I also came to believe that writing from one point of view would make it seem as if the suicide had happened only to me, which was not my experience. Constraining story events to its twelve hours seemed the best way. I’d think, “Were there clues here?” Once my fiction career powered up I started to think more creatively about a structure that would evoke the way the standoff had seared itself into my consciousness. I came to realize, though, that there was no way I could write about my early marriage without the foreknowledge of the standoff to come. In the seventeen years since my husband died I’ve drafted a lot of memoir in the form of essays, blog posts, and what I came to think of as chapters. The answers to the two parts of your question are interrelated. Kathryn Craft: Hi Leslie, thanks so much for having me here. What a challenging topic-and how did you decide on the structure of the novel, i.e. I guess I have to start with the obvious: THE FAR END OF HAPPY is based on an event in your life: your own ex-husband’s suicide. I’m so honored to have you on the blog today. But it’s the tenderness and compassion Craft brings to the narrative that will have you walking away feeling a strange brew of optimism. It’s a tough read for the subject matter alone: suicide. Her second novel, THE FAR END OF HAPPY (May 2015) takes us on a poignant and emotionally charged glimpse into an unraveling marriage, the sadness draped around the characters like a shroud, and the hope that everything will work out in the end.
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