Acclaimed writer Yiyun Li returns to the show to talk about her new novel, Music Against the Night, with co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell. Li explains how she first became interested in fictionalizing the lives of married musicians John Field and Adelaide Percheron and reflects on the limits, challenges, and opportunities of conducting historical research for fiction.
She discusses the role grandparents play in her characters’ lives and how older mentors can shape an artist’s personal and professional growth. She also shares how she chose to structure two wide-ranging life stories within one novel, and how her characters illustrate disparities in opportunity among equally talented peers. Li considers how her characters define failure and success, and how these definitions affect John and Adelaide, neither of whom achieve fame.
She reads from Music Against the Night. To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below.
Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/ This podcast is produced by V.V. Ganeshananthan, Whitney Terrell, Emily Farris, and Sydney Perkins. Music Against the Night • Encountering the Past in “Music Against the Night” | The New Yorker • Things in Nature Merely Grow • The Book of Goose • Wednesday’s Child • Must I Go • Where Reasons End • Kinder Than Solitude • Gold Boy, Emerald Girl • The Vagrants • A Thousand Years of Good Prayers • Dear Friend, from My Life I Write to You in Your Life A Life and Times: Fryderyk Chopin | Dr Alan Walker • A Confession and Other Religious Writings | Leo Tolstoy • Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 5, Episode 42: Yiyun Li on Complicated Friendships Real and Imagined EXCERPT FROM A CONVERSATION WITH YIYUN LI V.
Ganeshananthan: [Regarding] research that you’ve done, John Field is a real person. So is Adelaide Percheron, also known as Percherette. So, what brought these historical characters to your attention?
I know you mentioned Tolstoy. When did you realize that these were the people you wanted to write about? Yiyun Li : I just did sort of a long reflection on that process.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
