A Stranger Like You
by Elizabeth Brundage
July 2011 Book Pick by Queenie C

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Elizabeth Brundage, author of A Stranger Like You

What made you include Denny and Daisy into the story? What is their purpose?

Often when we write fiction we don't necessarily choose our characters, our characters choose us. When I began the novel, I knew I wanted to somehow write about Iraq. I wanted to write about what it is in our culture to be a hero, and how we represent heroes in film and in books and why heroes are intrinsically rooted to our identity as Americans. In my mind, Daisy represents another version of the free and the brave -- a free spirit spun out of dysfunction and neglect. Denny and Daisy are two lost souls who fall in love. Denny has just returned from his tour in Iraq and is in the throes of PTSD. Daisy is a teenage runaway who has been included in a documentary about homeless people and transients, made by another important character in the novel, Tom Foster. When the two of them meet, they find that they are kindred spirits, each cast out into the world on their own, having to fend for themselves as best they can. Denny becomes the unlikely hero of the novel and the two characters go off together in the end. I do believe they will eventually find their way to happiness.

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Elizabeth Brundage, author of A Stranger Like You

What happens with Marion? She is mentioned in bits and pieces throughout the story but she doesn't really have a voice.

Marion is Hugh Waters' wife in the novel. They have an uninspired marriage. She works as a florist and they don't actually have much in common. Their marriage, I think, was a means to an end, but the "end" was something vague and undisclosed. I was interested in writing about two married people who don't communicate. They are truly strangers to each other, sharing a house, a bank account, but little else. I don't think this is necessarily uncommon. Hugh comes to realize that he isn't in love with her, and this further fuels his decision to leave her, to take matters into his own hands for once in his life. For Hugh, the dream of living another kind of life becomes as addictive as a drug. It is a seductive, intoxicating equation that he is determined to solve. When Hugh gets to LA he begins to push the boundaries of the marriage paradigm and experiment with other relationships, insinuating himself into Hedda Chase's life, becoming friends with her boyfriend, Tom Foster, and enjoying a rather odd love affair with a screenwriter named Ida. Eventually, Marion comes to terms with the reality of her marriage and wrestles with her own hopes and dreams.

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Elizabeth Brundage, author of A Stranger Like You

The story of Fatima Kassim is a sad one. Why did you decide to use the background story in this book?

Unfortunately, the story of Fatima Kassim is all too common. As an Iraqi woman her options are limited. Her mother's murder motivates her to send her story to a young writer/filmmaker, Tom Foster, who later convinces his some-time lover, Hedda Chase, to take a stand against the war in Iraq and the oppression of women by making a film based on Fatima's story about the death of an Iraqi woman who is stoned to death. As part of a diplomatic exchange program, Fatima comes to California and begins to experience life as an American woman, albeit conservatively and briefly. I was interested in exploring that idea -- how it would be for her here in America as a "free" woman -- and what might happen to her when her family back home realizes what she's done...Oppression against women in any country -- including ours -- is unacceptable. It is impossible to negotiate reasonably with countries that do not consider women to be equal to men. It is a distorted context in which to do business and the result is, at best, a compromise. Limiting a woman's rights because of her sex is outrageous. It is, in my mind, exactly like being locked in the trunk of a car -- at the mercy of God or fate or some arbitrary savior. These are some of the themes I tried to explore in A Stranger Like You.

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Elizabeth Brundage, author of A Stranger Like You

Hugh Waters tried to prove a point about the ending of his screenplay. In your opinion, did he achieve his purpose?

Yes, perversely he achieves his purpose. Hugh is the kind of guy who's been passed-over all his life. As an underwriter for an insurance agency he's ignored, neglected, overlooked. With the emergence of the women's movement, he's lost out in the workplace to more qualified women. I wanted to explore his festering animosity toward women which ultimately expresses itself with violence. What he does to Hedda Chase, the producer responsible for pulling the plug on his film project, is as misogynistic as some of the scenes we've so casually witnessed on television or in movies, the very thing that Hedda Chase is determined to stop.

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Elizabeth Brundage, author of A Stranger Like You

How far would you go to achieve your dreams?

My dreams are varied and philosophical. My most selfish dream is to become a better writer -- but writing is not really the stuff of dreams -- it is about the work, the daily routine of going to the computer. It's about thinking through problems, trying to understand what motivates behavior. Quite simply, it's about trying to make sense of life with all of its chaos and uncertainty. But my most important dreams are for my children, that they will achieve their goals and find their own versions of happiness and fulfillment. Once, when I was pregnant with my third child, I had lunch with a well known agent. He told me that writing was one thing -- being a parent was another. "It's the most important thing you can do," he told me, explaining that, in his view, family is really all that matters. Family is your strength, your soul; it's who you are. He told me not to worry, that the work, success, would come if I worked hard. But it wasn't the most important thing. I never forgot our conversation because, as it turned out, he was right. I guess if I were to give advice to writers I would say to focus on what's there, not what isn't -- what you have in your life, not what you don't have. Look at what's there on the page and try to make it better. Dare to believe in yourself and to pursue your dreams for the right reasons -- because your work has value, meaning, artistry, craft. Because of how you see, and how you feel, and all you want to say about this crazy, beautiful world.

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Elizabeth Brundage, author of A Stranger Like You

Can you tell us anything about your current writing projects?

I'm working on a novel about a small rural community in upstate New York.