Jodi Picoult
We all know that Jodi Picoult writes about complex subjects that affect families: death, disease, disability.
In a recent interview with Forbes, the author talks about the subject for her next book: gay rights. She said:
What’s really cool is that I do believe I might be the first mainstream writer to attack this issue, gay rights. That’s amazing me to me, but I’m glad I’m doing it. There’s a real sense that gay rights is a political issue and not a personal one. I think it’s about people, which is why I want to write the book.
She also revealed that the novel will provide readers with a multi-media experience. The main character is a music therapist and a musician, and the book will come packaged with a CD of original music that’s theoretically written by the character. “You will literally get to hear her and hear what’s important to her through her music, in addition to through her words,” Picoult said. “I want you to hear her voice. Hear her pour out her heart to you and then be able to say, ‘You should not get this right.’ Let’s see if you can still do that.”
In an interview with GLAAD, she elaborated on the plot. It’s the story of a lesbian couple’s legal battle for the right to start a family, a topic with personal significance for Picoult, since her teenage son recently came out.
It’s true that gay rights and gay characters are mostly absent from mainstream fiction. (Alexander McCall Smith has announced that he will support gay rights by introducing homosexual characters into his novels, and David Levithan has addressed gay relationships in YA lit—but can you think of many other authors who write about characters who are gay?) I look forward to Picoult’s new book—plus, I’m intrigued by the CD.
Are there other topics you’d like to see Picoult address?
Related in BookPage: Read an interview with Picoult about Change of Heart (2008) or about The Tenth Circle (2006). Browse reviews of her books in our archives.
Ummm. What about Booker Prize winner Alan Hollinghurst’s The Line of Beauty? Sarah Waters is certainly a mainstream author as well and she addresses homosexuality in quite a few (all?) of her books. There really are more than you think.
Christopher Rice has written some great thrillers with a mostly gay cast of characters.
Also let’s not forget the late E. Lynn Harris.
Hmm. There are a lot of authors, esp more literary ones like the ones Kristen cites, who include gay characters in their fiction, but few have taken on the rights issue head-on. Suzanne Brockmann comes to mind.
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Raul King
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Good, good, good.
Hmmm. Any novel that has women, clothes, New York, San Francisco, in it – let’s just use the word that is commonly attached to such novels: chick lit.
There have to be hundreds of novels like this, with authors earning livings churning them out. And they tend, yes, to have gay characters!
And – if you translate chick lit to ‘reality TV,’ you get the Housewives of (fill in the blank) series – and the gay characters that are part of the cast. ‘The Rachel Zoe Project’: Brad, the assistant, in tears when he’s upset, dressing up in women’s clothes because hey, he’s a stylist and it’s fun. Duh. There are gay characters all over the place. Where’s the news story?