Melissa Lion is the author of Swollen and Upstream. Upstream has
recently been optioned for a motion picture. She writes cookbook
reviews for Malibu Times Magazine, Blogcritics and Bookslut. She was a
bookseller for five years and has just moved into her own home in
Portland, Ore.--a dream come true. Her first book review in Shelf Awareness appears below. Here she answers questions we put to people in the industry.
On your nightstand now:
Amy Bloom's Come to Me and A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You.
These two collections capture longing and loving and sex so
beautifully. Many of her stories center around lovers, people in
unhappy or simply fulfilling marriages who seek another's touch. In our
culture, where breaking from a monogamous relationship deserves
punishment, Bloom's stories ignore damnation in favor of exploring the
hunger people feel for connection to another, and this hunger is, for
Bloom's characters, punishment enough, though that punishment is often
sweet and sought after again and again. After each story, my eyes
burned with tears.
Favorite book when you were a child:
Amelia Bedelia. She was so cool, but I think her literalness affected
me badly. At my first job I was asked to leave the balance of the files
in the drawer. I looked and looked and finally had to ask my boss what
the balance was.
Your top five authors:
Kate Atkinson, Michael Connelly, Jane Austen, Siri Hustvedt, Amy Bloom
Book you've faked reading:
Shadow of the Wind. I read half of it, and I couldn't stand it. I
had predicted the ending, confirmed that I had predicted the ending,
and I closed the book, only to pick up Louise Erdrich's Master Butcher
Singing Club, which is an infinitely better book. What's worse is I've
faked loving Shadow of the Wind since before it was released. This
honesty is refreshing.
Book you are an evangelist for:
The Feast of Love by Charles Baxter. This is the most beautiful book
I've ever read. Baxter captures love in all of its forms--hot sultry
teenage love, unrequited love, lost love, the love between very old
people. Few people have my enthusiasm for this book, but I believe that
if I am enthusiastic and domineering enough, more people will come
around.
Book you've bought for the cover:
I was a bookseller for five years and so a more appropriate question
would be: book you bought after paying rent and standing in the beer
aisle only to decide that an author's potential literary greatness is
worth more than being drunk. I still don't have an answer because not
only was I a bookseller, but I was extremely cheap and so my books came
by way of the galleys sent to the store addressed to long-gone managers
and my groveling e-mails sent to reps. But the book that I would have
bought for the cover and the content would have to be Sister
Bernadette's Barking Dog. I went to school in California post-Prop 13
and this book would be a glimpse into a life with words I was born too
late to have. Or maybe I would have bought Extraordinary Chickens.
Book that changed your life:
Little Stalker by Jennifer Belle. This book is absolutely remarkable.
Belle's control over her totally out-of-control characters is
masterful. On the surface the book seems like fluff, but about
halfway in, the reader understands that she is about to take a very
hard look at herself. After finishing this book, I thought, I want to
write a book like that, and I sat down and began writing my novel in
response. I'm a little more than halfway finished, and I'm so in love
with my book that I want to iron its picture to my pillow and make out
with it in the night. I feel this way about Jennifer Belle too.
Favorite line from a book:
"I do not love mankind, but he was different."--The Giant's House by
Elizabeth McCracken. I have a tough relationship with this book. I
always say I thought it was an okay read, but I've read it four times.
Every time I move, I put it on the shelf with my favorite books. And if
it is just an okay book, why have I moved with it at least five times?
Why do I say that line at least once a week? Okay, Elizabeth McCracken,
I give in. Your book is not okay, it's wonderful.
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
Pride and Prejudice. I also wish I had never read this book as
it has set a horribly high bar for all men in my life, though I
certainly require more than £10,000 a year.