{"id":607,"date":"2018-12-31T13:03:32","date_gmt":"2018-12-31T13:03:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=607"},"modified":"2018-12-31T13:03:32","modified_gmt":"2018-12-31T13:03:32","slug":"lone-star-listens-amy-gentry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=607","title":{"rendered":"Lone Star Listens: Amy Gentry"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Debut novelist Amy Gentry spent years as a book reviewer for the <\/span>Chicago Tribune, <\/span>Los Angeles Book Review, <\/span>Texas Observer,<\/span> among other outlets. But now the tables are turned and she has \u201cgone\u201d from reviewer to reviewee with her new novel <\/span>Good As Gone<\/a><\/em> (out this week from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), a psychological thriller that has been compared to bestsellers such as <\/span>Gone Girl:  The Girl on the Train<\/em>. We caught up with her via email during the book\u2019s launch week amid a dozen appearances and interviews. She graciously answered our email interview questions within hours of our hitting Send.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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LONE STAR LITERARY LIFE: Amy, I understand you grew up in Houston, and your novel is set in the city. What was the Houston of your youth like, and how did it inform your writing?<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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AMY GENTRY<\/strong>: I grew up in West Houston for the most part, around what\u2019s now called the Energy Corridor, and that\u2019s where most of the book takes place. Like Jane in the book, I escaped to Montrose and Rice Village in high school to feel more cool and less suburban. But of course, we could do that because we all had access to cars, and what\u2019s more suburban than that? When I think of Houston, I think of this flattened-out, cluttered urban landscape with all these dingy strip malls and gleaming skyscrapers just thrown together because of the minimal zoning laws, and the huge, arching highways providing the only relief from the flatness. I think it\u2019s the most beautiful ugly city in the world. A perfect place to get lost in, or lose your identity.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Upon graduating high school in Houston, you went to college at the University of Texas in Austin. What was that like?<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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I loved Austin immediately because I\u2019ve been a secret hippie since childhood. I don\u2019t know how that happened, genetically, but it did. UT took some getting used to at first, since I’d had my heart set on a perfect little New England campus with falling leaves in the autumn. But I made a lot of friends through drama and Plan II, which was my major, and then I wound up in the co-ops, naturally. I took five years to graduate and wrote a novel for my undergraduate thesis that will never see the light of day.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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When did you know you wanted to be a writer?<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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I had a very inspiring fourth-grade teacher who had us writing free-verse poetry the first week of class \u2014 shout-out to Mr. Wainwright! \u2014 and that\u2019s when I knew. I stayed pretty consistent about it until after college, when, after a year of working on a novel and supporting myself waiting tables, I just sort of lost my way. I think I got tired, and suddenly it didn’t seem like a very grown-up dream to have.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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After graduating from UT, you made your way to Portland around 2001 with the goal of being a writer, and eventually earned your PhD from the University of Chicago. But, along the way, you became a well-regarded book reviewer for the <\/span>Chicago Tribune<\/span> and the <\/span>Texas Observer,<\/span> and other publications. How did you get into book reviewing?<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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When I was fresh out of college, I used to read the New York Times Book Review<\/span> every Sunday and then go to the library and put in requests for the stuff that looked interesting. I would read halfway through a book and throw it across the room. It made me so mad when (in my very informed opinion!) the book reviewer got it wrong.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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When I graduated with a PhD in 2011, I knew I didn\u2019t want to pursue an academic career, so I did a bunch of part-time jobs to make money. My now-husband kept saying, \u201cYou should write things,\u201d and eventually I wound up doing books coverage for a local website, then for the Austin Chronicle.<\/span> And then a critic I knew from grad school passed my name to his editor at the Chicago Tribune,<\/span> and it got more serious. I do not usually throw books now, but I understand if someone wants to throw mine.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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My understanding is that you had the idea for <\/em><\/span>Good As Gone<\/span><\/em> more than a decade ago. What was the genesis of that idea?<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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The idea began with the Elizabeth Smart kidnapping case, which was in the news in 2003. It was such an unusual case, both in the way [Smart] was taken and the way she was recovered. I started thinking about a girl who shows up years and years after a high-profile kidnapping, claiming to be the kidnapped girl, but her mother has these awful doubts that she has to keep to herself. By coincidence, around the time I finally started writing the book, the documentary Imposter <\/span>had just come out about the real-life French con man who impersonated a kidnapped child in Texas. I didn\u2019t consciously draw any details from that case, but it helped me feel more confident that the idea could work.