The Third Hill North of Town
Page 41
What research did you have to do?
Lots and lots of stuff on Wikipedia, mainly about 1962 and 1923, but also about everything in between, too. What the inside of an Edsel looked like, the eccentricities of a 1957 Volkswagen Bug, how a German potato masher worked, etc. I also had to harass, relentlessly, a couple of older cops (mostly Sergeant Jeff Yates of the Bettendorf, Iowa, Police Department—a man of seemingly infinite patience) about small-town sheriffs and deputies in the 1960s and what their job was like, the equipment they used, the kind of guns they trained on—you name it, I asked about it. Fortunately, neither time period I was writing about was in the far distant past, so I was able to find most of what I needed without much trouble.
Did you revisit the site where Pawnee used to be?
Three times. The first two were intentional—just poking around the cornfields to get the feel of the landscape—but the third was a bizarre coincidence. I went to a high school reunion one summer weekend last year in my hometown, which is thirteen miles or so away from where Pawnee was, and ended up visiting a classmate’s farm for dinner and having drinks with some old friends. It turned out that the farm we’d been invited to was located smack in the middle of where Pawnee used to stand. Pawnee has been gone for seventy-five years or more, and there are only a handful of people left alive who even know it was ever there, so it seemed pretty weird to find myself, by complete chance, sitting on a back porch looking out at the same remote hills and fields I’d been writing about for the past three years, and only a few hundred yards from where my grandmother grew up. The book is largely about coincidences just like this one, though, so I guess maybe I shouldn’t have been so surprised.
What’s your writing process?
For this book I found myself napping a lot. Sad but true. I’d write for a bit, get stuck on something, then have myself a fifteen-minute nap to recharge my imagination. In general, though, I try to write a page a day. Sometimes I’m lucky if I get a usable sentence, other days I dash off two or three pages in a couple of hours. There doesn’t seem to be any real pattern to it, other than sitting down to write each day. If I don’t write every day, I lose the momentum of whatever story I’m trying to tell.
Who are the authors you admire the most? What books inspired you to be a writer?
Oh, God, there are so many. I’m a big fantasy and science fiction fan, so I love Tolkien, Ursula K. Le Guin, Patricia McKillip, Guy Kay, Steven Erikson—just to name a few people I wish I could write like. I also love Michael Cunningham, Annie Proulx, Michael Chabon, E. B. White, Chaim Potok, and John Irving, but if I had to pick my overall favorite author I’d probably have to say it’s Charles Dickens. The man had so much talent—and so much heart—it’s unbelievable. David Copperfield is an absolute masterpiece, cover to cover. Another one of the main books that made me want to be a writer is a collection of essays by E. B. White called One Man’s Meat. The writing in those essays is nothing short of gorgeous—gorgeous without being showy, witty without being overly clever, sweet without being cloying, sad without being sentimental, wise without being pompous and all-knowing. I can remember reading those essays for the first time and thinking: “Jesus, I want to do that.” I’ve never even gotten close, of course, but maybe someday . . .
A READING GROUP GUIDE
THE THIRD HILL NORTH OF TOWN
Noah Bly
About This Guide
The suggested questions are included
to enhance your group’s reading of
Noah Bly’s The Third Hill North of Town!
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. Does The Third Hill North of Town fit into a specific genre? Is it a crime novel? A tragedy? A dark comedy? An action-adventure story? What best describes it?
2. Which of the three main characters—Julianna Dapper, Elijah Hunter, or Jon Tate—is the strongest? The most vulnerable? The easiest to care about? Of all the minor characters, is there one that is particularly appealing (or repelling)?
3. Is there a discernible theme to this novel? If so, what would it be?
4. Throughout the story, Coincidence is referred to many times as a type of deity, almost like the trickster character Coyote in various Native American mythologies. What does this contribute to the overall narrative?
5. Edgar Reilly’s Edsel Ranger and Chuck Stockton’s Volkswagen Beetle are very much part of this novel, possessing distinct “personalities” of their own. Why do you think the author chose these particular automobiles for this story?
6. The interludes all take place in 1923, as opposed to the rest of the book, which is set in 1962. How does the author weave these separate timelines together to tell Julianna’s story? Why are the interludes interspersed throughout the novel instead of just having the 1923 story be told all at once?
7. Julianna, Jon, and Elijah—a trio of misfits—become very close over the course of the novel, though in reality they are only together for two days. Why do you think they bond the way they do? What does each of them gain from the others?
8. In a sense, every character in this book can be seen as emotionally damaged. Who is the least damaged? The most?
9. As the story progresses, several characters noticeably change, for either good or bad. What are some examples of this? Which character changes the most?
10. Much that happens in this book is bittersweet, including the ending. What do you think the author is trying to convey about the nature of friendship and the passage of time?
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Copyright © 2014 by Noah Bly
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ISBN: 978-0-7582-9077-9
eISBN-13: 978-0-7582-9078-6
eISBN-10: 0-7582-9078-0
First Kensington Electronic Edition: March 2014