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Eat your heart out, Clark Kent. |
Boswellians Jen and Mel were lucky enough to catch bookseller, lovely person, and award-winning author of If You Could Be Mine, Sara Farizan, for a quick interview about coming out, seven-layer dip, and her new novel, Tell Me Again How a Crush Should Feel. On shelves NOW--go ahead and pick up a copy and prepare to spend the rest of the day getting to know Farizan's newest teen protagonist, Leila!!
1. Both of your novels—If You Could be Mine and your latest Tell Me Again How a Crush Should Feel—use
first person perspective. What compels you to write from a teen’s point of
view? In Tell Me Again How a Crush Should
Feel, readers awaken to the nuances of Leila’s life alongside her; although
they are roughly the same age, Sahar seems more perceptive than Leila. Does
this have something to do with where and how they grow up? Is it a young soul
vs. old soul thing? [RHETORICAL FAN FIC FOLLOW UP: what if they were a COUPLE?! **MINDSPLOSION!!**]
I’m fairly certain that I am emotionally
seventeen, so that’s why I write in a first person voice. There’s also a
genuine honesty in a teenage voice that gets chipped away the more “adult” a
person becomes.
Leila is definitely more like me and grew up in
a similar environment to mine. In If You Could Be Mine, I was also trying to
address a lot of different issues and in an international setting. Sahar is
more cerebral because she has to clue in the audience to a lot about her
country, policies, etc. For Sahar in If You Could Be Mine, Nasrin is her whole
world and universe for a long time. In Tell Me Again How A Crush Should Feel (Gosh
I have long titles) Leila is trying to figure out how to get girls to like her
and how to like herself. Leila also has a much easier life than Sahar. I don’t
mean where they live either, I mean socio-economically and also that Sahar has to deal with the loss of her mother and taking
care of her father.
2. If You Could be Mine focuses on Sahar’s
character development almost exclusively, yet Tell Me Again How a Crush Should Feel gives readers insight into
the journeys of several complex, nuanced female characters while maintaining a
primary focus on protagonist Leila. Is it safe to say you have a feminist
agenda in your writing?
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Seriously one of the best book covers ever. |
Oh I’m for sure a
feminist. I would hope everyone would be a feminist because feminism means
equality between the genders. It doesn’t mean hating men, it doesn’t mean not
shaving your armpits or any other stereotype that’s been associated with the
feminist movement. It means women’s voices shouldn’t be silenced or deemed not
as important. I hope I have interesting, fully fleshed out male characters too,
but I think young women should have a lot of different representations/stories
that speak to the complexity of what it is to be a woman in this day and age.
It is so important for women, especially teenage women, to know their self
worth.
3. On your Algonquin YoungReaders authors page you mention that the most difficult scenes to write in Tell Me Again How a Crush Should Feel
were the ones in which Leila comes out to her Mom. You also say there that
coming out is “just a part of the story and not the whole enchilada.” It seems
like Leila is faced with multiple coming-out moments: were you trying to show
readers that coming out may initially seem like one big moment, but it’s really
a milestone moment that kicks off a lifetime of ongoing “outings”? So maybe
coming out is not the whole enchilada…because it’s a seven layer bean dip! [<--- Jen's joke, FYI]
Haha seven layer dip!
You are awesome. It’s funny, I’ve spent most of my life constantly having to
come out, but before coming out as gay, most of it was coming out as Persian
and having to explain what that means. It’s usually never with malice when
someone asks/asked “Where are you from?” and I know they don’t mean
Massachusetts. So my “coming out” is usually something I always have to deal
with, as I suspect many other people have to too, for different reasons.
I
think that scene was difficult to write because I was remembering a lot of that
fear and anxiety I had when telling my Mom about my being gay. I built it up in
my head as this terrifying ordeal, and while it was emotional, and definitely
not something that was resolved right away, I had other things going on in my
life too. When my being closeted and understanding my feelings became all I
thought about, it felt too much. It was consuming and gross. So I tried to
write a story that doesn’t necessarily say “It Gets Better” but rather “You are
braver than you know.” I’m not sure if that answers the question? And now I’m
hungry for dip. Thanks. J
4. We enjoy how Leila
and her older sister Nahal are rivals throughout the book until Leila paves the
road to change with her coming out, which is when readers discover some of Nahal’s
secrets. Do you believe “coming out” is a communal process, that it’s not just
the individual’s sexuality that’s discovered and disclosed, but there are
corresponding resultant “coming out” moments for the people who play an active
role in that person’s life?
That's a table full of awesome right there, Sara!! |
The
Nahal character was to demonstrate what Leila thinks of as perfection. Nahal is
going to be a doctor, studying at Harvard, which is maybe the equivalent of
winning a gold medal in Persian parenting for Leila’s parents. So seeing Nahal
making her parents so proud and being an example in the Persian community makes
Leila feel like a disappointment. When Leila learns more about the people
around her, and realizes not everyone is what they seem, she realizes that
nobody has it all figured out. And when Leila does come out, it influences the
people in her life and makes them change in subtle and large ways.
