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A letter to readers by LaToya Watkins about her novel Perish
Dear Reader
When I was a young girl, I'd sneak my mother's mass market paperbacks after
she was done reading them. I didn't grow up in a home with lots of books, but my
mother was a reader. She was also a factory laborer, which meant that time to
read was a rare luxury for her. I always noticed when she'd found time because
there was always a new book for me to sneak. The stories I'd find were often
written by writers who created characters and worlds I was happy to escape to
but couldn't identify with or see myself in. I found writers like Danielle Steel,
Jackie Collins, John Grisham, and Stephen King, among so many others.
I'll never quite forget running across Pat Conroy's The Prince of Tides. It was the
first story that stayed with me long after I closed the book. It was the first novel I
ever reread. When I was older, I realized that despite not seeing myself or anyone
who looked like me in the work, despite the heaviness of the story, and despite
those times I wanted to turn away from the world Conroy had created, the Wingo
family's suffering and their audacious attempt to survive it was the most relatable
thing I'd ever read. I wanted to experience more of that. I wanted to see more of
that from writers who looked like me. It was then, as a girl, that I was inspired to
write a story about family—about suffering, silence, and love.
Essentially, Perish is a story about a family's attempt to survive generational lack
of access to healthy ways of coping with what's been done to them and what's
been done by them. In part, it's a story about what this family's love looks like
when the members haven't experienced love or been taught to love. The ways
in which the family reach for and pull away from one another are all rooted in
experiences that they've chosen to bury; the growth from these buried things
is painful and messy. Nonetheless, working at the roots is the only way they can
promote healthy growth, to move forward.
I created Helen Jean because I wanted to explore the journey of a character who is
both powerful and powerless, who yearns to grow in productive ways but is rooted
in an environment that isn't conducive to that kind of growth. Her grandchildren
have similar yearnings; however, unlike Helen Jean, they are willing to rattle their
hearts, minds, and bodies, to do the root-work for the sake of growth. For the sake
of change.
I am grateful to all who are willing to take the journey with this family. My hope
for Perish is that we may all realize the type of growth our roots are producing.
That, if needed, we might be brave enough to dig past the tangled pain and nourish
those roots. That we might all make way for healthy, productive growth and
continue that practice throughout our lives.
LaToya
Unless otherwise stated, this interview was conducted at the time the book was first published, and is reproduced with permission of the publisher. This interview may not be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the copyright holder.
John Manuel Arias is a queer, Costa Rican American poet and writer. He is a Canto Mundo fellow & alumnus of the Tin House Summer Writers Workshop. His prose and poetry have been published in PANK, The Rumpus, F(r)iction, ... (more)
If you enjoyed:
Perish
Try:
Where There Was Fire
by John Manuel Arias
Edwidge Danticat is the author of several books, including Breath, Eyes, Memory, an Oprah Book Club selection, Krik? Krak!, a National Book Award finalist, The Farming of Bones, The Dew Breaker, Brother, I'm Dying, Create ... (more)
If you enjoyed:
Perish
Try:
Breath, Eyes, Memory
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