![]() ![]() ![]() I thought the central narrative was clear by the end, when Smoky understands just as he dies that the Tale is “back there”-that is, within the book you’ve just read, the final place to which all the characters are headed.ĪVC: How hard was it to maintain forward momentum while keeping things so oblique? Did you find yourself telling too much in some places, and having to trim bits down? Otherwise, a novel isn’t very much like life, and even novels with fairies in them ought to be like life. I can’t guarantee readers will win in that sense, or that all of them will and I of course want to leave some mysterious and unresolved remainder. ![]() It’s very important to me that readers win the game: i.e., come to understand what’s at stake, perhaps all in a moment (James Joyce’s “epiphany,” which happens both to the character and the reader) and perhaps in a gradual accumulation. Even the rules, if any, of the game are for the reader to discover. John Crowley: I write in expectation that readers want to participate in a kind of two-sided game: They are trying to guess what I am up to-what the story’s up to-and I’m giving them clues and matter to keep them interested without giving everything away at the start. ![]()
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