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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How did your big break with Good As Gone<\/span><\/em> come about?<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Last summer I was finishing up the novel, but hadn\u2019t really started thinking about querying agents yet. Then I woke up one day and #Pitmad, a Twitter event in which agents look for promising 140-character novel synopses, was underway. On a lark, I put a few tweets out there, and a handful of agents requested my work, including my now-agent, Sharon Pelletier. So, like many happy couples, we met on the Internet. That was, unbelievably, less than a year ago.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Good As Gone<\/span><\/em> has been compared to one of the best-selling novels in recent memory. Gone Girl<\/span> <\/em>almost created a category of its own\u2014a psychological thriller with unreliable narrators that keep you guessing to the very end. How would you describe Good As Gone<\/span><\/em> in your own words?<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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I have described it as a mother-daughter horror story set in a city with a perpetual identity crisis. I didn\u2019t know it would be a thriller when I started writing it, and I’ve never really thought of Julie as an unreliable narrator \u2014 she\u2019s not, really. She\u2019s just a plain old liar. It\u2019s only the structure of the book that makes her seem unreliable. But I\u2019m happy to be part of any category that attracts such thoughtful and intelligent readers, and I\u2019m flattered by comparisons to Gone Girl <\/em>and other top-notch psychological thrillers focused on the female experience.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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I\u2019ve read that you\u2019re at work on your next novel. What\u2019s your creative process like?<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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When I\u2019m being productive, I try to write 1,000\u20133,000 words, usually in the morning. Then I have lunch and write nonfiction or read for reviews in the afternoon. That\u2019s my ideal schedule, though the book release doesn\u2019t really allow it.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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What authors do you now enjoy reading? What Texas authors?<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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I love Tessa Hadley\u2019s novels and Kelly Link\u2019s short stories to distraction. As for Texas authors, Patricia Highsmith was born in Fort Worth, and her psychological crime novels are among my favorites.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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As a first-time book author, what advice do you have for aspiring writers?<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Get to know other writers, because it makes writing seem like a much more reasonable thing to do. Keep working until you finish something. Finishing builds chops. If you don\u2019t finish it, you can\u2019t make it good.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Praise for Amy Gentry\u2019s GOOD AS GONE<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c[One] of the most anticipated summer thrillers….Gentry’s novel isn’t primarily about the version of the self that comes from a name and a family of origin; instead, it draws our attention to the self that’s forged from sheer survival, and from the clarifying call to vengeance.\u201d \u2014New York Times Book Review<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cA mother, a daughter, a zealot, an investigator, a family, a stripper, and more than a few survivors lay the riveting groundwork, but it\u2019s Amy Gentry\u2019s realistic portrayals of victims and their families that set Good As Gone<\/span> apart from other page-turning crime dramas….The end result is a true \u2018novel of suspense\u2019: a book that’s hard to put down not only because of our investment in the plot, but also because of our investment in the lives of the complicated characters.\u201d \u2014Austin Chronicle<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cCompelling and emotionally nuanced.\u201d \u2014Seattle Times<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 \u201cBoth a mother-daughter and a family-under-fire story, Good As Gone<\/span> is laden with confused identities and a thrumming plot. Amy Gentry\u2019s debut also holds a mirror up to the myriad ways rape culture is perpetuated.\u201d \u2014Bustle<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cGood As Gone<\/span>\u2026confirms the entrance of a powerful new voice in the world of crime fiction\u2014Gentry knows crime fiction as a critic and as a writer, and brings her experiences with her for a novel that is as playful and self-aware in its structure as it is responsible in its themes.\u201d
\u2014MysteryPeople<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDebut novelist Gentry delivers on genre expectations with crisp, unobtrusive writing and well-executed plot twists.\u201d \u2014Kirkus Reviews<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cClever perspective changes give Gentry’s debut building suspense….Fans of Paula Hawkin\u2019s The Girl on the Train <\/span>will enjoy the shifting points of view and the complex female characters, and those who liked Samantha Hunt\u2019s Mr. Splitfoot<\/span> will appreciate the seedy characters and haunting theme of childhood vulnerability….Gentry\u2019s depiction of a family working through immense suffering will connect with many readers.\u201d
\u2014Booklist<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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