5. In Crush, Saskia demonstrates a more
sensitive, educated approach to Leila’s cultural background than what Leila is
used to from her classmates at Armstead Academy. Leila’s response is that Saskia
doesn’t exactly fit in either—finding her at Armstead is “like finding a
magical unicorn in a high school full of cattle.” Do you hope your novels open
doors for people of all ages—particularly teens—to discussions about complex
issues such as race, nationality, ethnicity, education, class, and religion, as
well as gender, sexuality, and age?
I think there are
writers who have been doing this for years. The late Walter Dean Myers and
Nancy Garden come to mind. I have always been obsessed with identity and how
we, as humans, perceive each other. I know social issues aren’t always sexy,
and I don’t doubt I will be accused of being heavy handed at times or having an
“agenda,” but if people don’t talk about these issues, no progress can be made.
There are lots of different people in our world, and I would hope books reflect
that.
6. What’s the deal with
Saskia? You say on the Algonquin Young Readers authors page that she’s a “just
a femme fatale sociopath.” Is she acting out because she’s neglected by her
parents? Is she really *that* predatory? Trying to re-invent herself in a new
context? Is she just bitchy?
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ZOMG THIS COVER TOO!!!! |
Saskia is a lot of
things. She is an ideal, a great beauty, wealthy, exotic, intellectual,
everything that we as a society have been taught is important. When Saskia
reveals herself, we learn she has moved around a lot, her parents are never
around, she focuses on Leila intently and doesn’t grasp when she has hurt
someone’s feelings. She is initially charming, but without empathy. Short of
killing someone, she exhibits a lot of sociopath personality traits. I know
that it’s a common trope, but I wanted a character that looks perfect, and just
may be on paper, but is not at all. Especially in high school when we idealize
certain people because of their social status, their grades, looks, whatever
and until you really know that
person, you can’t tell if they are worthy of your admiration. A great many
people may be admirable because of what they have or have achieved, but a
person shouldn’t be truly admirable until you find out how kind they are.
Nobody’s perfect, but kindness above all else is the most important thing
within a person. I needed a character that is not capable of kindness, but has
so many other traits that upon first appearance make her seem impressive.
7. Do you
consider yourself a “lesbian writer?”
I’m a lot of things.
Lesbian and writer are two parts of my identity, for sure. I am drawn to
writing young LGBT characters, but maybe one day I’ll write straight main
characters. My hope is to write about things that effect young people, but
these first two books were very cathartic for me.
8. So we
hear you’re a fellow bookseller…what’s on your staff rec shelf?
I do work at a
bookstore now! I feel like I am nowhere near as well-read as my colleagues. I’m
pretty good at shelving mysteries though. [We could totally use some help with that at Boswell, Ms. Farizan. Have you ever thought of living in the Midwest...?] And asking people if they’d like a
bag with their purchase. I read a lot of adult non-fiction and just finished Five Came Back by Mark Harris, which was
awesome. I loved Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls by David Sedaris. My other staff picks in the store right now are
Elsewhere by Richard Russo, In One Person by John Irving, and The Time Fetch for the kids, by my pal
Amy Herrick. I’m excited to read One Man Guy by Michael Barakiva, Everything Leads to You by Nina LaCour, and Glow,
the Rick James autobiography.
9. We also hear that
you’re a former comic book store employee…got any graphic novels in the works?
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7-Layer WHAT?!?!! SCANDALOUS!! |
Oh man, that job was
great. It was a New England chain of stores called Newbury Comics and they sold
everything. Comics, graphic novels, CDs, DVDs, t-shirts, toys, the whole works.
I admire a great many graphic novel writers, and would love to write one, but
it seems amazingly difficult to me. I love Brian K. Vaughn, Garth Ennis, TerryMoore, Marjane Satrapi, SKIM by Mariko Tomaki still makes me wish I could do
that. And I love Clark Kent, more so than his alter ego. If you haven’t read
Superman for All Seasons or Superman: Red Son, do it now.
10. If you could go back
in time, what’s one piece of advice you would give your teenage self? Would it
be about the fart scene Leila lives through…was that experience talking? [[insert laugh track] insert emoticon]
I never farted during
an audition, thank goodness.
I would tell my younger self to not be so anxious,
but I don’t adhere that advice much myself. I was a lot more outgoing than
Leila. I was school president and in a bunch of clubs, but I would tell my
former self not to worry so much about the future and what other people think
about you. I would tell her she just has to worry about what she wants for herself
and go for that. And I’d tell her to not be embarrassed to like a girl.