Reading Chick

Gayle Brandeis was nice enough to answer my questions about her new book, My Life with the Lincolns.  This is my first author interview and I thank her for the time she spent answering my questions. The book format finally came in and I gave a copy of it to my library director who read it overnight.  He didn’t grow up in Downers Grove, but said the first time he protested was in 1966.  He spoke fondly of Tinker Harvey and Ralph Stein who was a member of the Friends group.  He gave the still un-processed copy of the novel to John Mochel who just happened to be in the library yesterday and owned Mochel’s Hardware in Downers Grove — which is mentioned in the book.  SH 3.12.2010

SH: You really painted a picture about the discrepancies in housing practices in Chicago in the middle of the 1960’s. It was a very angry time in the city.  By reading this book, I understood for the first time what it must have been like.  Why did you decide to write about the Chicago Freedom Movement of 1966?

Gayle Brandeis: I actually didn’t know about the Chicago Freedom Movement until I started writing the book. I knew I wanted to set the book in the Chicago area; all of my other novels so far have been set in California, and I wanted to give my hometown some love. I also knew I wanted to deal with civil rights issues, since my character thought her dad was Lincoln reincarnated, and I thought civil rights issues would have a resonance with Lincoln’s time (plus I’m committed to addressing social justice themes in my work.) When I did a search on “Chicago” and “civil rights”, information about the Chicago Freedom Movement popped up and I knew I had found the right time period for my book.

SH: When I brought the audiobook version of My Life with the Lincolns home to listen to and I heard Mina open up the Downers Grove Sun I was very surprised me.  I couldn’t believe this story was in our fair village.   I even called the library right away to tell everyone.   You grew up in Evanston, why did you select Downers Grove as the location of Mina’s story?

Gayle Brandeis:  It was a very intuitive choice. I had originally thought to set the story in Evanston (or possibly Winnetka, where we moved when I was a teenager), but neither of those places ended up feeling right. Downers Grove just popped into my head one day, and something clicked inside of me. It felt like the right place for the Edelmans to live.

SH:  Downers Grove is known for the Tivoli and the Sears Houses, but the little details like the Last Word chicken place, Mochel’s hardware and Busy Bee cookies (which are still delicious) made it feel like we were in Downers Grove.  You did your homework! How did you do your Downers Grove research ?

Gayle Brandeis: I had never been to Downers Grove before I started on this story; it had always just been a place on the map to me. I started to research the place online (using mostly the local Downers Grove websites), and was immediately charmed. Then I was in Chicago for a book tour in 2007, and decided to do some research of the area in person. I had been working on My Life with the Lincolns for a while, but actually being in Downers Grove helped bring the place—and the story—to real life for me. It was great fun to find the house that I pictured as the Edelmans’ house, and to imagine Mina and Tabby riding their bikes around town. The Downers Grove Library proved to be an invaluable resource, as well. I looked though microfilm of newspapers from 1966 and found letters to the editor from a couple of people, Tinker Harvey and Ralph Stein, who were involved in the open housing movement at the time. I was able to track them down and interview them by phone, which was incredibly helpful. Tinker’s son, Miles, was also very helpful by providing a child’s perspective from 1966 Downers Grove (this was an especially cool connection because I had read and enjoyed his book, The Island of Lost Maps, and never imagined I would one day talk to him as I researched my own book.)

SH: Mina is a delight.  I love her spunkiness.  She’s smart and thinks she has everything worked out.  Her devotion to her father and Tabby says a lot about her.  I felt a real connection to Mina  How did you develop her character?

Gayle Brandeis: Mina really developed herself, I have to say. Once I started writing in her voice, she just leapt off the page and took me for a ride. There is definitely quite a bit of me as a kid in her—I adored my dad and younger sister (still do), plus I thought my dad was Lincoln reincarnated, and I put together a little neighborhood newspaper similar to Mina’s Lincoln Log. Like Mina, I was also a bit of a hypochondriac, although she takes that to a new level.

SH: I was less fond of Mina’s father, Al.  His actions really made me angry—he put Tabby and Mina in danger.  He was filled with lofty principles that didn’t guide his life; he justified his lying for his sense of doing “good.”  That is decidedly un-Lincoln like.  How did you develop Al?

Gayle Brandeis: I’ve been a peace activist for many years, and I’ve come upon many good intentioned but misguided people in the movement. Al is really a distillation of such folks; his heart is definitely in the right place, but he’s not always thinking straight.

SH: I loved the Lincoln elements in the story. Like when Al emancipated the housekeeper.  He didn’t seem to care that she needed the money he just thought his principles were the ones that mattered.  I kept yelling at my CD player, “Pay her more money!  Don’t fire her, pay her more!”  I also like that “Lincoln returned to Springfield”.  It was a nice touch.  Tell me how you decided to meld the Edelmans with the Lincolns. 

Gayle Brandeis: In its first conception, My Life with the Lincolns was going to be a memoir, where I would alternate the Lincolns’ story with my family’s story (aside from thinking my dad was Abe when I was a kid, my mom had a lot of similarities to Mary Lincoln, especially their delusional preoccupation with money.) My agent and editor at the time really loved the idea but my mom had asked me not to write about her while she was alive. My agent asked if I could fictionalize my family’s story, but I didn’t want to do that, since I did want to write the memoir some day. Then Mina materialized and started talking on the page and I ended up writing a story with an autobiographical impulse that ended up not being about me and my family at all.

 And yes, I wish Al had paid the cleaning lady more, too!

 SH: This is clearly Mina’s story.  But there are so many complex adults with storylines, this is an excellent crossover novel – a middle grade school novel that adults will read and love.

Gayle Brandeis: Thank you so much! I originally wrote the novel for adults; my editor loved it but turned it down, saying it was a book for young readers. The rejection smarted at first—a lot, in fact–but soon I became excited at the idea of reaching a young audience. I do hope that adults will give it a go, too!