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CUPS Magazine
POST-MODERN ROMANCE WITH "THE MISTRESS OF IRONY" By Alexander Laurence I met the writer and confessed tea drinker, Janice Eidus, at a hotel bar in midtown Manhattan, the very well-known Four Seasons Hotel. Janice Eidus, author of FAITHFUL REBECCA, VITO LOVES GERALDINE, and URBAN BLISS, was writing a letter in the lobby. I recognized her at a distance, her glamour and flapper haircut. As we sat down at a table I noticed all the cell phones and cigar smoke. Janice told me immediately that she would never get a cell phone. We ordered some drinks and began to discuss Janice's new book of stories, THE CELIBACY CLUB (City Lights Books). This book is a crazy collection of stories about love affairs, celebrities, ping pong vampires, and 12-steppers. During the interview I had a cappuccino, a cognac and a Guinness which cost me around 35 dollars. I was taking in the glamorous aura of writing.... ALEXANDER LAURENCE: The readers of CUPS always wonder what Janice Eidus is up to lately. After having read great books such as VITO LOVES GERALDINE or URBAN BLISS, they take a deep breathe and turn out the lights and wonder how great a life it is for Janice Eidus in midtown Manhattan. What do you say to these people? JANICE EIDUS: They're right. I'm leading the most wonderful life in New York City. Every night is a party. Party, party, party. I couldn't ask for a better life. I'm thrilled that people are thinking of me and I'm thinking of them as well. AL: You have a spiritual connection to your readership? JE: Definitely. Deeply. My new book, THE CELIBACY CLUB, will connect me even more deeply with my readership. It is a book that speaks to people all over, of all ages. AL: How would you describe your average Janice Eidus reader? JE: The people who read my books are the most beautiful people in the world. There's no question about it. Bianca Jagger. Kate Moss. They're all reading it. These people are probably reading THE CELIBACY CLUB as we speak. Ethan Hawke has been reading me. We have been major literary influences on each other's work. AL: Some writers, who are known to excel at short stories like Raymond Carver or Poe, are not given much consideration as novelists. Do you think that you have been trapped by writing these memorable short stories, that will cause people to perhaps not consider you a novelist as well? What do you think of this division? JE: I haven't come across this division. I feel that these gorgeous, beautiful, amazing readers of mine are just able to have expansive imaginations enough to understand that I can do both. I think it's a treat for readers of short stories by a writer to get the experience of reading something longer. AL: For you what are the differences between writing a novel and writing short stories? JE: What happens when I start writing is I have an image or a voice of a character. I know intuitively whether that image or character is either going to be a part of a short story or a novel. It's not so much an intellectual thing as an intuitive thing. I do non-fiction now too. I think that readers can be appreciative of a writer who does it all, and one of my goals is to do it all. I never want to be the sort of writer who just repeats herself endlessly writing the same book in different guises. One reviewer compared my work to a New York City wall of graffiti because he said the voices are so diverse. THE CELIBACY CLUB is a natural continuation of what I previously have done, and then, it is its own book, a book of the 1990s. I have a love affair with contemporary culture and this book manifests that love affair because there's a lot of stories about what's going on today, about celebrities, safe sex, 12-step programs. Some of my writer friends call me "The Mistress of Irony" because I usually explore these themes in a humorous way. I also see THE CELIBACY CLUB as a journey through the dark and light obsessions of our times. AL: I noticed that many of the stories are based around the idea of "being in a group" whether it's a club, group therapy, writing colonies, writing schools and gyms. JE: Living in these times there's no doubt that we are a culture that is obsessed with the 12-steppers and group therapy. I hear about it all the time and it's ripe for my sort of imagination to look at. On the one hand I can take it very seriously like in the story LADIES WITH LONG HAIR which is a story about a group of women who have all lost their hairdressers to AIDS. So they form a group of women who will never cut their hair again. Or I can be very funny about it as in a story like THE CELIBACY CLUB which is about a group of people who meet and decide to become celibate. Then the main character in fact ends up having wild sex with one of the other members. Then they never go back to the group again. That story is a celebration of sexual freedom and in some ways a declaration against the idea of the group. Again I'm looking at the dark and light sides. Art colonies are a whole other thing. I get a lot of my writing done at artist colonies. My story about James Dean coming to an art colony is really a very loving story about creativity and sex. AL: Peer pressure and the dominance of groups seem to be a theme which pervades your fiction? JE: It's been a lifelong theme for me as a person too. I grew up in an unconventional family. We were a politically progressive, Jewish family living in a very tough Italian neighborhood in the Bronx. In some ways I was of no world and I found myself in every world. When I was a little kid I was very different even though I had a lot of friends. I would hang out with them but I would also do other things like when I was 11-years old I would take the subway and come into the city, and go to the Museum of Modern Art. I used to follow groups, rock bands like the Rolling Stones. Brian Jones called me at home when I was twelve. AL: I also noticed that a few stories went back to a place in the Bronx called Pelham Parkway. Could you talk about that? JE: I didn't actually grow up on Pelham Parkway. I grew up on Gunhill Road which was a tougher neighborhood. Pelham Parkway was where a more politically radical group of kids lived. It was a wonderful neighborhood in the Bronx where there was a waterfall and we used to sit in the park. It became very meaningful to me. VITO LOVES GERALDINE is about Gunhill Road where I grew up. The Bronx will always figure into my work. For me it is a very real place and a very mythical place. Maybe I have a relation to it like William Kennedy has with Albany. I left the Bronx at an early age. Then Manhattan started to influence me and did shape my personality. This is my town. AL: You were recently telling me about your experiences with some friends who took drugs.... JE: Recently at one of the artist colonies that I went to, dinners consisted of people talking about which legal psychotropic drugs they were on and what dosages. Drugs like Prozac and Zoloft. I tried those sort of drugs myself and I hated them. AL: Do you think that psychotropic drugs create better writers and artists? JE: The jury is still out! AL: What writers are still important to you? Who are your literary enablers? JE: I really love Angela Carter. She was tremendously influential on me. She was someone who accepted no boundaries and her imagination was ferocious. Another writer who was influential was Manuel Puig. His imagination was wild and daring. Both of these writers were deeply sexual writers. They're not only sexual in their content but also in their use of language. This year I read a novel called WICKED by Gregory Maguire. which was an amazing novel about a re-telling of THE WIZARD OF OZ told from the point of The Wicked Witch of The West. Gabriel Marquez is another great writer who I like. |
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