Reader Meet Author: Molly Gaudry

I don't know what it says about me or my life right now, but lately I've been drawn in by stories that focus on the singular thought of the narrator. A single story, a mainline of thought, something that you can align your thought pattern with and really get sucked into. Something that will transform you into someone or something else for a hundred pages or so, a momentary lapse in time. When J.A. Tyler sent me the new novella from Molly Gaudry was excited by the title alone, We Take Me Apart. I had no idea what an introspective adventure was in front of me, and I enjoyed every minute as I explored this new life.

This is Molly's second appearance on Orange Alert, and I am happy to have her back. She is the Editor of Willows Wept Review, Co-founding Editor of Twelve Stories, Associate Editor of Keyhole Magazine, Book Reviewer for East&West Magazine, and Contributor to Big Other.

Orange Alert (OA): Reading through your new novella, We Take Me Apart, it seems like you have found a way to accurately capture how memories are recalled. It's almost stream of conscious, but in a reflective way. Do you feel that those statements describe the way you have chosen to tell this story?
Molly Gaudry (MG): Reflective stream of conscious. I like that. I think that is a good way to put it, actually. The novella is very tell-y. I'm not sure there's much show in it at all. Instead of "Show, don't tell," the professors should say, "Reflective stream of conscious, you bastards!" Ha!

OA: Many of the images and metaphors in this book relate to food. It seems like a way for the storyteller to describe, to mark days, to convey messages, and more. This seems to also add a realness to the story because in many ways food is interwoven into our lives. What do you think the significance of food is in this story?
MG: Because the narrator is blind and institutionalized, the arrival of meals every day are her only way to mark the passage of time. There is a moment in the narrative when an unfamiliar meal arrives that confuses her. She asks if there is a new cook. I hope the significance of this moment is understood by readers: from that moment on, time, for the narrator, is lost. Her only way of understanding and making sense of the world beyond her body is gone.

Anecdote: I don't cook often, but when I do I prefer it to be for others. If I have only myself to feed, I often resort to peanut M&Ms, toast, Ramen. I think, tonight, when I go home, I will make myself a grilled cheese. Perhaps a bowl of tomato soup. Sad, isn't it? I'm sorry. This wasn't much of an anecdote.

OA: The imagery is also something that jumped out at me in this book. It's not clear what period this is set in, but the imagery gives it an older feel or at least gives the main character an older feel. In an unconventional story how important is imagery to shaping and defining the areas that may be a little vague?
MG: Anecdote (second attempt): You are absolutely correct about how food is interwoven into our lives, and I wonder if it is something we take for granted. Maybe this is something WTMA tries to undo. I sort of love the image, at the end of the book, of the mother feeding her baby rose petals by chewing them first herself, then passing the red paste into her daughter's mouth. Diane Ackerman writes in a few of her Natural Histories that mothers did this long ago; as a result, she suggests, we now have kissing. The pleasure we received as babies, our hunger satisfied, may have led to some evolutionary or anthropological reason for why it feels good to have someone else's lips on ours, someone else's tongue on ours. In any case, this is an example of a detail that indicates the novel is set in some long-ago time period, for, certainly, this occurs only because there is not yet any such thing as store-bought pureed baby food.

OA: The novella seems to be on the rise in many circles these days. Do you feel any stigma that once followed the novella is now gone?
MG: I think so. I hope so. I love them. They're basically long short stories that give you an excuse to read them in more than one sitting. Or they're really small novels. I think we've seen a lot of short novels over the years, but it is very interesting to note that there does seem to be, as you say, an emergence of novellas on the market. Even better, they're existing on their own merit, rather than being hidden behind the misleading phrase "and Other Stories," which happened so frequently in the past.

OA: How much input did you have in the cover and design of We Take Me Apart and what has the experience with ML Press been like?
MG: J. A. Tyler is terrific. A writer's dream. Oh, wow, I'm remembering all the covers we considered, the search for cover images when we had none. He would send possible images to me, and I would send possible images back, and we would give either thumbs up or down, and then all over again until we had two thumbs up. It feels as if there were a lot of possible images, actually. I'm grateful to the artists, all of them, for offering their time and work to us. I am thankful that J. A. cared about my opinion. Most of all, I'm grateful that we're on the same wavelength; we never disagreed on any of the big decisions. So it was very easy to work together. We would simultaneously have these "Yes!" moments, when each of us knew the right path to gallop down, full speed. And what paths! The book is beautiful. I couldn't have asked for a better press, a better final product. Thanks, too, to Alicia Neal, the cover artist. I would like to meet her, give her a copy of the book in person. I wonder if that could be arranged?

OA: What's next for Molly Gaudry?
MG: Short term: I need to finish my MFA applications. And go home and eat dinner while I keep reading The Writings and Drawings of James Thurber. I seem to recall the name Thurber, and always disregarding it as the name of some stodgy old Victorian writer. What an idiot I was! Maybe I had that association because of Henry James. James Thurber is nothing at all like Henry James. If you haven't read Thurber, get your ass to a library! I can't stop laughing. I laugh reading almost every page. There's an approachable quality about this book, his writing, and I will be ordering many copies and giving them away to all my non-literary friends and family members this Christmas. I tell you--as I type these words now, on campus, watching the sun go down, listening to the students outside my office door--I am filled with happy suspense, wondering what delightful writings I'll encounter when I get home. (Hopefully the heat will be on. It's very cold there.)

A bit longer term: I have a lighter teaching load this spring semester, so I hope to return to writing. There are some manuscripts I've been meaning to revisit, some others I've been meaning to begin. I will look forward to that, especially.

Long term: All I can think about are these MFA applications. If not accepted, I'll probably move somewhere warm, give the southwest a shot. I've always loved New Mexico. I would love to teach at St. John's in Santa Fe, but they probably don't hire adjuncts. But there's always UNM, and I like Albuquerque; it is the only city I have ever been able to navigate, because the mountains are north. There's no getting lost there, and this is no small thing. The desert. Rocks. Sky. Sand. Dust. Sun. Yes, I feel the desert calling.

For more information on Molly Gaudry please visit her website and to order your copy of We Take Me Apart please ML Press.