Claire Varley’s debut novel The Bit In Between is a contemporary love story about Oliver and Alison, two young Australians who land in the Solomon Islands searching for purpose and belonging. Oliver is writing his second novel and Alison gets involved in supporting the local indigenous women. As Oliver’s novel takes shape, coincidences start to happen that make him question how much life is influencing his book and vice versa. But will he and Alison will have a happy ending? In this Q&A with Varley, I attempt to find out.
Alison and Oliver’s love story is also the love story of a country. What made you fall in love with the Solomon Islands and its people and inspire you to write and set your novel there?
I lived in the Solomons for just under two years working on community development projects in one of the remote provinces. This was long enough for it to become my new normal and I learnt so much about the country, its history and stories. We Australians know so little about the Solomons despite its proximity and despite how heavily invested we are in the country in terms of aid and development, and the logging and mining industries. So I partially wanted the book to be a vehicle for sharing the country with other Australians, but also to hopefully offer it some literary respect and admiration after a largely shocking backlog of colonial portrayals.
The novel is interspersed with the backstories of people as diverse as house cleaners, band members, politicians, taxi drivers and risk-reduction advisors. Where did these vignettes come from and why was it important for you to include them?
The book is Alison and Oliver’s stories, but it is also the story of all the people they interact with on a fleeting or meaningful level. I wanted to capture the fact that we all exist amid a sea of other stories, and to explore how these backstories shape us into the people we become.
At the end of the book, you acknowledge the support of your Solomon family and say they are ‘some of the best people this world will ever know’. Who are these people and why do they mean so much to you? What do they think of your novel?
My Solomon family is spread across Honiara and Buala, and consists of the people who provided me with love and support during the two years I spent living there. They welcomed me into their lives and were incredible colleagues and friends. I’m not sure what they think of the novel as it is currently lost somewhere in the magical black hole that is the Australia-Solomon Islands postal system. Hopefully the parcel arrives some day.
The Bit in Between is a rom-com with a heart for social justice and a dash of the paranormal. Is this a new genre you’ve created—or did you have antecedents to guide you? If so, who and what were they?
I’m terrible at recognising genres. I’m essentially the literary version of ‘I don’t know art but I know what I like …’ I just set out to tell a story and this is how it turned out. I’m very influenced by Zadie Smith, Steve Toltz and Dave Eggers, and their ability to be simultaneously funny and heart-wrenching but, having said that, I had no plan at all for this novel. Which means I also have no plan for my second novel, which is currently in draft form. Who knows what genre it will turn out to be …
The book has a political bent as well as a humorous one. How hard was it to keep the balance between these two crucial strands?
Really, really hard. It’s such a fine line and obviously completely subjective. I don’t ever want to be didactic and I think comedy helps to dampen the sloganeering or rally cries. It’s really difficult to take something and say, ‘Look, this is an issue I think we need to explore’ without coming across as if you are ramming your opinions into someone’s brain as they work their way through your book. For me, comedy and playing with a range of characters with differing viewpoints helps to do that in a way that respects the reader and allows them to explore something their own way.
Your love story begins with projectile vomiting. In the movie of the book (fingers crossed!), which actors do you hope will be chosen as the one vomited on (Oliver) and as the vomiter (Alison)?
Too hard. I just googled ‘Greek-Australians’ and it suggested either Yanis Varoufakis or Peter Andre. I really doubt Yanis would appreciate dovetailing his time as an economist by pretending to be half his age and getting vommed on, so it’ll have to be Peter Andre. He could also do the soundtrack, which would be fairly easy as they play him a lot in the Solomons. A lot. I would happily play Alison because I would love to be directed in a movie based on a book I wrote, and to have the director tell me I’m not doing it right. Imagine how petulant I could be!
The Bit in Between should really appeal to young adult readers and other adventurers. What audience or reader did you have in mind as you wrote?
I know you’re not meant to say this as a writer, but I didn’t really have anyone in mind. I suppose I wanted to capture the post-university pre-children years, particularly against a backdrop of taking off to explore the world, so it’s definitely a story of Gen Y, but I don’t think this means it is limited to this audience. My mum really liked it, but she likes everything I write.
Alison’s truly awful ex-boyfriend Ed says the work he creates tells humanity to wake up to the trauma of existence ‘that can only be assuaged by the fall of the capitalist autocracy’. When he asks Oliver what he writes about, Oliver says, ‘Oh, you know … stuff … people.’ I’m pretty sure I’ve had that conversation with another writer at a literary event (and yep, I was Oliver). So, have you been stalking me? If you’ve had this sort of conversation yourself, how did it make you feel?
I haven’t had this conversation but I think it is a pertinent one. There is room for so much diverse literature in this world and I don’t think we should necessarily create hierarchies for what has more value. There is an incredibly broad readership out there and not everyone is going to pick up a classic or seminal piece of writing and take something from it. There are really important thoughts to think and ideas to explore, and it matters that these are presented in a range of ways so as to be accessible to many people. There can be a lot of snobbery in the literary world and I often wonder if it all comes down to either insecurity or competitiveness. Everyone is looking for something different in a book and they’re not all necessarily going to find it in the same ones.
