The Lux Lotus Interview: Hazel Rowley

Last month I read Tête-à-Tête, Hazel Rowley's brilliant literary biography of Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre's lifelong love affair. The book was the summer selection of the Bloggers Book Club, a consortium of chic fashion bloggers who also love stylish reads. I was delighted to be able to get in touch with Hazel via email and that she agreed to a brief Q&A:

Lauren Cerand: Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre enjoyed one of the most famous and chronicled relationships in history, and yet your book, Tête-à-Tête, shone luminous new light on their union. What did you learn about them in the course of researching and writing the book that most surprised you?

Hazel Rowley: Perhaps the thing that most surprised me is that although they were so strong and courageous in so many ways, they were also surprisingly insecure and vulnerable.  Sartre was so conscious of his ugliness that he did not like to ask directions in the street; he felt he was imposing his body on strangers.  And throughout her life, Beauvoir would have intermittent dramatic crises, when she could do nothing but weep and despair.

For me, in the final analysis, the fact that they had to fight their own demons and weaknesses made their courage even more admirable.

LC: What do you miss most about living in Paris when you're in New York, and vice versa?

HR: When I'm in New York, it calms me to think of Paris.  What do I miss? The cafes, most of all, where I can go and talk with friends in a charming public space, and savor life and talk and drink without spending a lot of money and without loud music. The street markets.  The personal exchanges while shopping. The cinemas that are not blighted by half an hour of moronic advertising and loud, violent previews while your neighbor chomps popcorn. The fact that people come home from work and relax.

Latins understand the importance of "re-creation" - creating yourself again, renewing yourself.

What do I miss about New York when I'm in Paris? The raw energy.  The informality.  The ease with which one can talk to people.  The cheap English-language journals. Being able to speak my language fluently, without being self-conscious about it.  The no-smoking public spaces. The myriad bookstores where writers are giving talks on any one evening.

LC: Beauvoir famously argued in The Second Sex that "one is not born, but rather becomes, a woman." Do you believe that one is born a writer?

HR: No, one is not born a writer. We can't write when we are born.  We can't read.  One of the wonderful things about being a writer is that unlike most professions, you often get better at it as you get older.  Writers need maturity, experience, powers of observation, a kind of detachment.  Having said that, I started to write short stories when I was eight, and I think this is a very common experience.  I loved to read.  I loved to be transported, magically, into another magical world.  And I loved the people who were capable of transporting me into another world.  I thought there would be nothing more splendid than becoming one of them.  I still think that.  To me, it is a great privilege to be a writer, to have people read my books.

LC: All of your books have been famously acclaimed. What attracted you to literary biographies? What are you working on now?

HR: The thing I like about biographies is that they are based on facts - you learn a lot about history and politics and people when you write them and read them - but they can also be as absorbing as a good novel. That's the challenge for me, when I write them.  I'm just about to begin a book on Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, a fascinating couple, who had an extraordinary impact on the world.

LC: And finally, many people are influenced by lots of things outside of the medium they work in, and I'd be curious to know what you're feeling influenced by right now, whether it's art or music or film or fashion or anything specific that's shaping your aesthetic philosophy as we go into Fall.

HR: I'm very influenced by film.  My writing is shaped by cinematic techniques.  I like short scenes, fast cuts, economical dialogue. And I like to think visually.  In technicolor.  I think film is the medium of this century.  Unfortunately, theatre has become too expensive; it's now the luxury of the bourgeoisie.  And young people hardly read any more, which I think is a disaster -  for them and for the world.  So that leaves film.  Unfortunately, it takes a lot of money to make a film, and therefore "selling power" exerts a kind of censorship on the films we are able to see.  I rush off to good, low budget independent films while they are still around in the cinemas - usually only a week.  That's another of the wonderful things about living in Paris and New York.

For more, visit HazelRowley.com, and of course, pick up Tête-à-Tête, a perfect cafe companion!

Comments

[AHCB]

I've been meaning to read this book but it's on the backburner for the time being. Does the book mention de Beauvoir's affair with Nelson Algren by any chance?

[eurobrat (Adeleine)]

Beautiful. I can't wait to read this book!