Tell us about actual ghost bread, what it is, how it tastes, whether it makes for good french toast, and how this title defines the arc of the book. And yet, human kindness is such an uplifting thing.ĬC: Of course, the memoir’s title is haunting. It sends me into a rant: I’ll bombard others with the question: Why isn’t so and so nice? Until some person kindly reminds me that not everyone is nice, even writers. I’m always astounded when someone is not. I’ll take it a step further-most people are kind. But sifting through my memories as an adult did have me looking more at how we must have seemed to others, how my mother felt at my age, how it must have been to have all those kids.Īs for kindness, most people I grew up with (no matter how troubled) were kind. I mean, I’ve always sort of over-known me. I’m not sure I learned much about myself as a result of writing the book. Seven kids and one tired mother did not allow for such things. I couldn’t get enough of how willing they were to ask about how I was doing, what I was thinking.
No doubt some of those kindly parishioners at Corpus Christi wanted to flee when they saw me coming, but I couldn’t help myself. (And I know you know what a drug that is.) Same thing at church. I loved her! Sister Eileen would ask me to fill her in on General Hospital and what I thought about things like women’s role in the Church. In middle school getting sent to the principal’s office was the highlight of my day. Once I performed the cost-benefit analysis fourth graders are prone to do, it was a no-brainer: saying something smart-ass garnered more notice than another gold sticker. I was like a dog coming out of its hut for a bone. I would have preferred to have kept to the background always.
SL: This is going to sound odd, but actually I was an introverted kid. How do you account for that and what did you learn about yourself in the writing of the memoir? What interests me is how kind you are in person, given all that beleaguerment. That of course becomes so evident in the reading, but I’d add resilient, feisty, and precocious. CC: Kathleen Norris writes, after reading Ghostbread, that you were a beleaguered and intelligent child.
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