Young, but Adult: Francine Prose on 'Goldengrove'

FRANCINE PROSE'S NEW novel, "Goldengrove," tells the story of Nico, a 13-year-old who is simultaneously coping with the sudden death of her older sister and the inevitable tumult that accompanies coming of age.

Unlike many writers adopting adolescent voices, Prose is no novice. She has published 11 previous novels, as well as short story collections, children's books and nonfiction on a wide range of topics. Despite her prolific past, Prose acknowledged several formidable challenges while writing her latest: coping with the real life grief that inspired "Goldengrove," finding the voice of her adolescent narrator, and living up to the standards she set for other writers in her 2006 book "Reading Like a Writer."

» EXPRESS: You have written young adult fiction in the past. How is writing about adolescents for adolescents different from writing about them for adult readers?
» PROSE: I think that the difference between writing for teenagers and adults is, you might say, hormonal — the presumption is that adults have more patience, and more experience; all the experience that has followed the experience of adolescence.

» EXPRESS: Was writing as a 13-year-old in the first person challenging, or did you find Nico's voice easy to channel?
» PROSE: In fact, I found Nico's voice — and the whole book, really — a great challenge to write. Because the novel is so pared down, so concentrated, so emotional and intense, I felt I had to get everything right — Nico's voice, her feelings, the responses of everyone around her — and that there wasn't much room for error. I rewrote it probably a hundred times, and was finally — finally — satisfied with how it turned out. I wanted the language to be beautiful and lyrical without seeming excessive. Also, having published "Reading Like a Writer," which argues for the importance of every word a writer puts down on the page, I felt I had created a high standard for myself to live up to. Of course, I'd always had that same standard — but now, I felt, more readers knew about it — and might hold me to it! And because I was dealing with states of mind and being — adolescence, grief — that are powerful, unforgettable, universal, and transitory — it was especially tricky.

» EXPRESS: Would you recommend "Goldengrove" to teenage readers?
» PROSE: I wrote "Goldengrove" for adult readers — former teenagers! — but I would like teenagers to read it, partly because the novel says what I most needed to hear as a teenager: whatever you're going through now, it won't last forever.

» EXPRESS: I read that you started "Goldengrove" shortly after your mother's death. Did you find writing about grieving therapeutic?
» PROSE: It did help — as much as anything could — to write "Goldengrove" when I myself in a state of pure grief. It gave me something to focus on, something to do every day, and the reassurance that I could do something with the misery I was in — to write a book that said, "Other people have gone through this. And survived."

» EXPRESS: In the novel Nico comes across the Gerard Manley Hopkins poem "Spring and Fall" and doesn't particularly appreciate it. Since the poem both provides "Goldengrove's" title and figures in the plot, you obviously feel differently. Did the dedication "to a young child" inspire you to write about loss from a young person's perspective?
» PROSE: I know Nico doesn't like the Hopkins poem, and I have to say I found that touching and even funny, because the poem is not only lovely but very difficult. She's a smart girl, but there's a limit to what she can take in. Thinking back, I'm not sure I would have understood the poem at her age — I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have. The decision to use the poem came when I was about halfway through the novel — a lucky accident. It popped into my head, and it seemed appropriate.

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Written by Express contributor Meg Zamula
Photo by Stephanie Berger