Lost and Found: Fictional Takes on the War in Iraq
by Mindy Misener
Mindy Misener on truth, counsel, and the missing man in recent fiction about the Iraq War.
Mindy Misener grew up in Maine. In 2014 she received an MFA from the University of Michigan Helen Zell Writer’s Program. She currently teaches at the University of Michigan. Suggested reads: The Transit of Venus, by Shirley Hazzard; The Book of Ruth, by Jane Hamilton; and A Constellation of Vital Phenomena, by Anthony Marra.
Mindy Misener on truth, counsel, and the missing man in recent fiction about the Iraq War.
Richard Hawley talks with Mindy Misener about youth, revelations, the origins of his new novel, and more.
“I have never encountered prose that renders this world so beautifully: the field ceases to be a language and series of figures we don’t understand and becomes a subject for which we have a nearly physical understanding.”
“The novel’s primary storyline begins approximately where Mawer’s last novel, Trapeze (Other Press, 2012), left off. Marian, who in Trapeze parachuted into occupied France as an undercover agent, is now returning to England at the end of World War II.”
“I was feeling quite self-satisfied when I showed [Dean Bakopoulos, friend and novelist] the passage that described Carolyn. I showed it to him because I thought, ‘Oh, he’s going to get a kick out of this; it’s pretty funny.’ And he comes back with, ‘Yes, it is funny, you’re right. But you can’t do this to her. She needs to have some dimension.’ I get those reminders in real life, too.” Mindy Misener chats with Michael Perry about his new novel, The Jesus Cow, and his transition from non-fiction to fiction.
