On Nov. 14, critically acclaimed fiction author Laura Van den Berg came to UR as part of the Plutzik Reading Series. Van den Berg is the author of six works of fiction, including “The Third Hotel,” which was a finalist for the New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award, and “I Hold a Wolf by the Ears,” one of Time Magazine’s 10 Best Fiction Books of 2020.
Van den Berg read from her newest novel, “State of Paradise,” which originated from her and her husband’s time in a small town in Florida during the COVID-19 pandemic. For her, it was an unexpected return home; however, for her husband, who grew up in the northeast, it was an alien planet.
Drawing on memory and science fiction, “State of Paradise” follows a ghostwriter and her husband as they move to Florida and navigate a new technology called MIND’S EYE. Throughout the talk, Van den Berg paused to tell the audience that some of the memories of the main character were real experiences she and her family had experienced while growing up in Florida.
“I feel like I’m meeting a version of myself that I had nearly forgotten,” Van den Berg read from the beginning of the book.
After the reading, Van den Berg opened the podium for questions. When asked about how she balanced memory with fiction, she stated that at first, the memories started as her daily meditations about Florida, whether it be the landscape, familial memories, or weather.
Eventually, she realized that the meditations evolved and were no longer her voice writing the passages. She printed out the journal entries and hung them on her wall, so she could play with the timeline and structure of the beginning of the novel. When writing about Florida, she wanted to make sure that she was “granular and detailed” to give a full experience of the town and not a stereotypical depiction.
Van den Berg closed the Q&A by stating that she doesn’t believe in motivation, but rather writers should cultivate the “friend” of commitment.
