Paula Xiberras
Krissy photo credit: Anthony Mullins
When I interviewed authors Krissy Kneen and Chris Somerville recently I was in for some surprises in that both authors have a Tasmanian connection. Both are completely delightful. There is something quite special in seeing two young people talk about books with the enthusiasm we might see people talk about the latest music or fashion fad..
Krissy and Chris are friends and writing partners. They bounce ideas off each other and support each others work. Yet, their styles are completely different. Krissy writes with passion and the books are written quickly. Chris is more steady and minimalist but together they compliment each other.
The two met at the Newcastle writers festival 6 years ago, with coincidentally Tassie’s own Danielle Wood. Later they began talking about books on Facebook. They admit to sometimes disagreeing and having heated discussions but the two are incredibly supportive of each others work.
I am lucky enough to be sitting with them in a Hobart coffee shop prior to their event at Fullers. They are here a few days early, and in Krissy’s case a few days more, to enjoy catching up with what’s happening in Tassie. Chris is formerly from Launceston and misses Tassie raspberries which he was getting reacquainted with at the farmers market yesterday . Krissy’s ties to Tassie are through her dad. Every year she and her partner make the trip to Tassie to go motorcycling with her dad.
On this trip she says she has found a Dover boat shed that appeals as a writing retreat even more so that she is at this time working on a new book about the a poet and in a strange case of serendipity she discovered the boat shed is being used by a local poet and the walls are lined with books that she too is studying in her research of her poet. Perhaps it’s a message that she needs to get herself a writing retreat here!.
However, we are not here to discuss the future book, but her new release ‘Steeplechase’. A book centreing on the story of sisters and their competitiveness, brilliantly realised in their childhood passion of the hurdles and obstacles of steeplechasing.
Just as in the steeples race, one sister races ahead, with the other always trying to catch up. The story has a shock twist that is not predictable but like an accomplished painter builds with brush strokes, pixelling into a smile as striking and mysterious as Mona Lisa’s. This story of two sisters made reclusive by their grandmother was inspired in part by the documentary film called ‘Grey Gardens’ about a mother and daughter recluse.
A pivotal character in Krissy’s book is Raphael, not named for the painter but the angel.
There is a story of the angel Raphael and how he removes the gall from a fish to enhance healing. This has a coincidental correlation in the novel with the main protagonist Bec having recently had her gall bladder removed and perhaps with it some of the gall for her sister, so healing between them can take place.
I am always interested how authors react to someone seeing certain things in their novel that they may have not consciously but perhaps subconsciously intended and how they feel about Morris Gleitzman’s calling this “the magic spaces”, the place where author and reader meet with each individual reader bringing their own experience and interpretation to the book.
A case in point comes up when we discuss the appearance of a pigeon, a dead pigeon in Chris’ story ‘Snow on the mountain’, a story he gave Krissy as a birthday present. The story revolves around two people who take a trip up the mountain and may or may not be headed for the trip of romance. Krissy says that a pigeon is a symbol of romance and possibly due to its state meaning a dead romance. Chris surprises us, as he does in his stories with lots of little clues, some red herrings and in this case it looks like this one is too, as he doesn’t recall it intended to mean anything other than the pigeon met its ill fate because it shouldn’t have been flying up there. So our Icarus pigeon leads us to the same conclusion perhaps there this story is about a romance that isn’t meant to happen?
Krissy’s books are filled with passionate and lush language, Chris is a minimalist short story writer that makes us work hard and he is keenly observant, however we are not meant to intellectualise too much! Chris thinks its nice when readers search for meaning from the information he has given but says there is a great deal of ambiguity with no clear resolution in his stories!
Once Chris entered a short story competition with no luck, so Krissy wrote a story similar to Chris’s in style, with more success. Chris calls this the instance when Krissy “stole his voice”, but the two are absolutely okay about it!
The chat is over with the lovely Chris and Krissy heading off to Mona, Krissy’s confessed spiritual home. She is hoping to pitch an idea to the powers that be there that might see her doing some virtual reading.
Krissy’s ‘Steeplechase’ and Chris’s ‘We are not the same Anymore’ are out now.
