It’s been a busy year For highly anticipated novels, we can name just a few of the well-known number of new works by Marlon James, Rachel Cusk, and Hernan Diaz. But from my perspective, it’s Chad Harbach’s quote that inspires the sharpest emotions of them all.Brightness.” It is a sequel to “.Field ArtReleased to critical acclaim and commercial triumph in 2011, the book is set in the same setting (a liberal arts college in Wisconsin) but introduces readers to some new characters in a new era (with a cameo by Lana Del Rey). quotation I read n+1So I decided to call Harbach and ask him a few questions about the novel, its predecessor, and its influences.
Our conversation has been edited and condensed.
“The Art of the Field” entered my consciousness in 2016, when I was a senior in college and started dating a man who loved it. What do you think your love for that book tells you about that person?
What did he say about this man? Maybe he liked baseball. Maybe he loves love. Maybe he has a sensitive soul.
What was surprising about the many different compassionate responses I received was the diversity of readers’ responses; Some of these I didn’t even realize until they were reflected back to me. I remember a good review of the book that basically said: Do you know what this book essentially is? This is a defense of liberal arts education. I’ve never thought about this, but it’s probably true. The utopian ideal of university is that it is a place where you can actually spend some time and discover who you are. This search for self is a subject I am very interested in in my novel writing, and university is a suitable place for this.
What kind of books were you reading while working on “The Brightness”? Were there particular novels that really stuck out in your consciousness as you were writing?
One of the authors mentioned in the book is Edith Wharton—“House of Joy” It comes up many times. But actually, I think it’s the novel that was on my mind the most while I was writing it. “Tradition of the Country.”
Jane Austen’s “Emma” also impressed me a lot. The plot of this book is that Emma is very smart and very charismatic, but she’s also wrong about everything. She means well, but it’s shaped by the fact that she’s meddling, she’s wrong about a lot of things. I think some of that dissonance really speaks to some of the events that happen in my novel.
And then the third novel would be the incredible work of Henry James.Portrait of a Woman.” Of course, it’s about a young woman who has great freedom and a clear future ahead of her – a grand vision of what her life could be – but everything closes down for her in a truly chilling way.