The Antigonish Review # 131Leo Furey Interviews Michael Crummey
(May 8,'02)
excerpt:
LF:
You cited the BC poet, Tim Bowling, in describing what you hope to achieve. He said: "I want to face the world with so much grace that the world would always know my love of it." In your stories, Flesh and Blood, lives lived above ground in the small Newfoundland mining town, Black Rock, the recurring theme of love comes through. Sometimes often painful love, how it endures in the face of obstacles such as estrangement, exile and misunderstanding. Would you care to comment? How does this tie in to what you've said about Tim Bowling and your notion of why you write?
MC:
Well, I think the reason that Tim's words struck me in a particular way is because there are good writers I don't enjoy reading because it seems to me that they dislike the things they are writing about. Or they look down upon the people and places they are writing about. Or they're exploiting the people and things they are writing about. And that's something that I've never wanted to do in my own writing. I think when I'm writing at my best . . . what I hope I'm doing is honoring the things I'm writing about in some way. Even when they are difficult things. Many of the stories in Flesh and Blood are not about very pleasant things. People aren't particularly happy. But in trying to write about them honestly, I hope what I'm doing is honoring their experience of the world. And the pain that they are experiencing in being in the world.
LF:
That's very beautiful. Something you might hear from someone who's been writing for 110 years. Very powerful. You've always thought that way, obviously.
MC:
Not consciously. But I think that when I look back…
LF:
And that's why writing is a meditation.
MC:
I think so. Yeah.
LF:
Wallace Stevens said that the poet is the priest of the invisible. That's really what you're doing, isn't it? Looking until you see and understand. And trying to best reflect that truth.
MC:
Yeah, I'm thinking now of Lisa Moore's latest book, Open, which is a fabulous book, an incredibly moving book, partly because what each of her stories does is honor the experience of this place, St. John's, the people here. And she's just trying to see it clearly. And speak about it in a way that honors the experience of people who live here.
LF:
Michael, you've had quite a few jobs on the way to becoming a writer. What did you find most interesting? Was there anything you felt tuned up your antennae?
MC:
I don't know if there was anything in particular. You know the old cliche, a writer's always working. I think that's true for me. Everything that happens around me feels like it could wind up being used. You know, especially if I'm working on something pretty intensely. I remember Carol Shields talking about this, how when she's working on something, it seems like the exact thing she needs comes along. And she's not airy-fairy enough to think of that as the world offering it to her or anything. To her, it's because her antennae are up and she's looking for exactly what she needs.
To read the rest of this interview with Michael Crummey by Leo Furey click here.
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Hard Light: 32 Little Stories by Michael Crummey, narrated by Michael Crummey, Ron Hynes and Deidre Gillard-Rowlings is available in audio from Rattling Books as either an Audio CD or Digital Download from rattlingbooks.com.