Sera is a local woman who befriends Alison and the pair joins forces to help empower indigenous women in the Solomons. Sera is a marvellous character – strong, funny and open-hearted. She also loves cake. How essential is cake to you as a writer? Which cake works best to get your creative juices flowing … or to kill your darlings?
I hate cake. Can’t stand it. Sweet biscuits too. Most desserts in fact. Chocolate and cheese are my writing partners, which is why I often have grown up acne. However, neither chocolate nor cheese do too well in the Solomons, whereas cake stands up to the heat much better. I use music to help me kill my darlings. Solveig’s Song by Grieg. I’m like Hannibal Lecter – when you hear classical music coming from my house, people are about to bite the dust.
I love the advice Granny Smithford gives to Alison, including, ‘Nobody marries clever.’ You come from a Cypriot background. What one piece of Cypriot family advice has been the most influential in your life and writing?
Most of the advice my Papou gave me was related to trying fruit before you purchased it, but he did once tell me, ‘People are people – what you going to do?’ This is pretty solid advice. It has thoroughly informed my writing in that all my characters are awkward, flawed and complex, just like each of us.
What is your favourite moment in The Bit in Between and (if it differs) your favourite part of the story to write?
I couldn’t pick a favourite moment but I had so much fun writing Rick and Ed. I pretty much just imagined all the things I would say or do if I lacked self-awareness. The letters from Oliver’s mother were great fun too. I wrote each one with her voice in my ear, telling me what to put down.
‘There are tears, there is hubris, there is a damnation and a regret.’ This is the dazzling first line in your marvellous story ‘A Greek Tragedy’ published in Australian Love Stories in 2014. What else—apart from tears, hubris, damnation and regret—makes a good love story?
There’s this beautiful line from the end of Annie Proulx’s The Shipping News: ‘And it may be that love sometimes occurs without pain or misery.’ This is one of my favourite lines but, for me, if someone hasn’t unintentionally wrenched open the other person’s heart and left if heaving and weary on the ground then you’ve just not told a love story. I feel like it is my moral duty to the world to write love stories that are painful and awkward and uncomfortable, because often love invariably is.
We share a love of Dylan Thomas’ genius with language in Under Milk Wood. What’s your favourite line from the play?
‘I want to be good boy-o, but nobody’ll let me.’
I understand your manuscript sloshed around in a few other slush piles before it was chosen from Pan Macmillan’s slush pile for publication. What advice can you offer aspiring novelists from this experience?
So many slush piles. Eight of them – Pan Macmillan was the ninth. Obviously this has not engendered much confidence in me, so I offer advice tentatively and anxiously. But I suppose it is this: be stubborn and keep trying. I wrote a whole different manuscript in the Solomons before I wrote The Bit in Between. And a couple of years before that I had another manuscript that scuttled around the slush piles receiving encouraging thanks-but-no-thanks. Writing is so subjective and so much of getting published seems to come down to the right person dipping into the slush pile on the right day. As long as you are writing things you are proud of, just keep submitting and have faith in yourself.
Oliver is writing his second book and feels pressured to write a happy ending. Was it hard for you to resist a totally cheesy ending? Is yours a happy ending? Does it matter?
I don’t know if I’ve ever written a cheesy ending. Indeed, I don’t think I’ve ever really written a decisive ending because while you might end with some resolve for your characters, their lives are going to continue even after you’ve put down your pen so to try to tie everything up into a neat little conclusion is a bit of a lie. I really respect book endings, especially when it doesn’t turn out the way you want. This is one of the reasons I adore Hemingway. And respect to George R. R. Martin. ‘Oh, you liked that character did you …’
Pan Macmillan offered you a two-book deal and you’ve been reading about Iran and Ceylon as research for writing book two. Can you give ABBW a sneak preview of what your next novel will be about? Should readers be expecting an Alison and Oliver sequel?
For a moment I got really panicky about the fact you seem to know so much about me and then I remembered about the internet. There’ll be no more Alison and Oliver – we’ve told their story. Novel two is, at this point, going to explore race, identity and politics in present-day Melbourne, using one family as our entry point into these topics. I think. Ironically, I keep having Oliver moments where I wig out about writing a second book because I’m definitely having second album syndrome. It’s just as hard, if not harder. I’m currently eating a lot of cheese.
What do you most want people to understand about the Solomon Islands through reading this book?
Despite the limited and fairly patronising representations we have of the country, that it is a vibrant, resourceful and complex place. That it has an incredible history and a determination to celebrate customs and traditions alongside its own incarnation of progress. That, as my Papou said, people are people, and Solomon Islanders are our neighbours and our equals and there is much we can share with each other.
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