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BIBR talks to Valerie Wilson Wesley - Interview
Black Issues Book Review, Nov-Dec, 2002 by Lynda Jones
Valerie Wilson Wesley's relationship novel Ain't Nobody's Business If I Do, which debuted in 1999, was awarded Best Fiction for 2000 by the Black Caucus of the American Library Association. In her latest book, Always True to You in My Fashion, Wesley further explores relationships between lovers, families and friends.
BIBR: What inspired you to set your novel amid the backdrop of the black artists' community?
VWW: I love art, and if I had a lot of money I'd do nothing but collect art. I also have a lot of very good friends who are artists and a couple who are dealers. I've always been fascinated with that world. I think the world of creative women and art collectors is fascinating and, in terms of black women, often not recognized.
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BIBR: The characters, who have dysfunctional relationships with their parents, also have dysfunctional relationships with the opposite sex. What effect can parental love or lack of it, have on romantic relationships?
VWW: There's a legacy that you give children--a love legacy. Very often we work out issues that we had in our past relationships in our present ones. Certainly, Randall is doing that with women and his dreadful mother, Lydia, an artist who wasn't able to do her craft. If she had been, perhaps she wouldn't have been such a bitch.
Randall's carrying that particular burden around, as Medora is with her father, which is why she gives Randall so much flack.
BIBR: Your relationship novels are filled with mature folk in their 40s and 50s who've met challenges in love and in life. Do you prefer to craft mature characters because they seem richer on the page, or because you want to acknowledge that segment of the population?
VWW: I think it's both. I'm a writer whose certainly not in my 20s or 30s. I just write characters that I can connect to, and that I can enjoy writing and learning about. In terms of some of the books that come out, women in their 40s and 50s have been neglected. The reality is, the older we get, the richer we become and often, but not always, the wiser. This is an area I'm interested in, this is what I know, this is what I'm learning.
BIBR: Which character did you enjoy developing the most?
VWW: Randall. It was a challenge to understand a male perspective. I wanted to look at men who are like this and give a sense of why they are like this. Randall is a winner, but his flaw is that he doesn't trust women.
BIBR: Why do your relationship novels focus on mostly middle-class and upper-middle class black people?
VWW: Because it's a particular area of African-American life that hasn't really been looked at. These are people who live fairly well, but who also have lots and lots of issues. The reality is that happiness is much more than money. It's connections to people; it's love. You can actually do with very little if you have these essentials: know yourself and enjoy life.
BIBR: Which is more enjoyable for you: writing the Tamara Hayle mystery series or relationship novels?
VWW: There's a different mind-set. At this point, I have a lot of ideas for relationship-themed books, but I also love writing the Tamara Hayle mysteries because they're a completely different look at life. So I enjoy both.
BIBR: Is it difficult for you to switch gears from one genre to another?
VWW: No. In fact, it's good because when I go back to the Tamara Hayle novels, they're much fresher. When you write a detective story it's easy to get formulaic, and you never want to do that. You always want to be able to come back to the character fresh.
BIBR: You write Tamara Hayle mysteries in the first person and your relationship novels in the third? Which voice is the hardest to write in?
VWW: The third person. Although it's hard in the first person, too. I initially wrote Ain't Nobody's Business If I Do in the third person because I wanted to be able to do different types of characters and go into different points of view. I wanted to observe and tell what each one of the characters was feeling and doing.
BIBR: Why have you used songs as the titles for your relationship novels?
VWW: Part of a black woman's legacy is singing the blues, then singing the joys.
A jazz theme runs throughout Always True to You in My Fashion. When Medora leaves Randall, she puts on her blues songs by Dinah [Washington], Bessie [Smith], Billie [Holiday] and Sarah [Vaughan]. Each section of the book is named after a signature song by these women.
BIBR: Who are some of your favorite contemporary writers?
VWW: Mystery writer P.D. James, Walter Mosley, Ruth Rendell, who is an English writer, Iris Murdoch, and of course Toni Morrison, who is a longtime favorite of mine. Favorite writers are like favorite painters, you just read them and discover them. I'm constantly reading authors I can learn from because I'm a student honing my craft to become a better writer. That's my goal.
COPYRIGHT 2002 Cox, Matthews & Associates
COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group
