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| photo: Cal Cameron | |
Rita Cameron studied English at Columbia University and law at the University of Pennsylvania and is a 2022-2023 Graduate Steinbeck Fellow in the MFA program at San Jose State University. She lives in San Jose, Calif., with her family. Cameron is the author of two novels, Ophelia's Muse, a work of historical fiction, and The House Party (Morrow, September 13, 2022), in which she examines the taboo of money and all the ways its power echoes through class, community and our most intimate relationships.
Handsell readers your book in 25 words or less:
A high school party goes terribly wrong. In a town where so many have so much on the line, who will pay the price?
On your nightstand now:
I'm packing for a few weeks on the road, and it's always a struggle to allocate suitcase space between books and clothes. I never want to be without a book, but I feel the same way about clean socks. Coming with me will be Sara Nović's True Biz and Kirstin Chen's Counterfeit, as well as Bruce Holsinger's new novel, The Displacements, which promises to be a wild ride about an environmental disaster, and John Vercher's After the Lights Go Out, which deals with issues of race, family, memory and aging, set in the gritty world of mixed martial arts.
Favorite book when you were a child:
I loved the Vesper Holly series by Lloyd Alexander, which starts with The Illyrian Adventure. These historical fiction adventures featured a fearless and whip-smart teenager from Philadelphia (my hometown) who travels the world, solving mysteries. Imagine Indiana Jones, if he was a 16-year-old girl. I'd love to see these back in print!
Your top five authors:
Edith Wharton, David Sedaris, Donna Tartt, Michael Chabon, Kazuo Ishiguro.
Book you've faked reading:
The Lord of the Flies by William Golding. There, I said it. I never read it in high school, and I still haven't. And now I've written a book about what happens when a group of teenagers are left to their own devices, so I'd better go back and finally read it.
Book you're an evangelist for:
I'm not alone here, but I am always talking up Hilary Mantel's trilogy on Thomas Cromwell, Wolf Hall, Bring Up the Bodies and The Mirror & the Light. Mantel's intimate style of writing instantly brings readers close to Cromwell and transports us 500 years into the past as Cromwell navigates a quickly changing political landscape in a fascinating time.
Book you've bought for the cover:
This is why a great indie bookstore can be so dangerous--all those tables of gorgeous covers, paired with knowledgeable personal recommendations. Who can resist leaving without a stack of new books for the TBR pile? That was how I discovered Jess Walter's Beautiful Ruins, which features an alluring shot of a rocky coastal Italian village. It's a great cover, but the book is even better, weaving together time periods and far-flung locations into a seamlessly entertaining book.
Book you hid from your parents:
My parents are both big readers, and we often recommend favorites to each other. If I hid any book from them, it was probably yet another stack of the Baby-Sitters Club books that I brought home from the library. They were by no means forbidden, but my parents always encouraged me to read widely and, like a lot of kids, I loved reading old favorites over and over.
Book that changed your life:
I read Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon while I was a miserable law student. The adventures--and misadventures--of Chabon's writers, editors and students, set in the literary world, provided some much-needed escapism for me. I think it's fair to say that Wonder Boys doesn't paint the most flattering portrait of publishing and academia, but I found the world of the novel intensely appealing, flaws and all. I always wanted to write a book, but Chabon's book made me want to be a writer.
Favorite line from a book:
"Wouldn't it be fun if all the castles in the air which we make could come true, and we could live in them?" --Louisa May Alcott, Little Women
I've spent countless hours making my own castles in the air. Some of them I've even turned into novels.
Five books you'll never part with:
Stephen King's On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft--the best book on writing that I've read. It's accessible and entertaining, and I turn to it whenever I'm feeling stuck. The funny thing is that I'm a huge scaredy-cat, and I never read horror.
Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth--with Wharton, glittering settings and lively characters are always a given, but I love this book for its ending. Good premises abound, but good endings are harder to come by, and this book really sticks the landing, especially given the heartbreak that awaits.
The Complete Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle--I love being able to dip into these whenever I need a quick "comfort read," and I'm looking forward to sharing them with my children.
Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare, a comedy that still entertains 400 years later.
Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson--this is a new favorite, but I loved it so much that I didn't want to lend it out, and I ended up buying half a dozen copies for friends. Kids who catch on fire when they're upset--it sounds crazy, but it was one of the most insightful books about raising kids that I've read, and it's laugh-out-loud funny.
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
I recently picked up Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam at an airport book shop and read it without knowing anything about it. I'm not going to spoil it for anyone else, but when it turns from a well-observed family drama into something else, it really blew me away. I read it in two sittings, and then immediately insisted that everyone else I know read it as well. A perfect book for our times.