Dara Horn
Dara Horn
Dara Hornis an American novelist and professor of literature...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
CountryUnited States of America
avoiding aware plot
I am much more aware of making the plot more original, avoiding contrivance, having the story matter much more. I used to think more about symbols consciously. Now I think much more about the story.
children dealt means next written
The books are like children in that having written one doesn't make writing the next one any easier, because it's a new set of problems and a new set of challenges with each one, and having dealt with one before means that you now know how to do it.
among believers days fact fiction forbidden happens haunted lives objective offer passes turned writers written
Writers and believers live their lives haunted by the same question: What happens to our days once they disappear? The objective fact is that each day that passes is lost forever, as forbidden to us as the dead. But prayer and fiction offer a different answer. Those lost days still live among us, written in each person's hand, turned into stories.
Every person has a legacy. You may not know what your impact is, and it may not be something that you can write on your tombstone, but every person has an impact on this world.
expressing
The way I express ideas is through the plot, Suspense is an important part of expressing an idea.
dozens events god hebrew jews lens obeyed present recording remember understanding
Commanded by God dozens of times in the Hebrew Bible to remember their past, Jews historically obeyed not by recording events but by ritually re-enacting them: by understanding the present through the lens of the past.
explore faith hope kinds next shape time whether work
I wanted to explore the kinds of hope and doubt, faith and disappointment, that shape the next generation, whether consciously or not. I suppose, in all of my work, I'm always going back in time.
article believing elusive events faith forever likely naturally patterns record searching
Memory as an article of faith often comes naturally to writers, who by temperament are likely to be diarists and record keepers, forever searching past events for elusive patterns - and forever believing that such patterns are to be found.
adult explored figure relationships
Sibling relationships figure in a lot of my books. You don't often see relationships between adult siblings explored in fiction.
aspect aware books forgotten hebrew literally means saved scholar shelves sort study
I have another aspect of my career where I'm a scholar of Yiddish and Hebrew literature, and I'll say that when you study Yiddish literature, you know a whole lot about forgotten writers. Most of the books on my shelves were literally saved from the garbage. I am sort of very aware of what it means to be a forgotten artist in that sense.
life
I think all parents have a double life.
life social turn
I'm a person who always wanted to turn my life into an archive. Social media made my dream come true.
mother thinking people
And the reward when good people die - her mother paused, swallowed, paused again - the reward when good people die is that they get to help make the people in their families who haven't been born yet. They pick out what kinds of traits they want the new people to have - they give them all the raw material of their souls, like their talents and their brains and their potential. Of course it's up to the new ones, once they're born, what they'll use and what they won't but that's what everyone who dies is doing, I think.
love-you agree fellows
Love your fellow, and not just those who agree with you.