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Renowned author Joyce Maynard is not one to shy away from controversial subject matter. Her 1998 memoir, “At Home in the World,” which detailed her affair with the infamously private author J.D. Salinger, drew much criticism from critics for its candid insights into their relationship.
Her latest novel, The Good Daughters sees the author taking on her first gay character. At Home in the World was just reissued with a new introduction by Maynard, and her 2009 novel Labor Day may be adapted for the big screen by director Academy Award-nominated director Jason Reitman.
I recently visited the author at her home in Mill Valley, California, to discuss Maynard’s first ever lesbian character, what she learned from her life-changing relationship with Salinger and the ensuing criticism, and how she teaches aspiring writers to channel their own innermost struggles into "authentic" memoir writing.
In your new novel, one of your main characters, Dana, is a lesbian. By making her so “ordinary,” you normalize her. For many of your mainstream readers, this will be the first time they read about a lesbian. What do you hope that they take away from it?
I have a particular amount of empathy for anyone who considers themselves an outsider. This is a quest of mine. I want to demystify or to be able to break open what is "embarrassing" or what is "feared" or things that aren’t talked about. Look, I’ve talked about every embarrassment in my life –- breast implants, alcoholism in the family, –- but I do it because I know there are so many women out there who are ashamed or feel there is something very wrong with them. If I can say, "Hello? Me too," I think it can help.
But also, I like to open up dialogues, and I think the real origin of my wanting to be honest and open about things is that I grew up in a family where we only talked about things on the surface. I mean, I truly believed growing up that I was the only person on earth whose father got drunk every night. I believed if anybody ever found out, they wouldn’t like me anymore. That experience is so deep-seeded in me, that… memory of that, that I’m completely the other way. I’m Lady Godiva -- I will just go out over and over again and talk about things.
Maynard with two of her daughters.
In the '90s, your novel To Die For was made into a film starring Nicole Kidman, and now, your novel Labor Day may be adapted into a film by director Jason Reitman. Do you think The Good Daughters will ever make it to the silver screen?
I don’t think so. The movie-going world, unfortunately -- unless it’s a Meryl Streep or Susan Sarandon movie -- just doesn’t want to see 50-something women up on the screen. That makes me sad, because I think women in their 50s really want to see mature women on-screen, and I think mature women keep getting more interesting all the time! I met this man recently and he said to me, "I wish I could meet someone just like you, but younger." And I said, "Hey! What a contradiction! Even I wasn’t like me when I was younger!" [Laughs hard].
You just wrote an updated introduction to At Home in the World, your 1998 memoir. You got beaten up in the press when it was released –- mostly by men, but also by women -- because you detailed your 10-month relationship with J.D. Salinger, which happened when you were 18 and he was 53. It’s now 2010. I wonder if the younger generation of women will judge you less harshly.
I don’t sit around thinking about how I’m perceived, but I will say this. The mothers of my generation would be impressed that their daughter was getting the attention of an important man. When I got the letters from Salinger, people would ask me, "What would your mother say?" Listen, I adore my mother, and I wish I could have told people she told me not to go, but in reality, she made me the dress that I wore to his house.
That said, I hope the generation of young women who are coming of age now have a sufficient sense
