January 23, 2009

pregnant ladies at bath house raves

Nice mini-interview with novelist Heidi Julavits in the Times’ Paper Cuts blog.

Whose books are shelved around yours in bookstores? How does it feel to be sitting between them?

I’m frequently shelved between Joyce and Kafka, and I’m trying to take aesthetic cues from this sandwiching — I’m writing lyrically maximal allegories about the absurdly doomed human condition of pregnant ladies at bath house raves.