The White Rose (45 page)
Authors: Jean Hanff Korelitz
You Should Have Known
Admission
The Sabbathday River
A Jury of Her Peers
“We're taking a position that celebrates the transience of the flower. Not that we don't prolong the bloom as long as we can, but we recognize that a flower's impermanence is part of its beauty.”
A sweeping tale of love and deception, wealth and beauty, obligation and desire,
The White Rose
is as seductive a story as the flower for which it's named.
Marian Kahn, a forty-eight-year-old professor of history at Columbia University, is in the midst of an affair with a man twenty-two years her junior. Although Oliver's wish for commitment is genuine, Marian knows the day will come when they must part ways. She will never leave her marriage, no matter how passionately she feels for Oliver, and she doubts his own devotion can last.
Then Oliver commits a spontaneous and seemingly harmless act, setting in motion a series of unforeseeable events that lead him to Sophie Klein.
A graduate student in history and an idiosyncratic heiress, Sophie is engaged to Marian's pompous cousin, Bart. Oliver's deception eventually builds to a startling confrontation, bringing harsh truths to light and forcing Marian, Oliver, and Sophie to each evaluate what they're seeking from lifeâand to learn that love, like even the most beautiful of blooms, is often transient.
With
The White Rose
, which was inspired by Richard Strauss's opera
Der Rosenkavalier
, Jean Hanff Korelitz has crafted both a thought-provoking treatise on social mores and a compelling page-turner.
Q:
When did you first see the opera
Der Rosenkavalier?
What was it about the story that inspired you to put a new twist on it for
The White Rose?
Are you an opera devotee?
A:
Despite having been dragged to many operas over the years, I have never been a devotee of the art form (much to the disappointment of my mother, who adores opera and did the dragging), but when I first saw
Der Rosenkavalier
in London in 1983, I had an extraordinarily powerful reaction to it. Perhaps that had something to do with the fact that I'd just been dropped by a man I was in love with in favor of a woman twice my age, or perhaps, even then, I identified strongly with the character of the Marschallin, who knows her young lover will one day leave her for a woman his own age. In the twenty years that followed my first viewing of the opera, as I myself progressed from ingénue to woman-of-a-certain-age, those impressions grew even more powerful. I admired the goodness and decency of the three major characters, and honored their efforts to do the right thing, even as they struggled with their own, very human flaws.
Q:
What appealed to you about setting the book in contemporary Manhattan versus another time and place?
A:
I think much writing (and, I suppose, much other art) can begin with a
what if
question. What if
Der Rosenkavalier
were happening not in 18th century Vienna, among aristocrats, but in late 20th century Manhattan, in the upper middle class Jewish setting I myself grew up in? I have a great deal of personal nostalgia embedded in this novel, and feel much tenderness for these characters, even as I occasionally poke fun at them.
Q:
In the Acknowledgements sections you state in regard to
Der Rosenkavalier
: “That a work so intuitive about women's experience was created entirely by men is an ongoing source of wonder to me.” What does
The White Rose
say about women's experience?
A:
It seems to be part of our received wisdom that only women can truly illuminate what it means to be female. (This derives, in part, from the feminist literary criticism that was part of my own education.) I'm as much in thrall to that notion as anyone else, so much so that I'm always surprised when I come across a Madame Bovary, a Portia, or a Marschallin. I must give credit where it's due. Every time I see
Der Rosenkavalier
or reread the libretto, I understand that Richard Strauss and his librettist, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, did not just portray the Marschallin's circumstances, they truly understood what she was enduring. Almost exactly one hundred years after the fact, I salute their great accomplishment.
Q:
Both Marian and Sophie have devoted themselves to studying history. Is history something that interests you? Do you enjoy the research aspect of writing?
A:
I always want to know what happened, how we got here, and whether we've learned anything along the way. Even so, I despise the research, itself. (If I didn't, I'd be locked up in an ivory tower by now, studying some obscure thing or other.) When I wrote my first novel,
A Fury of Her Peers
, I used to write up to the very sentence in which I needed a question answered, then figure out the answer to the question, and I've pretty much stuck by that strategy ever since. For this novel, I had to learn about 18th century England, rose breeding, foster care in New York City, cancer drugs from the 1980s and how flower dealers secure their inventory. Some of that was fun, and some was drudgery. I'm grateful to people who knew far more than I did about so many things, and were willing to talk to me.
Q:
The White Rose
is essentially a story within a story. Why did you choose to share in detail the story of Charlotte Wilcox's life rather than merely allude to her? What does it add to the narrative?
A:
I think Charlotte is a woman for all times because the thing she has learnedâhow to snatch personal happiness from the jaws of misfortuneâis something we all need to learn, no matter when or where we are living, no matter how outwardly fortunate and unfortunate we may be. Marian understands that she has been no less a beneficiary of Charlotte's example than Charlotte's legion of fans, and that learning from her subject has enabled her to make peace with her own choices.
