In Gwendoline Rileys novels, conversation only makes people feel more alone.
My PhantomsandFirst Loveare out September 13.
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On a very hot afternoon in London,the writer Gwendoline Riley and I visited the Tate Modern.
Whats this one called?
I explained in the bright voice of a primary-school teacher that the room is called the Turbine Hall.
She looked at me, baffled.
Yes, I know its the Turbine Hall, she said.
I was making a joke because its empty.
I laughed and cringed.
Of course she knew it was the Turbine Hall; of course it was a joke.
Improbably, they are also laugh-out-loud funny.
InMy Phantoms,a mothers death prompts her daughter to reflect on her mothers life and their strained relationship.
But her books stand apart.
Her first-person narrators are crafted as blinkered and unself-aware.
She renders other characters eerily realistic through their habits of speech alone.
my mother said, as Dave handed her his coat and smiled at us.
We gotta the radishes, we gotta the nuts!
She has this incredible ear for a bit of telling detail, he said.
I love writing dialogue.
Its something I could write a lot of, Riley told me.
I have to really pare it back.
Shrugging, she said, Its the whole argument about being specific to be universal, I suppose.
She always knew she would be a writer.
I was fascinated by the idea of being able to evoke things, she said.
She was so young, and she had these cheekbones.
But her early success didnt lead to literary superstardom.
She worked on and off at a bar, Manchesters Night & Day Cafe, until she was 30.
She was once dropped by her publisher for lackluster sales, an experience she calls very frightening.
Even as she was celebrated by the literary world during her early career, she felt separate from it.
Because Rileys protagonists tend to roughly share her biography, readers may assume the books are about her.
Evidently, theyre not historical novels.
Im not going to whinge about it.
But people dont actually know anything about my life.
She laughed and added, Until now.
Who are these people?
When we went into a less crowded room, she remarked that the art must be awful.
We headed to the rooftop cafe, where I asked if she wanted a coffee.
She suggested wine instead.
We sat under the blazing sun with two large glasses of rose.
Riley doesnt use social media or publish many essays.
Mostly, she just writes her books.
Shes such a brave artist, said Brown.
I learned about that when I was little.
At one point in our conversation, I made the mistake of calling writing a skill set.
Im just reeling from your use of that word, Riley said.
She repeated the words to herself in a whisper: Skill set…skill set?
She also rejected the idea that writing is therapeutic.
Working on her books is nonetheless a refuge.
What if you cant turn it into an account in that way?
Too frightening to think about, really.
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