Susan Olding, a Kingston-based writer and reviewer, asked Mary a few questions recently for her blog which regularly features interviews with writers. She thinks highly of The Walkable City, particularly the idea of having the architect of Paris's 19th century make-over, Baron Georges-Etienne Haussmann, and urban cage-rattler Jane Jacobs exchange ideas about cities.The book, she says, is "an original idea, gracefully executed," which " compels us to think harder about our own neighbourhoods and what we expect and hope from them. "
She also asked about what project Mary's working on these days. Here's the reply:
" Well, there are two. One is a novel I’ve just sent to a possible publisher. It’s called River Music, and is about three generations of women: the grandmother is a pianist, the daughter is an engineer and the granddaughter is a harpsichordist. The time runs from 1935 to Dec. 6, 2009, and I hope in addition to a good story, the novel says something about North American women over the last 75 years.
"The second, called Making Waves: The Portuguese Adventure, is a direct outgrowth of my three non-fiction projects, although it doesn’t seem so at first glance. During the travel I did for them and for Violets, I kept running into the footprints they left—in Brazil, of course, but also in East Africa, the West coast of India, and Singapore as well as other places. Then I began thinking about the Portuguese kids I grew up with in San Diego, whose families had come from the Azores and Madeira to fish tuna off California, the Portuguese sailing ship we saw in 1972 in St. John’s Newfoundland (one of the last of white fleet cod fishers) and the 40,000 people of Portuguese descent in Montreal. In short, I was bowled over by the worldwide legacy of this small nation on the edge of Europe.
"A great deal of research and some more travel followed, and I’m now revising a manuscript for Véhicule Press which is scheduled to publish the book next fall. Although I picked up enough Portuguese on my own to be able to read newspapers, magazine articles and history, I ran into a wall, trying to speak it, so this winter I’ve been taking an intensive course at the Université de Montréal. So I’ll sign off, and get back to the oral presentation on Brazilian singer/songwriter/novelist/dissident Chico Buarque that’s due for Monday."
Photo: Strollers in the Chiado district of Lisbon, taken in May 2009 on a research trip to Portugal.
