I had,decided to retire the literary Would You Rather series, but didn't want to stop interviews on the site all together. Instead, I've pulled together 40ish questions - some bookish, some silly - and have asked authors to limit themselves to answering only 10 of them. That way, it keeps the interviews fresh and connectable for all of us!
Joining us today is Karen Havelin. Karen is a writer and translator from Bergen,
Norway. She attended Skrivekunst-akademiet i Hordaland, and has a Bachelor’s
degree in French, Literature, and Gender Studies from the University of Bergen
and University of Paris Sorbonne. She completed her MFA in Fiction from
Columbia University in May 2013. Her work has been published both in Norwegian
and in English. Her first novel, Please Read This Leaflet Carefully was
published simultaneously in the US, the UK and Norway in spring 2019, from
Dottir Press, Dead Ink Books and Cappelen Damm.
What’s something that’s true about
you but no one believes?
That my novel Please Read This Leaflet Carefully is fiction.
LOL.
What’s the best money you’ve ever
spent as a writer?
I spent a month in a place called Masseria Chicerro in
Molise, Italy last fall, which was both peaceful and inspiring.
Describe your book in three words.
Funny pain story. Uplifting, I swear. Sexy,
horrific, transcendent. (this one is from a blurb)
If you met your characters in real
life, what would you say to them?
Give yourself a break. Seriously.
What are some of your favorite
books and/or authors?
In formative years: Kurt Vonnegut, Toni Morrison, Alice
Walker, Alice Hoffman, Francesca Lia Block, James Baldwin. Recently I’ve been
very much enjoying Tamsyn Muir, Laini Taylor, Casey McQuiston.
You have to choose an animal or
cartoon character that best represents you. Which is it and why?
A marten. Small, cute, secretive, vicious.
Do you think you’d live long in a
zombie apocalypse?
I’d be the first to go. I can barely remain alive in a fully
civilized society with socialized medicine. Though I can run pretty fast and I
have cultivated a few resourceful individuals who love me fiercely. But the
second week or so after I run out of certain medications, I’m literally a
goner.
What songs would be on the
soundtrack of your life?
You can actually find a playlist here. http://www.largeheartedboy.com/blog/archive/2019/05/karen_havelins.html
Ths piece, which I wrote for Largehearted Boy about the
playlist for Please Read This Leaflet Carefully is one my favorites
ever. It has some Morrissey, some Robyn,
some Peaches, some Regina Spektor.
What’s the one thing you wish you
knew when you were younger?
Go easier on yourself. You’re allowed to have fun and enjoy
silly things. Also, spend money on proper skincare.
What are your bookish pet peeves?
Writers who use extremely dark and traumatic elements just
as a spice or easy narrative device in their books. Books that seem to only
want to tell me “How about this ennui, man.” Or “Hey, you guys, some really bad
shit sometimes happens and people can be terrible.” If that’s the point of your
book, that better be the best fucking work of art ever written, or I would
rather not read it, thanks.
I don’t mean anyone who writes dark or sad stories. I mean
people who use those elements frivolously, unnecessarily, or lightly.
Everyone must make and consume whatever art they want and
art gives life meaning. But for me, as a general rule, I want the art I consume
to make me happy to be alive for a second. I have plenty of imagination and
experience of things going to shit and people giving in to their worst
instincts and being absolute shits. Give me something on how things occasionally
get better or sometimes now and then don’t go to hell. Or just give me
something funny, sexy, entertaining or strange.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Karen Havelin’s Please Read This Leaflet Carefully is a
life told in reverse and a subversion of what we expect from stories of
illness. Having been diagnosed with endometriosis in her twenties, we follow
Laura Fjellstad in her struggle to live a normal life across New York, Paris
and Oslo, fueled by her belief that to survive her chronic illness she must be
completely self-reliant.
Flowing backwards from 2016 to 1995, we meet Laura’s younger selves: her healthier selves. Laura as a daughter, a figure skater, a lover, and a mother—finally leading a life her own teenage self would be in awe of.
To be devoured intensely in one sitting, Please Read This Leaflet Carefully is a remarkable debut novel with bracing emotional insights and piercing descriptions of pain that linger in one’s mind long after the last page. It is also a beguiling meditation on relationships, motherhood, sexuality, pain and the limitations of our own bodies.
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