Reading is a creative act

“What good is any other virtue without love?”
― Lily King, Heart the Lover

Dear Reader,

“You knew I’d write a book about you someday.”

This is the first line from Lily King’s new novel, Heart the Lover. Last week, I interviewed her for the Toronto Public Library - Salon Series.

Heart the Lover opens with a chapter about seating arrangements in the lecture hall, awkward walks to class, and a first date. King’s writing is confident, lean, and evocative, while no words are wasted.

The first part, a campus novel, fires along. The second part delivers complications, mess, and layers. And then comes the third.

That’s when you see, Lily King is a master.

Before going on stage with King, I re-read Heart the Lover while in the airport. I didn’t expect this book to stick it to me twice. It did. My apologies to everyone at Gate D41 in Toronto’s Pearson airport who had to witness me weeping.

On stage, King was just as I’d expected — kind, intelligent, and generous. It was this last trait that has stuck with me.

When I asked her about reading, she said, “there is no such thing as ‘just’ a reader.”

In her eyes, reading is a creative act. She explained that when she feels spent, at a loss for words, or lacks a creative direction, she sits down to read. She makes notes, scribbles in a book, and the ideas start to fly.

While reading, there are two imaginations running alongside each other. The author and the reader bring the story to life together. But, King made the point, it’s the reader who does most of the work.

King’s emphasis on reading ran through our conversation. She told me about the political thriller she was working on before this book. At page 70, she was unsure of where to take the story. There was a dead senator on the first page and, she found, she didn’t care enough about what had happened to him.

And then, Ann Patchett sent King a new manuscript — it turned out to be Tom Lake. King read Patchett’s draft and could feel the fun in the writing. King wanted to work on a book that felt the same way.

By fun, King didn’t mean easy, straightforward, or simple, but something that gave her a shot of joy while working on it. This was when she wrote the first chapter of Heart the Lover.

If she is enjoying herself while writing, it’s likely the reader will enjoy themselves, too.

This is what I love about Lily King’s books. She puts us — her readers — first.

As she writes in Heart the Lover, “A great novel, a truly great one, not only captures a particular fictional experience, it alters and intensifies the way you experience your own life while you’re reading it.”

Exactly.

Yours in books,

Claire

P.S.

• Finally, for The Globe & Mail, I managed to work through a few of my complicated feelings about Tim Horton’s (for those in the U.S. and beyond, it’s a Canadian coffee chain that resonates at a Dunkin’ Donuts level) — Timflation [Gift article]
  

• “Thank you for this opportunity to do needlessly complicated shit.” The world needs more music made with pizza boxes and plastic wrap.
  

• I’m going to be in St. John’s, Newfoundland, and Halifax, Nova Scotia this coming week.
  

• This article made me think of things I hadn’t before — The hidden victims of the opioid crisis: the ones who lived
  

• If you need a shot of joy (3 minutes and 47 seconds especially for R.E.M. fans).
  

• This letter is free, monthly, and about books I love. Hi and thank you for reading.
  

• How to Survive a Bear Attack, my recent memoir, is a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award in Non-Fiction. Hooray! This is a huge honour, especially as the books are chosen by peer assessment. We’ve celebrated with a new little sticker on the cover.