Coming-of-Age, Sibling Stories and Soufflés: A Q&A with Jandy Nelson
Jandy Nelson, author of I’ll Give You the Sun and The Sky is Everywhere, joined blog writer Isabelle McConville to talk all about her brand-new novel, When the World Tips Over. Read on for an exclusive author Q&A where Isabelle and Jandy chat about sibling stories, Northern California, soufflés and more.
Hardcover $21.99
When the World Tips Over
When the World Tips Over
By Jandy Nelson
In Stock Online
Hardcover $21.99
A story of love and grief, family and history. Jandy Nelson knows how to break our hearts and stitch them back together again.
A story of love and grief, family and history. Jandy Nelson knows how to break our hearts and stitch them back together again.
IM: My name is Isabelle McConville, and I am the blog writer here at Barnes & Noble. Today, I’m here to talk with Jandy Nelson, author of I’ll Give You the Sun, The Sky is Everywhere, and her latest novel, When the World Tips Over. Jandy, thank you so much for being here.
JN: Thank you so much. I’m very honored.
IM: I was so excited to hear the news of When the World Tips Over, your first novel in a decade. Can you please set the story up for us?
“It’s everything I’ve ever wanted to write in one book.”
JN: It’s a multi-generational saga of a Northern California family. There are three siblings; there’s Wynton, who is this minefield of a guy, a violin player, on the path to self-destruction or great fame. Then there’s Miles, this brainiac who talks to dogs and is harboring a whole bunch of secrets. There’s also Dizzy, who’s this wild commotion of a girl who loves to bake and wants to be a heroine in a romance novel. Those are the central characters, and the book begins when this rainbow haired girl shows up. No one knows who she is, and she tips their world over. That’s the general story, but for me, it’s everything I’ve ever wanted to write in one book. It’s a multi-generational story, but also the story of a mother and daughter living in an RV at the edge of the world, it’s a food memoir, a ghost story and a love letter to California.
IM: I do think this book is a culmination of the best parts of The Sky is Everywhere and I’ll Give You the Sun, but with even more to love. Where did the story really start for you?
JN: The inspiration is kind of strange — when I was writing Sky and Sun, I would drive up north to work at these hot springs, which actually feature in the new book. I’d always pass by this abandoned Victorian house, and I was drawn to it. I’d pull over and start trespassing. I would hang out on the porch, I’d look in the windows, and this went on for years. Over time, I started seeing the family there — I’d imagine Miles, Wynton and Dizzy, and then I’d think about what the parents’ lives were like in this house and even what it looked like a generation before. I wondered, who built this house, where did they come from, and what were they running from? Were they running from anything? The story just kept getting bigger, and bigger and bigger, until the day I imagined Cassidy. This rainbow haired girl showed up and started knocking on the door of the house and the story. That’s when I knew I had a novel. I took the house and dropped it into this magical Northern California town that’s based on Dry Creek Valley. It all started with the house. The weirdest part of this story is that I went back there recently, and it’s gone. If I hadn’t taken all these pictures, maybe I would have thought I imagined it. Now that it’s in the book, it doesn’t have to be in the real world.
IM: One of my favorite parts about anticipating the release of this book is thinking about the conversations kids will have about which sibling they relate to the most. I think we’d all like to be Dizzy.
JN: It’s funny, when my friend Nina read it, she said, “Oh my God, they’re all you!”
IM: You also got to have a lot of fun writing in different time periods throughout this book. Did you write it sequentially?
“I love writing about families . . . I got to think about the effects generations have on each other and how we pass along joy as well as pain and sorrow.”
JN: Miles, Dizzy and Wynton came first. I knew that they were the contemporary narrative structure of the book, but then Cassidy came along, so I knew I’d tell her story as well. I was more surprised when I started thinking about the ancestors and stories of the past. I knew the parents’ story, but the ancestral story was quite a surprise. I love writing about families in general, but this time I got to think about the effects generations have on each other and how we pass along joy as well as pain and sorrow. When I wrote I’ll Give You the Sun, I wrote Jude and Noah’s story separately and then braided them together. I thought I would do that again this time around, but then realized I had to write each narrative thread separately. It took years to make it work as a cohesive whole.
IM: Each character has such a unique and very distinct voice. You really know when you’re in Miles’ head versus when you’re in Wynton’s or Dizzy’s. What was your process for getting into their different voices? Did you have a favorite voice to write in?
JN: I think it’s a matter of really getting to know each of them and trying to lose myself in their interiors. I’d ask myself questions over long periods of time like, who are they? What do they think about at night? What’s going on in their mind? What are they doing when no one’s looking? That really helps me get close to them, but I didn’t have any sort of ritual for switching between voices. Some of the characters are very intense, so it was a pleasure to go back to Dizzy’s voice. After so long, I feel like I know them better than my own family. When I was growing up, I’d always hear authors say that the characters make the choices, and I never believed that. Over time, I realized they were right — once characters become fleshed out as their own people, they get very pushy about the direction they want story to go.
IM: How did writing in their voices differ from writing Noah and Jude in I’ll Give You the Sun?
