Miriam Toews is having a huge year. Her novel All My Puny Sorrows ($29.95, Knopf) is on the short list for the both Giller and Writers’ Trust Fiction prizes.
She hits the International festival of Authors at the Writers’ Trust finalist event Wednesday (October 29), 7:30 pm, reads at the Brigantine Room October 31, 7:30 pm, at the Brigantine Room and is on the Tough Times round table November 1, 3 pm, at the Studio Theatre. (See Listing)
Here’s how she answered our Literary Quips questionnaire.
Summarize your book in a tweet, i.e., less than 140 characters.
Two sisters who love each other but are on opposing sides of a life-and-death battle.
Who should star as you in your biopic? Why?
Kristen Wiig. Because she’s hilarious. I’m not saying that I’m funny or anything, but at least the movie would be. (As if there’d be a biopic about me.)
What important book have you pretended to have read? Were you convincing?
Das Kapital. I was trying to impress my son, who was studying it at university. Who knew there are a bunch of volumes, like three or four? That tripped me up.
Recount your weirdest encounter with a fan.
A friendly guy told me that he was the inspiration for a character of mine. I told him that it wasn’t true, that I had made up that character entirely, that I had never even met him (this guy) before, that the character he was talking about was not a good person. Why would he want to somehow be associated with that character?
But he insisted, in a very friendly way, that he was indeed the inspiration for that character and nothing I could say would convince him otherwise. So I finally just had to tell him okay, yeah, you are, and he went away happy and satisfied.
Lena Dunham, creator and star of TV’s Girls, has received $3.5 million for her first book. Care to comment?
If I say anything negative it’ll seem like I’m out of touch with “the youth of today,” but doesn’t that seem like a lot of money?
You’re ready to write the next bestselling dystopia for young adults. What’s the premise?
Not sure, but maybe a world without technology or modern transport. So all the young adults had to write each other letters and deliver them by foot or on horseback.
Do writers make good lovers? Why?
Not likely. Because they’re probably trying too hard to make it fresh and original every time.
Do book reviews still matter, or can you accomplish everything you need from social media?
I really have no idea. I don’t think social media can fulfill any of my vital needs.
Whose memoir do you not want to read?
Any of my exes’. For obvious reasons.
