Elizabeth Ridley: Dear Mr. Carson
Book Club Discussion

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Elizabeth Ridley

How did the idea of a story based on a teenager's dream of meeting Johnny Carson come to be? Are you a fan like Sunnie?

Dear Mr. Carson is probably the most autobiographical of my four novels and I have to admit that I was a lot like Sunnie when I was younger! I first fell in love with Johnny Carson when I was six and my parents let me have my own TV in my bedroom. My parents generally went to bed at 9 p.m., so they had no idea I was staying up until midnight, watching The Tonight Show! Back in those days the show was 90 minutes long, and in the Midwest, where I grew up, it ran from 10:30 p.m. until 12. A lot of the humor of the show was "beyond me" at that point, but I took copious notes while watching Johnny interview the likes of Peter Ustinov, Sophia Loren, and Michael Landon, and I tried to think about what I would say when Johnny interviewed me on his show.

Like Sunnie Sundstrom, the main character in Dear Mr. Carson, I wrote a screenplay titled "Girl on the Lam" at age 12 that I was sure would star the teen sensations of the time, Robbie Benson and Kristy McNichol. And I was pretty sure I would be nominated for an Oscar as best screenwriter, leading to a guest spot on The Tonight Show. I was always trying to think of ways to meet Johnny Carson. It's kind of embarrassing to admit, but I took two years of summer tennis lessons once I learned that Johnny Carson loved tennis and had his own tennis court at his Malibu home. I wanted to impress him when we finally met! Unfortunately, I was so bad at playing tennis, after two years of "beginner" lessons, the instructor informed me I still wasn't good enough for the "intermediate" class and it might be better if I moved on to something else!

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Elizabeth Ridley

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Elizabeth Ridley

This book spoke volumes about happiness in marriage. Why are Sunnie's parents at odds? Does her dad feel burdened by his family?

That's such an interesting question. I think Sunnie's parents may have gotten married without really thinking about what they were doing and what the long-term reality would be. I imagine they married young, with neither having much life experience. Perhaps their parents pressured them into it, thinking they made a good match. By the time the novel opens they are in their forties, married nearly 20 years, with three challenging children. Peter and Christina Sundstrom are at the point where they are stressed, they don't have much in common, and they are facing an uncertain, and possibly unhappy, future. That conflict, unfortunately, has a strong influence on Sunnie and her siblings, Ingrid and Max. I think Sunnie's dad, Peter, does feel burdened by his family, especially early in the book, although he shows signs of warming up as the book goes on. I believe he does love his family but he doesn't really know how to express that to them, and that creates pain, frustration, and alienation for all of them.

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Elizabeth Ridley

It is disturbing to think about how vicious thirteen-year-old boys can be. Why did the Romulans pick on Sunnie so much? Was it because Todd liked her? And also, did teachers really not intervene in such cases of extreme bullying back then?

I think the Romulans picked on Sunnie because she was "different." And not just because she was overweight; Sunnie is different because she's bright, ambitious, creative, precocious. Sometimes those qualities can be threatening to other kids; grade school is such a conformist culture. I don't think Todd actually liked Sunnie; I think he, like the other kids, felt threatened by her "differentness." To your second point, I think bullying is taken much more seriously today than it was back in the 1970s. I know when I was in grade school during that era, teachers and staff tended to turn a blind eye to bullying, figuring it was best to let the kids work it out themselves. I must say, even in cases of serious bloodshed on the playground, it was rare that anyone stepped in to help!

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Elizabeth Ridley

What was the point of Sunnie's fleeting love interest, Asher? Was it to show her that she could, in fact, be desirable?

I think the character of Asher serves several purposes including, as you mention, showing Sunnie that she can be seen as desirable by a member of the opposite sex. I think he also, due to his evangelical Christianity, introduces Sunnie to ideas, beliefs, and lifestyles that are different from her "norm," thereby making her world feel larger. And from a strictly plot perspective, Asher is very important because meeting him creates the circumstances that cause Sunnie to take the "leap of faith" that sets her on the road to meeting Johnny Carson.

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Elizabeth Ridley

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Elizabeth Ridley

I feel that young girls would obviously benefit from seeing that dreams come true no matter your outward appearance, but I also think mothers would benefit from understanding that every child is unique and may not need to be "fixed." Who is your intended audience?

The strange thing is, I never saw Dear Mr. Carson as young adult fiction. I wrote it solely for an adult readership. I think the ideal reader is a woman between the ages of 30 and 55; a woman who understands the pain of being "imperfect," and who remembers Johnny Carson and what life was like during the 1970s. Something happened during the process of publishing and promoting Dear Mr. Carson--a reviewer mistakenly called the book a "young adult novel," and that was picked up on and repeated to the point that the book was mistakenly classified, even by bookstores, as "young adult fiction." While there is nothing in the book that would be inappropriate for a teenage reader, I think the time period would be so unfamiliar as to make the book difficult to relate to for someone of that age.

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Elizabeth Ridley

Will Sunnie's family survive?

That's a great question! I hope Dear Mr. Carson leaves the reader with some sense of optimism for Sunnie and her family. I think they will always struggle, on some level, because they are such different individuals, but I believe the family will stay together. I think once Sunnie returns home after her "adventure," the family will draw closer together, realizing what they might have lost.

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Elizabeth Ridley

Can you tell us anything about your current writing projects?

Happily! I'm working on a novel called Celia Frost that's a cross between the classic Graham Greene novel The Third Man and the TV show 24. It's a literary thriller about Dayle Salvesen, a crime novelist who goes to London for a writers' conference and learns that one of her best friends who lives there has died under mysterious circumstances. Or has she? As Dayle investigates she learns that nothing about her friend is as it appears to be. Another long-term and on-going project is a novel called Brutus on the Basepaths, the story of an aging, Shakespeare-loving baseball player who makes a stunning sacrifice in the final summer of his major-league career. And I'm also writing an original screenplay about an English Literature professor trying to connect with his grown-up son during a very chaotic Thanksgiving weekend. Fingers crossed all three of these projects will eventually see the light of day!

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Elizabeth Ridley