Dublin-born author Christine Dwyer Hickey talks about her latest novel The Narrow Land and what literary influences inspired her to write.
Christine Dwyer Hickey was born in Dublin. Her short stories have won several awards and have been published in various international anthologies and magazines. She is the author of nine novels. Her first play Snow Angels was published by New Island in 2015. Christine's latest novel The Narrow Land was published by Atlantic Books (UK) in March 2019 and is available through Suffolk Libraries. Tatty which was chosen as Dublin's One City One Book title for 2020 is also available to borrow.
As a child I was a dedicated Blyton fan and as a result was happy to go off to boarding school when I was ten, like a lamb to the slaughter. I also adored Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan. I was in hospital for 3 months when I was a teenager (in isolation as it happened) and there I learned how to read like an adult and also how to live in my own head. Steinbeck, Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Hardy – I devoured pillars of books. In my last year of secondary school, I discovered James Joyce and Virginia Woolf. Reading the character of Leopold Bloom or indeed, Mrs Dalloway, was like nothing else I had experienced before. I decided there and then, that should I ever become a writer, this is how I would work a character: enter the head and heart like a camera – see only what the character sees, hear only what they hear and then feel as they do.
I knew I wanted to be a writer from an early age and was always making up stories in my head. My parents had a troubled marriage and there were frequent rows. I used to lie in bed and re-write the day changing details and events until the story had a happy ending. I don’t go in for happy endings so much now! My parents were friends with many famous Irish writers, however, their chaotic and uncertain lives discouraged me from going down the same road and so for many years I fought the impulse and didn’t really start writing until I was in my late twenties.
Tatty started out as a sort of exercise in therapy. My father had been dead for a couple of years and I was having trouble coming to terms with his death in particular and the past in general, and so I decided to go for counselling. The therapist advised me to write an account of my childhood and to do so through the eyes of a child. That way, I could begin to understand that children are not responsible for their parents’ mistakes. I wasn’t long into writing this account when the novelist within woke up and gave me a nudge and so in a series of stops and starts, I began to shape it into a novel.
It was a huge honour to have Tatty chosen as One City One Book, to see the flags along the quays of the Liffey and a huge banner on the front of Liberty Hall. Covid-19 has stunted the celebrations somewhat (there were over 30 events scheduled). However, we did manage to have a wonderful pre-recorded event: a discussion-cum-concert about my writing life and the influence of music on my work. I was very happy with that - a live event is soon forgotten but this will be forever online.
It wasn’t an immediate thing. I had the character of Michael first – a German refugee adopted into America after WW2. A trip to Cape Cod gave me the location. At that point, I intended to only give the Hoppers cameo roles. Silhouettes, painting on the side of a sand dune perhaps, observed by two ten-year old boys. But somehow, they muscled their way in and took over the novel. A documentary on the Hoppers was the start of that take-over. It was filmed mostly, on Cape Cod and showed the summer house where they went to work and indeed squabble, every summer for over thirty years. As a couple they were opposite in so many ways. He, tall and reserved; she, petite and full of zip. I watched this documentary over and over while slowly recovering from surgery. I began to read up on the Hoppers soon after and gradually entered their marriage.
The Narrow Land is my convalescent book. To be honest, when writing it, there were times I thought I wouldn’t be able to finish it which sounds very melodramatic now! I had a kidney removed due to cancer and have an underlying autoimmune condition. Throw insomnia and migraine into the pot for good measure and you can see how difficult it was. And yet, I managed. I sat at the desk for maybe 15 minutes at a time, this increased to half-an-hour slots, then an hour and so on. Over the coming weeks and months, the book came into being, while I began to recover.
I’ve no problem sharing, it’s just that it is very likely to change so don’t hold me to anything! And we must remember that Covid-19, much like the mobile phone before it, has changed all plots. I do know this much – it’s a love story and there are three characters involved: a trumpet player, a boxer and a barmaid. It is set in London in the 1970’s and in the present time. It’s about the Irish in London and about how that city chews people up and spits them out when it has finished with them. It sounds bleak but I’m hoping there will be plenty of humour there too.
There are always talented writers coming out of Ireland! It’s just the present batch are getting more notice and they also have the confidence to step forward and not feel they have to wait meekly in the corner until they are called forward. A few years ago, there was a surge of young male writers, now it seems to be mostly young women. I am often asked to provide quotes for debut novels and will only do so if I really like the book and have read it from cover to cover. I also try to limit the quotes to four or five a year and have already filled my quota for next year. All of these books are by young women and every one of them impressive and very well-written.
I don’t know if was I ever really given much advice. I worked it all out for myself really. I can pass on a nugget if you like which may be useful for anyone contemplating a career in writing: try to read like a writer and not like a reader, that way you will notice the nuts and bolts of the craft. You will see when the tempo changes; notice how dialogue is put to use; and how a story moves forward i.e. how to get from A to F without having to go through B, C, D, and E. It breaks the spell of a good story of course, but it gives invaluable insight.
I used to work as a private detective. It has proved to be invaluable training for a novelist particularly when it comes to research. And patience – a quality James Joyce regarded as essential for a writer.
