Elise juska biography

It's a word I can imagine Helen using. To me, it speaks of small things, ordinary joys, and a fundamental inclination toward what is good. Which of these was hardest to write? Why did you choose to set up the book this way?

Elise juska biography

Writing linked chapters from multiple perspectives enabled me to capture that relationship between the individual and the clan, and to explore the experience of a big family from several different angles. In writing Lauren, for instance, I imagined what it would feel like to be a sister-in-law from a small family, unaccustomed to the constant togetherness of big family life.

In Alex's story, I wanted to explore geography, to think about what a close-knit, intensely local family feels like when you're far away from home for the first time. I enjoyed writing each one of these characters. I suppose the most difficult to write was Helen, not for reasons of craft, but because my grandmother died while I was writing the book.

They weren't the same person, yet there is something at the core of Helen that reminds me very much of my grandmother. After she died, it was difficult to go back to that chapter; it took me a while to get through it. Do you plan out the whole novel in advance? If not, did anything surprise you as you wrote? I didn't have much of a plan when I started writing, but as the families began taking shape and the relationships falling into place, there were certain characters' perspectives I naturally gravitated towards.

It was one of those scenes that sort of appeared on the page, and part of me wished it hadn't, though I knew that it felt true to Stephen, who wasn't a violent person but just didn't know how to handle his anger and sadness. You currently teach college students at an arts-focused university. What about late adolescence interests you, and what did you want to convey through Abby, Alex, and Elena, the three characters who are college-aged in their chapters?

I clearly remember going to college and, like Abby, being surprised to find that not all kids had families like mine. It was the first time I understood that it might not be the norm to see your first cousins on a weekly basis and to have fifteen relatives watching you go to the prom! Abby, Alex and Elena all find themselves at similar junctures.

How this was family: to own such moments together. To experience them in all their raw shock and sadness, then get the food from the refrigerator, unwrap the crackers and fill the glasses, keep the gears turning, the grand existing beside the routine, the ordinary. Every story of what happened is just a version of what happened. Memory is subjective.

Fact and truth are two different things. See all Elise Juska's quotes ». Topics Mentioning This Author. Add a reference: Book Author. Search for a book to add a reference. Welcome elise juska biography. Just a moment while we sign you in to your Goodreads account. The Blessings 3. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars.

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Interview A conversation with Elise Juska, author of The Blessingsabout a close-knit Irish-Catholic family and the rituals that unite them. Full Interview. Read-Alikes All the books below are recommended as read-alikes for Elise Juska but some maybe more relevant to you than others depending on which books by the author you have read and enjoyed.

So look for the suggested read-alikes by title linked on the right. The Philadelphia Inquirer. May 4, Retrieved February 15, The Millions. Retrieved April 9, February Good Housekeeping. The Hudson Review. Prairie Schooner ". Juska Harvard Review Online".