Prose

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A graduate of Radcliffe College and Brooklyn native, Francine Prose is no stranger to the art of writing. Neither is she a stranger to receiving acknowledgments for it. Although she may appear a simple and modest woman to any stranger to her work, she is fully capable of intricate story-telling and arranging details in a flowing yet puzzling pattern.

As a type of introduction to Francine Prose for all members of the Baruch College community to attend, an event co-sponsored by Poets & Writers was held in the Newman Conference Center in the Library building of the college. Its audience consisted of a few faculty members followed by a majority of students. Prose was extensively introduced prior to speaking. Being the humble spirit she was, she spoke little of herself and more of her students in the Harman Writer-In-Residence Program.

Prose decided to include a different reading in her session with the Baruch community. Claiming that being on a book tour where she had to repeatedly read parts of her novel Golden Grove bored her, Prose proceeded to read one of her short stories: “Hansel and Gretel.” Contrary to what one might think the story includes, it actually tells a tale of a young woman who has to suffer through a vacation with her husband—and his ex-girlfriend’s mother (Lucia). It is from this story that her audience experiences Prose’s frequently used style of writing narratives: through frames. By the end of the story, Prose’s audience is brought back to the narrator’s present state of remembering the vacation. This place is at a location with the narrator’s second husband, as she recalls how her previous husband couldn’t even love her as much as Lucia loved her cat. The story itself was a disguised form of one of Prose’s previous memories.

The event closed with a Q & A session, where students and the like inquired into Prose’s methods of writing. When asked about her most recent novel, Prose answered that she “saw what happened in Golden Grove” as she was writing it and that, although people regard her an amazing writer, she had to “get rid of around 130 drafts” before the novel was completed. She also commented that she does have an easier time completing short stories, as most authors do, yet the editing time is similar to that of her novels. What distracts her most from her writing, however, is computer solitaire. “It’s every writer’s secret,” she comically added.