"I guess I'm an amateur anthropologist," says Susan Orlean, musing on her two decades as a staff writer for the New Yorker. "It's part of my nature to poke around in things." Since joining in 1992 after writing for
Rolling Stone, Vogue and the Boston Globe, Orlean has earned her reputation as one of the world's great exponents of literary nonfiction by taking curious personal stories and mining them for universal truths. She recently published Rin Tin Tin (Atlantic), the tale of the eponymous canine movie star through which she explores, among other things, 20th-century celebrity culture. Her 1998 bestseller The Orchid Thief focused on obsessive flower collectors and inspired Charlie Kaufman's film Adaptation in which a character called "Charlie Kaufman" is driven mad trying to adapt a brilliant book written by a character named "Susan Orlean". Here, the real-life Orlean talks to GQ.com about what she made of Meryl Streep's take on her, the book that changed her life and how holding court in a bar can teach you the secrets of a compelling story.
GQ.com: Are you good at telling stories in a bar?
Susan Orlean: I'm embarrassed to blow my own horn, but the answer is that I actually do think I'm a very good storyteller, especially after several drinks. I think that the art of storytelling is knowing both what a story is, what might appeal to your audience and then the art and timing of playing it out. You do a striptease with information to keep people engaged and lure them along to keep them interested and tantalized.
Are there particular writers you go back to for inspiration?
It's good to remind yourself that there are many ways to skin a cat. I have a stack of books on my desk that are all dog-eared from me flipping through them. A couple of Joan Didion books, a couple of John McPhee books as well as AJ Liebling, Joseph Mitchell and Calvin Trillin.
What is it that attracts you to write about topics that aren't critically acclaimed like the popular painter Thomas Kinkade?
What I look for are things that define culture. In some cases they are very limited and elite but in many cases they're things that are consumed in a much broader way. I've always had a kind of perverse curiosity about anything in culture that has become enormously popular and successful. There's a mechanism to it as well. It's not purely organic, it's marketed and it's meant to be popular. It's quite different from a viral video where something a guy made on his flip-camera is suddenly and unexpectedly embraced by millions of people.
What's your role as a character in your stories?
One thing I'm very comfortable with is the inherent subjectivity of literary journalism. While the kind of writing that I do is honest and factual I'm also very clear that it's a story I'm telling you, limited by my vision, my abilities as a reporter and frankly coloured by what I feel is important. Sometimes I'm just the narrator taking you from one place to another, but sometimes I want to reveal to you why I was drawn to the story.
What's the secret of a great opening and closing line?
You're a salesman, and at that moment when someone walks into the showroom you've got to immediately capture them. You have to show them why this thing they didn't want to buy is in fact something they can't live without. I always start writing with my opening line because it just sets the tone in such a powerful way that I can't imagine going back later and pasting it on. It doesn't have to be a miniature encapsulation of the story. It can be a tiny sliver that's just sexy enough to draw you in. Endings are easier because while you want it to be very satisfying I don't think it has that same burden of getting people engaged. The best lesson for me was that I used to spend all this time writing these endings and my editor would say "I really liked the piece. I just cut off the last paragraph." I was horrified! He made the point that it's okay to end in a less valedictory fashion. You don't have to have the full orchestra blaring. People are quite good at filling in that final note in their own mind.
What was it like watching Meryl Streep play a version of you in Adaptation?
It was great because she wasn't trying to impersonate me and because she's amazing! She created the character just through knowing me from the book. It's actually one of my favourite performances by her. Maybe I'm a little prejudiced, but how could I not be? I really like her portrayal of this strange creature!
Were you surprised when you read the screenplay?
It was a complete shock. My first reaction was "Absolutely not!"
They had to get my permission and I just said: "No! Are you kidding? This is going to ruin my career!" Very wisely, they didn't really pressure me. They told me that everybody else had agreed and I somehow got emboldened. It was certainly scary to see the movie for the first time. It took a while for me to get over the idea that I had been insane to agree to it, but I love the movie now.
What I admire the most is that it's very true to the book's themes of life and obsession, and there are also insights into things which are much more subtle in the book about longing, and about disappointment.
[some kind of embed!]
What music do you love?
For a while I listened to music while I wrote, but then I just found that it was a little too distracting. I just went to a Wilco concert and I like people like Belle & Sebastian and Eels. I also really love African music, particularly from the Congo. Franco sort of changed my life. He made a million albums and some of those songs are just the most magnificent things I've ever heard. People think of "world music" as kind of twee. I mean, [the whole concept of] "world music"? For crying out loud! You're basically lumping a million different kinds of music together.
Can you recommend a good book?
The books that I proselytize about the most are actually a trilogy by Pat Barker: Regeneration, The Eye In The Door and The Ghost Road. They're about WWI and they changed the way I looked at life. It's hard to say why as there's almost nothing in it which would seem to relate to me directly. It follows two people's stories - one is a soldier and one is a doctor - it's just kind of mind-boggling.
What advice would you give your younger self?
Save your receipts... and have fun! I guess one of those suggests you should be more professional and the other that you should be less professional. I'm hitting from both sides of the plate.
Susan Orlean's Rin Tin Tin is available now. (Atlantic, £16.99) atlantic-books.co.uk