Q:
Is Charlotte Wilcox an actual historical figure? If not, did you base her on anyone in particular?
A:
Charlotte is fictional, but she is very (and I mean
very
) loosely inspired by Charlotte Lennox, (c.1727â1804), who was born in the American colonies and spent her adult life in Britain. The author of several novels, most notably
The Female Quixote
(1752), and once celebrated by Samuel Johnson as a superior woman of letters, she nonetheless died in poverty and obscurity.
Q:
Do you have a favorite scene in the book?
A:
I do have a favorite scene. Twice during the course of the novel, we get to experience a long day in Oliver's life, a day full of distressing experiences for him. At the end of each of these two days, he will encounter Sophie, and both times she will handily deprive him of whatever equilibrium he retains. Which of these is my favorite scene? Guess.
Q:
Your two previous novels,
The Sabbathday River
and
A Fury of Her Peers
, are both thrillers. Why did you depart from that style of writing to pen
The White Rose?
Although this book is not a “thriller,” in what ways is it suspenseful?
A:
I have a strong capacity for self-delusion, and to this day I maintain that
A Fury of Her Peers
was a Greek tragedy masquerading as a courtroom thriller and that
The Sabbathday River
was a literary novel in which Nathaniel Hawthorne ran amok through a bizarre true-life Irish case of infanticide. After two such flights of fancy, it was something of a relief to write a novel whose genre the critics and I could agree on. I always took great care with my writing, whether describing a courtroom scene or a moment of intense self-discovery a character was experiencing. By the same token, it was always necessary for me that my novels had a strong story. (I have personally flung aside any number of beautifully written books in which
nothing happened
.) The books I love to read are beautifully written, and never stop surprising me. I have always tried to write books like that, and I will continue to try.
Q:
How did the process of writing this book differ from that of
The Sabbathday River
and
A Fury of Her Peers?
A:
It was not so different. As with
The Sabbathday River
, I had a template (in the case of that novel it was Hawthorne's
The Scarlet Letter
), and the challenge was to let the unfolding story escape that template. Characters arise from and depart from their prototypes, and new characters and situations impose themselves where no precedents exist in the source material. It's fascinating for me to see how the end result is true to its initial inspiration, and how it departs. Certainly, fans of
Der Rosenkavalier
can amuse themselves by finding the parallels between the opera and
The White Rose
(Valerie Annis, for one less obvious example, is a conflation of the two scandalmongers, Valzacchi and Annina), but there are characters in the novel that would probably have made Strauss reach for his smelling salts. (What, for example, would he have made of Jan, Oliver's helpful guide in the world of cross-dressing?)
Q:
There are references in
The White Rose
to Jane Austen and Anne Frank. What writers do you admire? What books have been memorable ones for you?
A:
I have loved so many novels, by so many novelists, but like any other writer I carry with me at all times my personal pantheon of books. Here are a few that come readily to mind. They areâbe warnedâan eclectic bunch: Jane Austen's
Pride and Prejudice
; Chaim Potok's
My Name Is Asher Lev
, Marilyn Robinson's
Housekeeping
, Frederick Forsythe's
The Odessa File
(I warned you. But if you love a breath-taking, thought providing thriller, read it and see why.), and the Irish novelist Molly Keane's brilliant late novels,
Good Behavior
and
Time After Time
. Oh, and one more:
What a Carve Up
, a comic tour de force by the young British novelist Jonathan Coe. (It was published in the US as
The Winshaw Legacy
, I can't think why.)
- Early on, when Marian and Oliver have a discussion about the difference in their ages, Marian is upset by Oliver's disregard for her being older: “She has never, she thinks wildly, understood the phrase âarrogance of youth' until this moment.” What does she mean when she uses that phrase? Why is it so upsetting to her in the moment?
- “â¦it does baffle him that in a world so bereft of pleasure people fail to see that flowers are a part of the solution, that the unlearned lesson of their loveliness bears on the great disconnect between people and other people, between people and the earth, between people and the eternal.” Oliver has a powerful connection to flowers. How has his passion shaped him, and how has it affected others' perceptions of him?
- Marian describes a special time of day she's always looked for: “There is a time in each day that is neither afternoon nor evening but something breathless in suspension between them, when every particle of the air is briefly infused with fierce, fierce color, one instant so utterly there, then gone.” Have you ever noticed the time she describes? Do you have any similar perceptions or moments that have special significance to you?
- “Oliver is aware that he belongs to a distinct occupational segment of his demographic group, set well apart from the officially sanctioned career designationsâlaw, business, medicineâthat account for an overwhelming majority of his peersâ¦the far smaller yet equally prestigious calling of âartist' in its various forms is acknowledgedâ¦between these extremes, however, there is little in the way of viable career territory.” How has Oliver's position in a well-to-do family affected the choices he's made in his life? How do class and social levels influence the decisions he's made concerning Marian?