JN: With Noah and Jude, I’d literally close the file on Noah when I was writing Jude and vice versa. I didn’t want their voices to blend, but this time was a little different. I could go from one voice to the other more seamlessly in this book. It was interesting writing the fairy tale because I started to think about how we mythologize the past and how we have this mythological recollection. Writing that piece was a whole different experience that allowed me to let go completely in the fabulism of the fairy tale.
IM: I personally grew up with three siblings, so it was a very busy house. Like so many other readers, your books gave me a lot of solace because you tend to write about very complex familial relationships. Why do you have such a passion for writing them?
“Sibling stories are great fodder for drama and comedy. They’re like these mini civilizations with their own laws, treachery, loyalties, humor and language.”
JN: I’m crazy about my own family. I think that has led me to being obsessed with family dynamics and I love reading family stories. Nobody gets you like your siblings, but also no one can get to you like them. Sibling stories are such great fodder for drama and comedy. They’re like these mini civilizations with their own laws, treachery, loyalties, humor and language. I got to look at this family through generations, which made it even more interesting to me. Siblings are the people you go through life with if you’re lucky. There’s nothing else like that relationship.
IM: What did your research process look like for this story? I know you took a stone carving class for I’ll Give You the Sun — where did this book take you?
JN: Sometimes I feel like I only write fiction just so I can do the research. There are method actors, and I’m a method writer. The research was really fun. I took a ton of cooking classes, three soufflé-making classes, and a class on the history of California. There are many characters in this book who all have passionate interests and idiosyncrasies, so it led to a lot of deep dives. Now I know so much about insects, synesthesia and violin playing.
IM: What was your favorite part of the research process?
JN: I loved taking the soufflé-making classes and studying the wineries. I’ve always been interested in California’s history, but with this book I got to explore different time periods and think about what it was like to live through them, especially because Northern California is the sort of place that tends to be ahead of the cultural curve.
IM: It’s interesting to think about how even back in ancient times, people experienced the same emotions that we do. I think we tend to fool ourselves into believing that we’re the first people to ever experience an emotion like jealousy, betrayal or heartbreak, and it can be comforting to look back on these ancestral stories and remember that we’re not the first.
JN: I think about that a lot. I like to look at these very old photographs of San Francisco and think about the people in them and how similar they are to us. I’ll see a photo of two women in history and think that they look just like my friend and me.
IM: Throughout your novels, you tend to write your characters all on the verge of something, whether it be a major life event or life-altering, overwhelming emotions. Why do you like writing about characters in these transitional periods and have they ever taught you anything about yourself while you wrote them?
“I go into my writing process with more questions than answers and try to find the truth along with my characters.”
JN: They always teach me about myself. When I wrote Lennie in The Sky is Everywhere, I was really struggling with the loss of my best friend. I felt like all the life lessons Lennie learned, I learned along with her. Grief and joy are connected, and you can’t have one without the other. With I’ll Give You the Sun, I learned so much about creativity and my own relationship with art through those kids. I learned a lot about grief and unresolved feelings through Jude. I go into my writing process with more with questions than answers and try to find the truth along with my characters. In When the World Tips Over, there’s mayhem inside all of them. Miles and Cassidy helped me think about emotional crisis in a new way. I learned that there’s sorrow hidden away in joy, and there’s splendor everywhere. Felix was teaching Miles that, but he was also teaching me that. With Wynton, I learned to come to terms with appreciating life and being grateful for its circumstances, no matter what.
IM: What do you love the most about writing Young Adult stories? I still enjoy reading YA now in my twenties because I feel like we’re all constantly coming of age, in one way or another. Why is it your chosen outlet?
“These young characters teach me a lot, and it’s a gift to get to come of age with them, again and again.”
JN: I agree that we’re all always coming of age. I fell into writing Young Adult, and my great love for it is that so much of what the characters are feeling is happening to them for the first time, and it has such an intensity. I love exploring first love, first grief, first friendship and first everything. I’m very drawn to the emotional urgency of YA. I love that. These young characters teach me a lot, and it’s a gift to get to come of age with them, again and again. Sometimes, I want to see the characters get older and I’d like to write a saga where I can experience them in youth and old age. It would be wonderful to live in characters for that long.
IM: You touched on a question of mine — I’m constantly wondering if Jude is okay, if Noah’s okay, and Lennie. Do you ever think about how the characters from your other books would be doing now?
JN: I think about them all the time. When people ask me who I’d host at my ideal dinner party, it’d be them. It’s been years, I’d love to see how they’re doing. I get a lot of letters from teens and they’re always asking me, “What happened? Did Noah get into art school? What are they doing now? Are Noah and Brian still together? Are Lennie and Joe still together?” with no mention that it’s fiction. I think about that all the time.
IM: What would you like to say to the readers who have been there from the start of your career and have been waiting — like myself — for this book for the last 10 years?
JN: I’m so grateful to the readers and to the teens that have waited so patiently. I’m so honored and excited for them to meet this crew, this crazy, unwieldy, wild bunch. I hope they enjoy the journey and experience of the book and its characters. It was hard to let go of this bunch.
IM: Jandy Nelson, thank you so much for joining me today. I had the best time talking to you.
JN: It means the world. Thank you so much.
This interview was edited for length and clarity.