I’m very happy to be providing today’s question for Lauren Baratz-Logsted’s One Question Interview Tour. And, I’ve got to say, I love her answer because 1) it’s awesomely put and 2) it made me want to pick up the series involving the character she gives as her answer. So here it is, my one question:
If you could bring any character – not your own – to life for a day, who would it be and why?
And the answer…
“What an excellent question! At first glance I thought it was really hard because I read it as which character would I like to bring back to life for a day. And I immediately thought, ‘I only get one??? Who to save: Beth from Little Women, Phineas from A Separate Peace, Gatsby from his whole little problem with that swimming pool? I can’t choose – I can’t play God, not like this!’ But then I saw what you were really asking. Once I’d calmed down the answer was easy: Superintendent Richard Jury of New Scotland Yard C.I.D. from the Martha Grimes mystery series that’s been going on since the first was published in 1981. You could say I have a thing for the tall man of the law with the killer smile – women, and even little girls, in the books are always going gaga for Jury, as he is mostly called. And yet he is so sad in a way – his father died fighting in the war and his mother was killed during the last blitz of London when Jury was still very young, you know. (Note: Jury’s about 40 years old when the series starts and now, nearly 30 years later, he’s still about the same age, perhaps a few years older, certainly no more than 50 - kind of like Nancy Drew never aging – so it’s not like I’m slavering over a geezer here or anything.) So that’s who I’d like to have come to life for a day: Richard Jury, so I could take away his pain, primarily by employing my insane wit.”
Why’d she have to go and mention that he has a killer smile? And that he’s sad. That’s completely unfair. And there goes another hold on my library card…
Scratch that. I’ve now read the first Richard Jury book. Review soon!
Look for Lauren Baratz-Logsted’s new novel, The Education of Bet, next month.
When Will and Bet were four, tragic circumstances brought them to the same house, to be raised by a wealthy gentleman as brother and sister. Now sixteen, they’ve both enjoyed a privileged upbringing thus far. But not all is well in their household. Because she’s a girl, Bet’s world is contained within the walls of their grand home, her education limited to the rudiments of reading, writing, arithmetic, and sewing. Will’s world is much larger. He is allowed—forced, in his case—to go to school. Neither is happy.
So Bet comes up with a plan and persuades Will to give it a try: They’ll switch places. She’ll go to school as Will. Will can live as he chooses. But once Bet gets to school, she soon realizes living as a boy is going to be much more difficult than she imagined. [Publisher's Summary]
