Life Affecting Art
photo: Jerry Bauer
If one was to read a few pages of Sigrid Nunez’s “A Feather on the Breath of God,” it is very likely that he or she would mistake the novel for an autobiography or a memoir considering the similarities it shares with Ms. Nunez’s life. The novel’s heroine and narrator, the child of a Chinese-Panamanian father and a German mother, could easily be mistaken for Ms. Nunez, herself having the same ethnic background as her protagonist. Upon realizing that “A Feather on the Breath of God” is indeed a novel, the reader may wonder how Ms. Nunez’s experiences influenced her work. In addition to reading an excerpt from her latest novel “The Last of Her Kind,” Ms. Nunez elaborated on the effect her life has on the writing and character development processes as she took part in a Harman Writer-in-Residence reading at Baruch College’s Newman Conference Center.
The author of five novels and the recipient of several awards including a Whiting Writers’ Award and the Rome Prize in Literature, Ms. Nunez acknowledges using parts of her past when writing a novel. Ms. Nunez takes something from her own life to add to her books. She feels a connection to the characters she creates and allows the development process to flow freely. Ms. Nunez does not plan each character, but instead relies on instinct. This instinct allows her to create a believable world around a certain character, a world that brings forth other characters and situations. “I do like to write books in the form of a memoir,” says Ms. Nunez, and this statement is reflected in “The Last of Her Kind.” Told in the first-person, “The Last of Her Kind” focuses on two college roommates at Barnard College during the late 1960s, the same time and place as Ms. Nunez’s college experience. As shown in her reading of “The Last of Her Kind,” Ms. Nunez has a knack for giving details on time, character, and place in a simple, almost informal style that can also be seen in “A Feather on the Breath of God.” Reading in a conversational manner, Ms. Nunez becomes Georgette George, the narrator of “The Last of Her Kind,” and further strengthens the notion of a connection to her characters.
The parallels between Sigrid Nunez’s experiences and her works demonstrate the effect of her life on the art she creates. Ms. Nunez’s ability to form a bond with her characters was evident in the reading and shows the personal nature of her character development process. By writing in harmony with her experiences, Sigrid Nunez gives the characters in “A Feather on the Breath of God” and “The Last of Her Kind” a believable quality that may make one second-guess the fact that he or she is reading a work of fiction.