Jodi Picoult Reading
Jodi Picoult reads from her novel Vanishing Acts. She discusses the extensive research that went into the preparation of the novel, focusing primarily on the idea of recovered memory. She gives a brief history of the use of recovered memory as testimony within the justice system, and explains the difference between repressed and triggered memories. Picoult also explains her use of multiple first-person narrators within Vanishing Acts, pointing out that the convention allowed for a full story to be told through the partial stories of many characters.
Picoult goes on to discuss her writing process explaining that she writes the scenes within each book in order, and never initally sketches out an outline of the story. She points out that she doesn’t feel that she is a “creative writer” who constructs a tale, she is simply transcribing a story that is already taking place.
Picoult describes the complexities of selling movie rights to her books: “When you sell the rights, you’re giving the baby up for adoption. You’re not allowed to call every morning and ask, ‘What are you feeding the baby for breakfast?’ You just have to hope it’s going to a good home.” She relays the joys and trials of working with Hollywood, especially Lifetime Television, which has produced two films from her novels.
In: "Live from Prairie Lights" Audio Archive | Fiction
Authors: Jodi Picoult
Date Recorded: April 11, 2005
Works Read: Vanishing Acts, by Jodi Picoult
Program: Live From Prairie Lights
Format: reading
Contributors: Introduction by host Julie Englander.
Topics: recovered memory, alcoholism, writing process, film adaptations