Auckland Writers & Readers Festival
May 26 | By Amy Brown, Catherine Bisley & Alexander Bisley

Amy Brown, Catherine Bisley and Alexander Bisley discuss An Hour with Richard Ford, chaired by John Campbell.


AB: My first impression was of John Campbell’s Chuck Taylors.

CB: And his casual jeans.

AB: You know how he said he felt like a 12-year-old boy at a Wham! concert…

CB: Yeah, he looked like one too. And he was clearly besotted. He kept rubbing his temples in a tortured way. It was the torture of love, I think. But we digress. A strong impression I had of the interview was John Campbell’s forceful TV intonation versus Ford’s smooth American voice. Oh, that voice! But John was certainly informed.

AB: Yeah, his introduction and questions were respectful and intelligent. Shall we talk about Ford’s readings, from The Lay of the Land. Unfortunately I haven’t read The Sportswriter trilogy yet, but I was certainly sold hearing Ford read – the black humour, lack of cynicism, smoothly metered sentences and surprisingly understated use of metaphor. I really liked “all the facts of life at 55 strewn around like poppies.”

CB: He read very well. Measured passion. I thought his discussion of cynicism versus scepticism was to the point. He radiated benevolence, commented that there was no place (in writing and the world in general) for cynicism but a great need for scepticism. He also said he would never write a bad review…

AB “If a book’s not good it will find its own way to where it’s going.”

CB: Using his intelligence to create good rather than focussing on the negative. It’s a good philosophy for life, not only writing.

ABis: I liked Richard’s Reagan comment.

CB: That America’s current political woes stem back to Reagan. With Reagan dead, Ford thinks that Americans can only blame themselves.

ABis: What I find disturbing in US politics right now is the evasive tactic of Republicans defining themselves as Reaganite Republicans to distance themselves from the Bush Administration.

CB: You thought he looked a lot older this time around, didn’t you, Alexander? And Eliot Weinberger, too? Ford was deeply concerned by the current state of America and found no consolation in the polls turning against Bush. The American disease, he suggested, is disinterest in politics and democracy.

ABis: Ironical huh.

AB: His description of America, or at least of himself, “waiting around while thousands of people are dying” was poignant and seemed to impress John Campbell. There’s something incredibly sad about intelligent and good Americans like Ford helplessly waiting for the government that they “detest” to change.

CB: Yeah, though we could get bogged down discussing the failings of American politics. I thought that Ford’s discussion of James Salter’s work, where he described Salter’s writing as “felicitous and mellifluous” was an example of his generosity as a reviewer. The description could also apply to Ford’s work. He used the nice metaphor of a sampler. So many American writers feel the need to show the knots at the back and Ford was of the opinion that you don’t need to make it any more difficult for the reader.

AB: Mm, that sampler metaphor was great. I enjoyed watching John Campbell leap gleefully upon it. “Your writing sounds effortless. Is this the mark of a fine writer?” he asked like an excited school boy. “It could be,” Ford replied slowly, getting a laugh from the audience, “or it could be the sign of a facile writer.” This is just one example of his self-effacement. Another moment that John Campbell leapt on was when Ford mentioned he’d met William Faulkner at the age of 18.

CB: And that Faulkner was drunk… of course. There was a lot of laughing in this session. He went on to say that he was more impressed with his new girlfriend than with Faulkner at the time, and that meeting writers wasn’t the be all and end all. He told a nice anecdote about an Austrian critic who used the word “surely” as a lead into all his questions about character and themes in The Sportswriter trilogy. The story ended with the Austrian critic saying that it was “always a disappointment to meet someone whose books you admire.” Ford reckons that “if an author is better than his book he’s doing something wrong”. While it was great to hear Ford, his comment seemed to question the very notion of a writers and readers festival.

AB: John Campbell made the valid point that we were all delighted to meet Ford because Ford was, in person, just as empathetic, kind and humanist as his books suggest. If he’d been “a shit” we would have all been disappointed, Campbell said, somewhat naughtily. “But I wouldn’t do that!” Ford responded, getting another laugh. I think one of the best things about John Campbell’s interview technique was the polite way that he elicited answers about routine, family and writing method. These are questions that seem a bit gauche or obvious to ask literary writers, but which we all really want to hear the answers to. Ford answered them happily and generously, from describing his daily habit (struggling with dyslexia taught Ford the value of discipline and routine) of rising at six in the morning, making breakfast for his wife, pottering about then getting to work at eight, to listing the important things that his parents taught him. “They taught me to behave – how to treat other people, how to look at people different from me as if they were myself.” Empathetic male novelists could be the theme of this festival; Tim Winton and Ford both demonstrated that to be a good writer one should have a morally good view of the world.

CB: Yeah, there was definitely some mutual respect there. In his discussion of his character Frank he talked about literature as a means of reinvigoration. In light of his opinion of the United States’ political climate, he seems to hate stasis of any sort - things need to keep on moving while retaining a sense of history. His discussion of faith was also enlightening. He described Frank as a character with faith. Faith, Ford says “is the evidence of things unseen… not a foolish Polly-Anna-ism… the faith I have is in my imagination.”

AB: It was nice to hear Ford describing the process of when “little spears enter my brain, I write them down… I sit down and write it down. Right there in the grocery store.” This is only tangentially connected to his faith in his imagination, but I was taken with his, again self-effacing, lack of faith in his memory. When Ford referred to William James’ “well of unconscious cerebration” and admitted to having “a very shallow little well”, I found myself warming to him even more. It’s nice to hear such an acclaimed person sharing their short-comings so eloquently. Ford’s repeated reference to his luck as a writer was also appealing. When John Campbell argued that Ford’s talent as much as his luck is to thank for his current fame, Ford said that writers could be talented and unlucky. He mentioned Robert Stone as an example of a brilliant American writer who wasn’t as lucky as Ford; he wasn’t in the right place at the right time, talking to the right people. That’s why we haven’t heard of him.

ABis: I’m pretty sure Ford mentioned Stone last time he was out.

CB: Can we ignore the plug any longer? Perhaps we should all go out and buy Stone’s books, get some luck happening... He also touched on the financial struggle of writing, joking that his advice to young writers was to marry Christina Ford (his wife). Anyhow, returning to Ford’s writing process, it was intriguing that he thought a writer’s style doesn’t develop; that we have all kinds of voices in our brains and that this is how we are able to work in different modes and create different characters. This comment was a retort to an audience member who referring to some writing in Granta in the early eighties, which he thought was sparse and Carver-esque, while he though Ford’s current style was “Baroque.”

AB: To frame our coverage of this session with shoes, you were impressed by Ford’s shiny, chestnut-brown, leather lace-ups, weren’t you?

CB: I initially thought they were nutmeg, but after consulting the spice rack and the chestnut tree (on the green by the smithy), I agree with your assessment of colour. I think the shoes topped off his “holiday outfit” (lime-green, v-neck jersey and purple, collared shirt), as he described his dress to John Campbell, very nicely.