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<\/a><\/p>\nSILVER SPARROW, the latest novel by Atlanta author Tayari Jones, is a \u201clove story\u2026 full of perverse wisdom and proud joy,\u201d declares O Magazine. \u00a0Dana Lynn Yarboro\u2019s father is a bigamist. So is Bunny Chaurisse Witherspoon\u2019s daddy. The girls, born four-months apart, are sisters, who live in the same town and share the same daddy, but only Dana knows the truth of that. And as Dana learns, truth doesn\u2019t always set you free; sometimes it binds you to a past you cannot shed. Join Karen Spears Zacharias as she and Tayari Jones discuss SILVER SPARROW (Algonquin).<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
KAREN<\/strong>: How did the story of Dana Lynn Yaraboro and Bunny Chaurisse Weatherspoon first present itself to you?
\n <\/strong><\/p>\nTAYARI<\/strong>: The jumping-off point was a person, actually\u2014my older sister, Maxine. My dad is not a bigamist. I have to say that every time! But he has two daughters from before he met my mother. When I was a girl, I was fascinated with Maxine. In my home, I was the only daughter, and I always dreamed of having a sister\u2014an ally. I guess I fantasized that there was someone out there who understood me, and there was this sister ten years older who lived 500 miles away that I barely knew. This is crazy, but I believe I have been missing my sisters my whole life. In every one of my books, someone has a sister that is far away\u2014geographically or emotionally. So that is always kicking around in my heart and mind. Then, one day, I was out with friends and someone mentioned a case of bigamy in the news. So my obsession found itself a new plotline. And boom! It was on.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
KAREN:<\/strong> Did you consider this a story of sisters or one of daughters and fathers?
\n <\/strong><\/p>\nTAYARI<\/strong>: Sisters. Definitely sisters. But in my case, when I think about sisters, I also think about fathers.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
KAREN:<\/strong> Do you go into a novel with an outline or knowing the outcome in advance?<\/p>\nTAYARI:<\/strong> I never know how a story is going to end. I approach a novel as a question and I write to find the answer.\u00a0 The desire to know what happens next is what makes me sit down at my desk each day.\u00a0 I have the same feeling of breathless anticipation writing the novel that I want a reader to have as she turns the pages.<\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\nKAREN:<\/strong> Dana\u2019s high school friend calls her an \u201coutside\u201d child. There was a time in this country when an illegitimate child may have felt like an \u201coutsider\u201d. But don\u2019t you think all that has changed over the past twenty years?<\/p>\nTAYARI<\/strong>: I think we have made a lot of progress in terms of acknowledging children born to unwed mothers, but children born outside a man\u2019s marriage are still shunned.\u00a0 The \u201csin\u201d of the mother is passed on to the child.\u00a0 Also, the man may want to shield his wife from the humiliation that is embodied by the secret son or daughter. In my opinion, if a wife chooses to forgive her husband for fathering children with another woman, that forgiveness must come with compassion for the child.\u00a0 If there is one takeaway from SILVER SPARROW I hope that it is that we should retire the term \u201cillegitimate.\u201d\u00a0 Every person is legitimate.\u00a0 Every person is a human being worthy of respect.<\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\nKAREN<\/strong>: This is your third novel.\u00a0 How has your experience with SILVER SPARROW been different than with your earlier novels?<\/p>\nTAYARI:<\/strong> SILVER SPARROW has amazed me by reaching so many readers from so many different backgrounds.\u00a0 I am just back from a fifty-city book tour where I have met hundreds of readers.\u00a0 It seems like SILVER SPARROW is connecting across lines of race, gender, generation, everything\u2013 because this idea of secret families is more prevalent than you would think.\u00a0 There is a silent invisible contingency out there\u2013 secret children and even the \u201cpublic\u201d children who have hidden siblings.\u00a0 It\u2019s something that people want to talk about.<\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\nKAREN:<\/strong> We ought to despise James for cheating on his wife, but instead, we see how he stumbled into love with Gwen. But cheating on one\u2019s spouse is never all that accidental, is it?
\n <\/strong><\/p>\nTAYARI:<\/strong> I don\u2019t think that anything in life is accidental, but I think that much of life in unplanned.\u00a0 One thing I learned in writing this book was to not think of terms like \u201ccheating\u201d and \u201cillegitimate.\u201d\u00a0 That sort of language\u2013 even lurking in my head\u2013 limited my imagining of the story.\u00a0 In order to pull this novel together, I had to be open hearted to all the characters, to be willing to hear them out.\u00a0 It may have been helpful that I am not married, so I didn\u2019t have a really strong stake in protecting marriage as an institution.\u00a0 My only allegiance here was to my characters, to honestly reporting the stories that they shared with me.<\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\nKAREN:<\/strong> One of my favorite characters in the book was Raleigh, who seems absolutely unlucky in almost every area of his life, with the exception of Mrs. Bunny who had the decency to care for him. While James is the cad who exploits two women and fathers two daughters, Raleigh is his straight-man. A devoted friend who would likely make a devoted husband, yet, the women overlook him, don\u2019t they?
\n <\/strong><\/p>\nTAYARI:<\/strong> I don\u2019t know that women overlook Raleigh. I know that Raleigh has his hands full helping his brother manage these two women and their two daughters.\u00a0 I don\u2019t really think about the characters in categories like James is the cad and Raleigh is the good guy.\u00a0 They are each good and each caddish.\u00a0 I mean, James is also supporting two families.\u00a0 In his own way, he is a family man times two. At the same time, James is a terrible liar and Raleigh helps him keep this damning secret.\u00a0 So who is the good guy here?\u00a0 Or is there a good guy?\u00a0 It\u2019s my goal to write characters who don\u2019t fit easily into our ready-made boxes.<\/p>\n
\nKAREN:<\/strong> What were the challenges for you in writing this story?
\n <\/strong><\/p>\nTAYARI:<\/strong> The hardest thing was to differentiate the voices of the daughters.\u00a0 They have so much in common\u2013 same age, same social class more or less, they live in the same city.\u00a0 It was hard to make sure that they each sounded different.\u00a0 I had to read Silver Sparrow aloud four times before I was sure I got it right.\u00a0 It was an intense experience!<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
KAREN:<\/strong> What writers have had the greatest influence on your own work?
\n <\/strong><\/p>\nTAYARI: <\/strong>Toni Morrison is my role model.\u00a0 I wish that I could say that she has influenced me more than she has. I mean, who doesn\u2019t want to be influenced by a great American genius?<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
KAREN:<\/strong> What\u2019s next for you?<\/p>\nTAYARI:<\/strong> Another page, another chapter, another book.\u00a0 I am at Harvard on fellowship this year, doing some research, trying to find my way.\u00a0 The one thing I can say for sure is that this novel is going to be set in Atlanta, but I suspect you knew that already.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
SILVER SPARROW, the latest novel by Atlanta author Tayari Jones, is a \u201clove story\u2026 full of perverse wisdom and proud joy,\u201d declares O Magazine. \u00a0Dana Lynn Yarboro\u2019s father is a bigamist. So is Bunny Chaurisse Witherspoon\u2019s daddy. The girls, born four-months apart, are sisters, who live in the same town and share the same daddy, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":90,"featured_media":3468,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2437,2440,112,2442,2438,569,2439,1060,1061,1217,2435,1593,2436,2441],"class_list":["post-3467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-affair","tag-algonquin","tag-atlanta","tag-bigamist","tag-cad","tag-fiction","tag-harvard","tag-marriage","tag-married","tag-novel","tag-silver-sparrow","tag-sisters","tag-tayari-jones","tag-toni-morrison"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a><\/p>\n