Although her new novel, "Rise and Shine," is about the difficulties of fame as a morning talk-show host, Anna Quindlen insists she was not thinking of Katie Couric.
While Couric is not a friend, she is "a friendly acquaintance," Quindlen said. But she thinks of the novel as a story "about the residual effects of fame — that people who are untouchable at some level make us feel bad about ourselves."
The story is more about "the ordinary people who actually populate the pages" than it is about the central character, Meghan, the TV star, Quindlen said by phone from her New York home. Even though "some of the most famous people we have are on morning shows. They have become household faces. That's what I was thinking about."
The book is about "appearance and reality. So much of what we do has to do with how things look, and New York is a very good place to write about that."
Meghan cracks under the pressure of her high-profile life, and after interviewing someone she considers a blowhard, she utters unprintable expletives on camera. Needless to say, she disappears for a long time. "She gets nailed even though she speaks the truth. And she is not contrite enough afterward. The brass are making her do it. She is apologizing under duress.
"So it is also about the double-standard for women. It feels different if a man says those things rather than a woman. If a woman does it, she has to be really, really sorry."
At the end of 1994, Quindlen gave up writing her popular op-ed column three times a week for The New York Times to write novels full time. Five novels later, she is not sorry about that decision. She now writes a perceptive commentary page for Newsweek, which appears every other week, and that seems like a perfect balance for her. "The way I can stay on top of my game is not writing too often. You write about something important — by the end of the week it's not important anymore. Writing every other week helps you weed out the passing fancies versus the really important things."
Although she has been approached to be a Sunday TV political pundit, she has resisted. "Writing really long discursive sentences seems the opposite of what anyone does on TV. Plus, I'm leery of the constant reassurance that I will be able to look and sound like me. I don't want a voice coach or a hair person.
"Besides, Sunday morning shows take place during Mass. I've always wanted weekends to be inviolate for my family. It seems like a time to make omelettes and do crossword puzzles — not to argue against the war."
Then Quindlen added, jokingly, "The children (three of them) had the temerity to grow up and have lives of their own, so I'm feeling resentful of that."
It is Quindlen's opinion that reporting makes "excellent preparation for writing novels, even though some reporters have said, 'I don't get how you make it up.' It's hard for them to make that psychological leap. But I've known several reporters — like Pete Dexter and Carl Hiassen — who have become wonderful novelists — partly because they know how to write to order."
It irks Quindlen that some people will come to her during book signings and say, "For years I've been thinking of writing a novel," as if thinking could make it so. "But I've never heard anyone say, 'I've been thinking about doing brain surgery."'
Quindlen loves the work of Alice McDermott ("She has perfect pitch"), Russell Banks, Don DeLillo, Jonathan Latham and Ian Rankin. She also loves Dickens, Faulkner, Tolstoy and Dreiser. "Sinclair Lewis' 'Main Street' is a wonderful novel. I don't know why it has fallen out of fashion."
She also believes that "reading is the beginning of knowledge and peace. Even when you go to the Gospel of John, you find that 'In the beginning was the word."'
E-mail: dennis@desnews.com