What inspired you to write The Roots of the Olive Tree?
Several years ago, I went with my mother and newborn daughter to visit my grandmother and great-grandmother in Northern California with the intention of getting a five-generations photo. I thought that was all I would get out of the trip, but the moment I put my daughter in my great-grandmother's arms, I felt my view of the world shift. Until I wrote Roots, I wasn't able to shake the image of a woman who'd lived more than a century holding a child who'd been living less than a month.
Is your family heritage as rich and complex as the characters in your book?
My female ancestors have many great stories — whether they were flappers or felons, or both. But what is unique is that they were able to maintain their health as they aged, and that's the idea I used for the women in Roots. There's nothing wrong with a knitting grandmother, but I grew up with one who kayaked, and I wanted to reflect that in the book.
There are some unanswered questions in the book. Why did you choose to leave some issues open-ended for the reader?
My mother told me she'd consider me an adult when I had a true understanding that there's more that I don't know than I do. With Roots, I didn't set out to wrap up each of the women's lives with a tidy bow. I wanted to give the reader a sense of how the women's lives changed when their secrets were exposed.
Can you explain why you chose to write mainly about the women's relationships with each other, rather than with men?
The near absence of men in this book is deliberate, but isn't meant to trivialize the relationships women have with men as fathers, husbands, and brothers. I think sometimes men can clutter a story, so by leaving them out, I could focus on the bonds between the women. Roots isn't a traditional love story, nor is it a women-as-victims story. It's about the ways your mother and her secrets shape your own life, for better and for worse.
Can you shed some light on the complex Keller family dynamics?
When I was a teenager, and awful — because aren't we all awful at that age — I'd get into great screaming and crying fights with my mother. During one of the most ugly arguments, she told me that she didn't have to stand there and take it. I remember feeling afraid that she would leave before I felt better, and I said, "You're my mother, you have to love me, no matter what." The same dynamic is at work with the Keller women. They feel safe enough to be horrible to each other, but they have trouble communicating with each other and living together. Their saving grace is that they are able to communicate indirectly with each other. Bets can't be nice to her own daughter, but she can show great kindness to her granddaughter.
Who was your favorite character, and who was hardest for you to write about?
I loved writing from Anna's point of view because I based so much of her on my own great-grandmother. Her daughter, Bets, was difficult for me. I had to fight to get through her reserve and understand her enough to express that for Bets, longevity wasn't a gift, but a burden.
Is the vivid setting of the novel inspired by a real place?
Kidron is an imaginary version of Corning, California, which bills itself as the olive capital of the United States. My own great-grandmother grew up there and I've visited the area. One of my favorite memories as a girl is driving through the outskirts of town among the olive groves, where houses are literally tucked between the rows of trees.
As a wife and mom of two, when do you write? How do you balance writing with family?
I don't know any parents who've got the teeter-totter of obligations figured out. My husband has been terrifically supportive and I'm blessed with a flexible job that allows me to write when the children are at school. I also use parental downtime (like standing on the sidelines of soccer practice) to plot stories. Then I can just later write what I spent the day thinking about.
What's the last great book you read?
Abide With Me by Elizabeth Strout.
Do you have an all-time favorite author or book?
My favorite book is Gone With the Wind. My favorite authors are Alice Munro and John Steinbeck. Munro has this extraordinary gift of writing about the breadth of a woman's life. I find Steinbeck brilliant because of how he captures the spirit of the west, where I grew up.
What are you working on now?
I'm writing a novel about three cousins who come together at a low point in each of their lives at a strange house in Memphis. Over the course of a year, the women find a way to fix not only the house, but also themselves. The new characters are actually related to Anna, who just might make a brief appearance — I will also be rounding out some of the Keller women's stories. The two books will be connected through family, but not necessarily on any other level.
Do you have any advice for aspiring novelists?
Write. The hard part is doing it every day and being brave enough to revise. I recommend craft books like Annie Lamott's Bird by Bird, or Charles Baxter's Burning Down the House. But only once you've got your story down. I have a friend who runs marathons and she keeps marveling that I wrote an entire book. To me it's just as mysterious that she got her body to run 26.1 miles. We agreed that the trick is not to think about the end, but the next step.
Read more about Courtney Miller Santo's debut novel, The Roots of the Olive Tree.
From September 11 through October 16, Courtney Miller Santo will be responding via Twitter to reader questions about The Roots of the Olive Tree. Tweet yours to @courtney_santo with the hashtag #RedbookReads to make sure she gets your message.
Hannah Hickok
Hannah Hickok is a writer and editor living in Brooklyn. She loves yoga, poetry, and travel, and makes more life decisions than she'd like to admit based on her horoscope.
