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BIO
Mary O'Connell is a graduate of the University of Kansas and the Iowa's Writer's Workshop. Her stories have been published in literary magazines including The Sun and Mid-American Review. She teaches at the Lawrence Arts Center and lives in Lawrence, Kansas, with her husband and two children.
INTERVIEW
November 30, 2001
Mary O'Connell's imaginative and insightful debut story collection, LIVING WITH SAINTS,
offers ten snapshots of our morally complex world and the women --- both living and long
gone --- who bravely navigate(d) through it. Join Bookreporter.com writer Chuck
Leddy as he talks with O'Connell about the impetus and influences behind her stories, the
controversies of Catholicism, the Iowa Writer's Workshop and more.
TBR: I just have to ask, did you have to read that book LIVES OF THE SAINTS in high
school? (For you non-Catholic schoolers, it's a compendium of all the officially
recognized saints of the Church.) Perhaps a religion class? Is that, by chance,
where you first got the idea of creating stories that parallel the lives of the saints
with your contemporary characters? And if I'm totally off the mark, how did the idea for
your collection originate?
MO: I've read LIVES OF THE SAINTS on and off over the years, but never for a
religion class. My biggest influence was probably the autobiography of Therese of Lisieux,
STORY OF A SOUL, which shows her to be a pretty regular girl --- extremely tough and goofy
and smart. She definitely wants attention, she wants to be seen, for people to notice her
suffering and her goodness. I really loved that. It made me wonder about the lives of the
other girl saints, which led me back to LIVES OF THE SAINTS. And I wrote the first story,
"The Patron Saint of Girls," after seeing a painting of the martyrdom of Saint
Agnes. There's a sword at her throat, and her expression suggests she's thinking that
blind devotion to Jesus Christ might not have been the hottest idea she ever had.
I didn't set out to write a collection of saint stories. In fact, I thought that if I
wanted to get a collection together, I would need some variety, and that I should
move on to something else. But I was so struck by the girl saints. I kept making the deal
with myself: I'll just write one more and then move on, I'll just write one more....
TBR: Despite the fact that you take on a lot of controversial subjects --- incest,
abortion, teenage pregnancy, priests with romantic yearnings --- were you at all concerned
that the mere mention of a religious theme would peg you a "religious writer"?
Conversely, were you worried about being thought of as anti-Christian?
MO: No, I wasn't concerned about being pegged as a religious writer, but I
definitely worried that very pious people would find the stories a bit satanic. I've been
really happy that people see an underlying faith in my stories. Lately I've heard it
called a "Catholic book." I suppose that's inevitable since most of the
characters are Catholic. And Catholicism is my tradition, so I followed the boring advice
always given in writing classes --- to write about what you know. But, in my mind at
least, the book is more generally about women and struggling and hoping and love and
longing, which is the story of the saints, too.
TBR: There's been a lot of talk lately (thanks to Jonathan Franzen and Oprah) about
whether authors are/should be concerned with who their reading audience is. Do you care
who is reading your book? Do you have an ideal audience in mind for your stories?
MO: I'd love for anyone to read it. I thought it would appeal mostly to women, but
recently I've heard some enthusiastic responses from men.
TBR: Almost all of your protagonists face some kind of crisis, usually revolving around
the consequences of sex. Do you think sex is the most significant event --- or nonevent,
as is sometimes the case --- in the lives of Catholic girls and women?
MO: Wow, could I skip this one? Seriously, I think it probably has the same
significance and consequences as for all girls and women.
TBR: You have an uncanny ability to channel the voices of teenage girls. Have you ever
thought about writing a Young Adult novel?
MO: I don't have any plans to write a Young Adult novel. I've been really pleased,
though, that people seem to think I've portrayed teenage girls accurately. Adolescence is
such an intense time for almost every woman I've ever known and, very generally speaking,
I find that it's treated too superficially in many books.
TBR: When all is said and done, LIVING WITH SAINTS challenges the reader to examine the
notion of "faith" in general, and perhaps their "faith" in particular.
What do you believe to be the effects of Catholicism in women's lives today?
MO: I think Catholicism brings a lot of joy to those women who don't find it too
restrictive. I'm personally very liberal, so I obviously disagree with a lot of it, but
Catholicism has had and continues to have a positive effect on my life. But I do wish
there was more room in the church for dissenting views. When you read about the lives of
the saints, you see that these were definitely not people who followed the crowd.
TBR: Do you think there are any modern versions of Saint Anne and Saint Agnes and the
rest of your saintly cast, walking amongst us today? Or is the concept of sainthood an
obsolete construct?
MO: Sure, I see lots of women who are generous and compassionate and fun, ready to
help you make your way in the world.
TBR: Being from Kansas, was it hard for you to find an agent and a publisher?
MO: Geography didn't matter at all; I had that great, mythical thing happen, where
an agent reads your story in a small magazine, contacts you, and sells your book. Amy
Williams read "Saint Ursula and Her Maidens" in The Sun and wrote me a
letter. She was absolutely terrific right from the start --- so enthusiastic --- and she
sold my book to Grove/Atlantic.
TBR: You attended the famous Iowa Writer's Workshop. How, if at all, did that
experience help you develop as a writer? Who are some of the writers you read and admire?
MO: The atmosphere tended to be kooky and cutthroat, but it gave me time to write,
and I made really wonderful friends. Edna O'Brien is one of my favorite writers --- The
Country Girls trilogy knocks me out every time I read it --- and I also love Lorrie Moore
and Alice Munro.
TBR: What was your writing process like for LIVING WITH SAINTS?
MO: I wrote most of the stories before I had my first baby, and I remember I had
lots of time to gaze out the window and think about the saints. I wrote the last couple of
stories after my daughter was born, so those were written really late at night while she
slept snuggled on my shoulder.
TBR: What can we expect from you next?
MO: I'm writing a novel about three friends.
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