A. L. Kennedy Interview

BookSense.com: Before writing On Bullfighting, what did you know about bullfighting?

A.L. Kennedy: Beforehand, I only knew what the average British person would -- rough order of events, the fact that the bull dies, I think I'd read some color supplement articles about matadors from time to time.

Are you now a fan of bullfighting?

I couldn't say I'm a fan, but there are parts of it I respect. Some matadors and cuadrilla members have great courage and skill, some ganaderos truly care well for their animals.

Did writing a book on it change your views of other books on bullfighting?

Not really -- if a book's bad, it's fairly obvious and vice versa. It did make me wonder that there was so little transparency and so little detail in many of them.

What do you think bullfighting's future will be?

I think it will keep on and keep changing, the way it has for centuries.

You touched a little on women bullfighters and the difficulties they face. Is the (I suppose very) macho world of bullfighting opening up at all to them?

Apparently it's not. Rosa Sanchez, the most prominent woman, retired for lack of access to quality fights. Sadly, male fighters are unwilling to appear on the bill with female matadors, so they never get quite the exposure they might, and tend to end up on all-female bills, as they have done since Victorian times. What female matadors need is one very charismatic and very skilled woman to really break through. Technically, being a matador doesn't require strength beyond a reasonable capacity that a woman could have and men as small, or smaller than women today have been very fine matadors.

Are you a sports fan in general?

Not much. I have a fondness for Welsh rugby, and I loved to see Agassi when he was playing really fluid, intuitive tennis. I suppose I'm drawn to intuitive artists in sport, highly skilled, highly integrated teams, but I'm not a fan of anything per se. I'll watch an interesting game of almost anything, but I don't feel obliged to waste my time with match after match of this or that.

In the book you were suffering from an undiagnosed slipped disc. Now that it has been fixed, has your writing changed?

I now write lying down in an arrangement of pillows and whatnot -- it's the only way that it doesn't hurt. And I take more breaks, if I'm not under a deadline. I don't know if my writing has changed -- I'm not the best judge. I haven't written a novel for years now, so I have no idea about that. The passage of time tends to alter things, even if everything else stays much the same.

Do you write much nonfiction?

No, not much. Only to pay the bills and if I'm interested. I do an occasional column for The Guardian -- that stops me getting too annoyed about politics.

Did writing On Bullfighting change what you wanted to write about in the future?

No.

Your novels and short stories are often -- although certainly not always -- set in Glasgow. Did having to write about Spain give you insights into writing about other places or cultures?

I've only set one novel in Glasgow and maybe a couple of short stories. I tend to put things wherever they'll fit, although I generally only use settings I've seen. Given that modern writers travel a lot -- myself included -- that covers a fair amount of territory.

Are you writing now?

Yes, although not much.

What are you reading?

Right now -- the collected essays of Gore Vidal.

Do you think there was any actual truth behind the recent "Scottish literary renaissance"?

There was certainly a lot of writing coming out of Scotland. I think publishers exploited it too heavily and have burned a variety of authors out. The fact is, there has always been a lot of writing in Scotland -- it's just become more visible lately, although perhaps not outside the UK.

Do you feel there any particularly Scottish aspects to your writing?

I couldn't tell. Possibly choice of subject matter, possibly sense of humor -- but there are other European countries where there are similar tastes and themes and jokes.

You recently started a hyper-novel for The Scotsman newspaper online. How did you get involved with that?

They asked me to do it. It involved writing a few hundred words to kick things off and then going away.

How did it go?

I haven't the faintest idea.

Are you much involved with the Internet?

I have a website and I use the Internet more and more for initial research. For deep research, it's still not much use.

Is there anyone you would like to try collaborating with?

I'm not a collaborator. Although I can work alongside people occasionally -- I just have on a Canadian TV drama series with the Scottish poet John Burnside -- who is a fine, fine poet and a great guy.

Do you have any books you'd like to recommend?

No. My taste wouldn't be everyone's. Just read often and broadly -- it's good exercise.

On Bullfighting:
A March/April 2001 Book Sense 76 pick
"As agile with language as any torero is with cape and sword, Kennedy takes us from the brink of suicide (her own) to the bullfights of Spain. Ghosts of the past, Lorca, and Goya flit through her ruminations even as she closely and factually describes the art and science of the corrida de toros in this mesmerizing and artful book."
-- Betsy Burton, The King's English Bookshop, Salt Lake City, UT

Everything You Need:

A September/October 2001 Book Sense 76 pick
"The number of residents in a writer's colony on an island off Wales is kept, by mutual agreement, to seven, including a successful but suicidal author of popular horror novels. When a new resident is accepted, the stage is set for a moving and unforgettable novel of friendship, despair, and redemption. One of the best books of the year." - Bob Sommer & Gayle Shanks, Changing Hands, Tempe, AZ