It is 1970 in a small town in California. “Bean” Holladay is twelve and her sister, Liz, is fifteen when their artistic mother, Charlotte, takes off to find herself, leaving her girls enough money to last a month or two. When Bean returns from school one day and sees a police car outside the house, she and Liz decide to take the bus to their Uncle Tinsley in Virginia.
Because money is tight, Liz and Bean start babysitting and doing office work for the town mill’s foreman – a man who bullies his workers, his tenants, his children, and his wife. Bean adores her older sister – but when school starts, it’s Bean who easily adjusts and makes friends, and Liz who becomes increasingly withdrawn. And then something happens to Liz.
Jeannette Walls, supremely alert to abuse of adult power, has written a deeply moving novel about triumph over adversity and about people who find a way to love each other and the world, despite its flaws and injustices. The Indigo Blog is pleased to present this interview with the author.
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Indigo Blog (IB): The Silver Star is your first purely fictional work – how did writing this novel differ from writing your memoir, The Glass Castle, or your true-life novel, Half Broke Horses?
Jeannette Walls (JW): Writing fiction and non-fiction are very different process – yet at heart, sort of similar. In both cases, you’re looking to get as close as possible to what is true. But with non-fiction, you keep asking yourself, what really happened? With fiction, you keep asking yourself, what would happen? So it’s the difference between looking for answers outside and looking for answers inside.
IB: Will readers find themes from The Glass Castle in The Silver Star?
JW: Oh, yeah. I think so. There are a lot of similarities – taking on the bullies, wacky adults, kids making adult decisions when the adults fail to come through – but I hope the readers also find a lot that’s new.
IB: Both Liz and Bean spend time reading in The Silver Star – how do you think their respective reading lists influenced these characters?
JW: Bean and Liz are very different readers. Liz is a more astute reader who is inspired by what she reads, whereas Bean isn’t drawn to books and would rather be out throwing snowballs or picking blackberries.
IB: From which works of literature did you draw inspiration when writing this novel?
JW: I don’t know if I’d say that any book inspired the writing of The Silver Star, but To Kill a Mockingbird was definitely a touchstone.
IB: The Silver Star is full of dividing lines – of age, of class, of gender and of race. How does the importance of these lines change for the characters, as they mature?
JW: Liz is highly sensitive to society’s dividing lines, and she uses them to distance herself from others, thinking she’s protecting herself, when in fact, she’s only isolating herself and making herself more vulnerable. It’s only when she hits bottom that she’s able to reach out and find others like her.
Bean’s a good kid, but she’s not highly sensitive to the many dividing lines that society has drawn. As she grows older and learns more about the world, she comes to understand how very important these distinctions are to others – and how ridiculous and even destructive they can sometimes be.
IB: Liz and Bean are going to high school during a period of racial integration. Why did you choose to write the novel during this time period and how does the experience of racial integration impact the book?
JW: While Liz and Bean are grappling with the question of doing the right thing in school and in court, the entire town of Byler is also wrestling with the issue of doing the right thing in terms of race.
IB: There are some big life lessons in The Silver Star. Which of these did you find the hardest to learn when you were growing up?
JW: That taking on bullies means that from time to time, you’re going to get the tar kicked out of you.
IB: Are you working on another book now, or do you have one in mind?
JW: I got nothing left to say. But that’s what I said after I finished my previous book, so you shouldn’t take anything I say too seriously.
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Thanks to our friends at Simon and Schuster Canada for providing this Q & A.