Meet the Author: Elizabeth Brundage |
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West Boca Branch Library
Sunday, Dec 19, 2:00 pm |
Meet author Elizabeth Brundage as she answers questions and discusses her third novel “A Stranger Like You.” A book signing will follow. |
Elizabeth Brundage holds an MFA from the prestigious Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where she received a James Michener Award. Previously, she was a screenwriting fellow at the American Film Institute in Los Angeles. Her first two novels were “The Doctor’s Wife” (2004) and “Somebody Else’s Daughter” (2008), both published by Viking. Currently, she teaches at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York, where she is a Visiting Writer-in-Residence.
Elizabeth Brundage’s fiction is provocative and intense. Her psychological thrillers emphasize character development and, unlike most thrillers, they are crafted with a literary writing style. Thrillers usually place a great deal of emphasis on action. But psychological thrillers, like those of Elizabeth Brundage, pay greater attention to the mind games that people play with each other and even with themselves.
About her latest book Elizabeth Brundage writes: “We all have dreams. The idea that there is even a glimmering possibility of a new life can be intoxicating to some. In America, advertising and movies have promoted a cultural expectation to desire a new and improved life – to expect more. What more is, exactly, is up for debate and depends on who you are – but evolution has transformed us into beings who seek a kind of sustenance that takes physical survival for granted and hungers for some mystical emotional elevation that is beyond our grasp. Some pursue it with drugs, some with religion, some with exercise or work. But the pursuit is what interested me – the conquest of a destiny that promises your own spectacular brand of fulfillment. These are some of the ideas I wanted to explore in “A Stranger Like You.” |
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A book review of “A Stranger Like You”:
“When a production company buys Hugh Waters’ film script, the insurance underwriter envisions a new life for himself as a Hollywood screenwriter. But his dreams are dashed when producer Hedda Chase drops the project, rejecting its premise: a man whose advances are rebuffed by his female coworker drugs the woman, puts her in the trunk of his car, and leaves the car to be stolen, with violent results. So Hugh replicates his script, leaving Hedda in the trunk of her own BMW at the airport; when the car is taken by Denny, an Iraq vet still suffering the after-effects of the war, Hugh feels absolved of responsibility. Brundage changes both person and point of view in sections about Hedda, describing her innermost feelings about being a powerful female in a man’s world, and about Denny and his thoughts on the war … Brundage excels at pushing her characters to their limits and then reflecting on the consequences of their behavior.” (Booklist)
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Posted: 11/30/2010 |
