Thank you for joining us for part two of our conversation with novelist and publisher, Elizabeth Petty Bentley. If you missed part one, click here.
When we left off yesterday, Beth and I were discussing her novel, “In a Dry Land.” Beth, I understand your book is more of a literary novel than we’re used to seeing in the LDS market. How has it been received?
In Meridian, Jennie Hansen said, “Readers who enjoy Thomas Hardy’s tragic style won’t want to miss this one. Those who like intense realism, hard choices, and don’t mind a dose of injustice, should give this book a try.” I was thrilled to be mentioned in the same breath with Thomas Hardy, but how many people do you know that enjoy tragedy—even from Hardy? Not a lot, I’m afraid. I don’t think tragedy is necessarily depressing, but I know that’s how it strikes a lot of people. I tried to give the story some light moments too, but overall, I admit there are some hard issues. And, yeah, not everything turns out sunny in the end, but I certainly think it’s a hopeful ending, if not happy-ever-after. Truth is, I’m kind of tired of happy-ever-after all the time, and I really think a steady diet of that sort of thing isn’t altogether healthy. Especially in romance. It gives people—particularly young, unmarried women—unrealistic expectations about marriage and life in general. Take Madame Bovary. She was full of unrealistic expectations from the books she read.
How did you come up with the idea for the book?
It’s actually based on a true story told by Dr. Christopher, the famous Utah herbologist. He knew someone who had a forty-five-year-old “baby” as a result of similar circumstances. The minute I heard the story, I said, “That’s a novel!” I couldn’t get it out of my head. I just added some further complications, like Libby and her two brothers. For instance, it wasn’t all that uncommon years ago to expect siblings to care for damaged children who couldn’t ever care for themselves. Today we think that’s “a dose of injustice,” because the state usually steps in with Social Security, which makes it easier to opt for institutional care. In my story I deliberately made that choice virtually impossible for Libby.
We’ll continue our conversation with Elizabeth Petty Bentley tomorrow. In the meantime, here is the link to her site — go see what else she’s up to.
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