- Marian muses over how historians are never asked where they get their ideas, yet they tell stories in the same way that novelists do. How do you think she would characterize the differences and similarities between fiction and nonfiction writers? What do you think about stories that come from facts versus stories that come purely from the imagination?
- “What she wants, what she has always wanted, is for Marshall not to find out, so that when it is over with Oliverâas of course it will have to be sometime, soonâMarshall will be there, his future with her unaltered. It is certainly unfair, but she can't help that.” Is Marian being unreasonable with her expectations of what will happen with both Oliver and Marshall? How would you view the situation in her place? In Oliver's? In Marshall's?
- At dinner with her son, Caroline describes how her true age doesn't match with the age that feels “correct” in her head: “It's like a rule: your sense of self lags behind your actual age by a certain factor.” Do you think this is true? Have you experienced a disconnect between your age and your concept of your age? Why do you think this happens?
- During dinner with Caroline, Marian sends a “discreet intramarital cue” to Marshall to remind him about Caroline's husband Henry. What does this phrase represent in terms of the relationship between married couples, and for Marian and Marshall's marriage in particular?
- Compare the scene in which Oliver first meets Marian with the scene in which he first meets Sophie. What do his actions and observations during each encounter reveal about his eventual relationship with each woman?
- Compare Sophie's need to cook with Oliver's connection to flowers. In what ways are their passions similar, and in what ways are they different?
- Describe Sophie and her father's relationship with Jewish culture and the Jewish community. How did their place in this heritage shape the people they eventually became?
- It is revealed that Sophie and Barton's marriage is one of convenience for both parties. Do you think it's possible for an arrangement like this to work out? What about for the children that Sophie wants to have?
- How does Marian's encounter with Soriah change each character's outlook on life? Why does Marian initially respond to Soriah, and why does she continue their meetings?
- “It is terrible to think of the years, coming so soon, without her father, who looks ahead to this wedding with every happy thought she herself does not have, and only a genial, respectful blank of a man to replace him.” Why does Sophie want to marry Barton if she is so ambivalent about their future together? What does she mean by “blank of a man”?
- “â¦the service she is now being asked to perform seems so much more straightforward than any of the other tasks currently facing her. Pick up a kid, take her somewhere, take her homeâ¦Isn't that blissfully uncomplicated?” In what ways is Marian correct about her assessment of her taking Soriah to visit her mother in prison, and in what ways is she wrong? How does this relationship compare to what's going on in the rest of Marian's life?
- “â¦she sees something in Denise's face that is not an abdication of responsibility, and not an imperviousness to her daughter's needs, and not the narcissism of a mother who failed to reject both drugs and gun-wielding boyfriends the minute she gave birth to another human being. This is unfettered misery. And it is a supplication.” What does Marian come to understand about Soriah and her family when they visit Denise in prison?
- “Olivia has become more of a problem, more of a snare, and not just for himself and Barton but for Marian, too. And, he supposes, for Sophie Klein. Every one of themâ¦has a right to be furious with him.” Why did the Olivia charade begin in the first place, and what has Olivia come to represent for all the people Oliver names here? Is there any way in which this could have ended without Oliver hurting anyone?
- During Oliver's argument with Marian after he is dropped off by the police in the Hamptons, what is going through each of their minds that the other is unaware of? What do each of them want out of their relationship, and what do they get?
- The chapters in Act I of the book alternate between the perspectives of Marian and Oliver (Sophie is added to the rotation later). However, the chapter in which Oliver is detained by police on the beach in the Hamptons is told from his point of view, and the chapters immediately following it (in which he and Marian leave the Hamptons and stop to eat from a diner, and in which he goes up to Columbia and finds Sophie) are also told from his perspective. What is the effect of this change in storytelling pattern?
- Compare Marian's response to the end of her affair with Oliver to Caroline's response to finding out her husband was cheating on her, ending their marriage.
- Caroline tells Marian that every woman has her “magic age,” and she thinks that Marian is currently at hers. Do you think that such a thing exists? Why would Caroline think that Marian is at her magic age now?
- Why does Marian impulsively decide to become a foster parent for Soriah? What do you think happens to the two of them after the book ends?
- There are many different types and stages of love explored in
The White Rose
. Were there any love relationships you were particularly able to identify with? Were there any you were not at all able to identify with? - In discussing his business, Oliver describes his philosophy of flowers: “We recognize that a flower's impermanence is part of its beauty.” The idea of impermanence is a running theme throughout the story. Do you believe that the fleeting nature of something can be part of its appeal? What didn't last in the story? What has the possibility of lasting?
- What do you think will happen next for Marian, Oliver, and Sophie?