persuasion?
I had a lot of fun working on ancillary storylines, particularly those of Mr. Elliot and Miss Smith. My version of Miss Smith still reveals Mr. Elliot’s past, but I introduce her earlier and give her more to do. Likewise, I gave Jude Mills, my version of Mr. Elliot, a different presence. The story needed a logical temptation for Tildy to stay in her current life, in New York, that also emphasized her insecurities.
Why is the Irish connection crucial to this story of regret and missed opportunities?
Like all writers, I brought my own background to the story. I am a “Plastic Paddy,” an American with Irish citizenship through one of my grandparents. Growing up, it was implied that things were weird for us here because the US wasn’t really home, that home was this other country we had never visited. And when I finally went to Galway after college, I was treated warmly and even recognized on the street as a relative of my grandmother. Even though my life was great, the trip felt very sad. Like a window into a life that had passed me by. My childhood could’ve included visiting these relatives, learning Irish, and learning to swim in the ocean. I used this longing, which I think is familiar to many Americans with recent ancestry in another country, to fuel my retelling.
How important is the role played by lucid dreaming?
I like to explore our reliance on technology in my work. Any update to a Regency-era story has to address what I have heard described as “the cell phone problem.” Basically, modern communication would eliminate a lot of tension in historical stories. For example, the Bennett girls from Pride and Prejudice could’ve searched for Wickham online and learned he was a rake. So, rather than avoid technology, I tried to use it to maintain the original tension in Persuasion. The lucid dreaming machine felt like a fitting fictional device. It introduces the reader to Galway, Aidan and his friends early on, which is helpful, but it only gives Tildy what she feels she deserves, not what she needs. It is an emotional crutch, which reveals what is broken in her that she needs to overcome.
Tell us about your protagonist, Tildy Sullivan, and what prompts her to leave Ireland (and love) behind?
Tildy is the daughter of the wealthy, vain Patrick Sullivan, a New Yorker who has let his inherited corporate empire crumble. Her mother, an Irish immigrant, had given Tildy an escape through summer visits to her home village outside of Galway. There, Tildy fell in love with a local boy, Aidan. But after her mother’s tragic death Tildy’s independence dissolved. She abandoned her chance for youthful happiness, compelled by the strength of her father and sisters’ disdain, and by what she believed were her mother’s wishes.
How important was the Irish language in writing The States?
I always wanted to set a story in Ireland one day, and I knew that story needed to include the Irish language. The words created and used by a culture convey the history and values of that culture. In my personal life, I have native speakers on both sides of my family, and my grandmother’s cousin Caitlín Maude was an Irish-language revivalist, poet and singer. My own grasp of the language is weak, so I relied on a wonderful translator Andrea Brown for the Irish passages. By word count, there are less than 700 Irish words, but I tried to use them at moments of impact, to emphasize the state of connection (or disconnect) between characters.
What about Aiden, her lost love? Who is he and how much does he resemble Captain Frederick Wentworth, the hero of Persuasion?
The British Royal Navy of Captain Wentworth’s life doesn’t have too much in common with modern fine dining. The goal, though, was to show Aidan’s qualities in contrast to the other men in Tildy’s life. Yes, Aidan is a handsome, strong, and intelligent man, who is also angry and heartbroken. Despite his feelings, he is able to build his own success with a team of good people who admire and love him in a risky industry. He becomes a young Michelin-starred chef, near the top of his field, whose deep knowledge of Ireland’s wild resources and crew of warm-hearted friends offer Tildy the sort of experiences she craves. I wanted to capture some of the romanticism of the Regency-era Royal Navy, and keep the expansion of horizons Anne gets from Wentworth and his friends, but remove the military.
Why do you think Persuasion continues to evoke such affection in people? And why do you love it?
Persuasion is, above everything else, a story of escaping a bad parent and overcoming a mistake. We all have regrets. I like Mansfield Park and Emma, but I don’t relate to much in those stories. In Persuasion, we see a character who has had her youthful adventure and failed to preserve it. She now has to find her way through her own flaws to a happiness that works for her. Anne is also a believable protagonist. She has uncharitable observations of others (to say the least), she doesn’t have endless patience, and her choice in confidants is obviously flawed. But we root for her, and we see her story through. I think that sort of realism and relatability gives Persuasion something extra that Austen’s other works lack.
Why did you feel it was important to introduce a greater level of conflict into The States?
I think the conflict in Persuasion has dire consequences for Anne Elliot. She is entirely dependent on her father, an emotionally abusive idiot who is squandering their wealth, the remainder of which will be inherited by her shady cousin, Mr. Elliot. Her only source of support is her mother’s friend, a woman who wants Anne to prop up the family legacy just as her mother did. Anne’s only path out is marriage, relinquishing her father’s control over her to another man, where her comfort and happiness will be dependent on a new man’s success and care for her – a gamble, as we see in the example of Miss Smith. In The States, Tildy has a career, can get a bank account, an apartment, whatever she needs to survive, as I imagine a modern-day Anne would. I couldn’t replicate the challenges Anne experiences within the story I wanted to tell. I introduced variations or entirely new ones for Tildy’s story, partly to heighten the stakes but also in service to other parts of the story, particularly in explaining Tildy’s character more fully.
Have you kept something of the irony and satire in Austen’s writing?
I certainly tried to — Austen is such a master at both, it’s very hard to meet expectations on that front. I tried to layer in moments throughout, particularly when Tildy is with her father and sisters. Those are the moments I enjoyed most in the original. Still, no one can compare to Austen.
How do you see the audience for The States and who will love it?
I wrote this book for anyone who wants some humor, love, and the beauty of western Ireland. My other works focus on serious issues, and I love each one of them, but this one is for readers who want escapism. Sometimes we all need a book where the protagonist works through what was holding her back.
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