Sheltering: Rowan Hisayo Buchanan on Relationship Dynamics and Mental Health
On this episode of Sheltering, Rowan Hisayo Buchanan talks to Maris Kreizman about her new novel, Starling Days. Starling Days opens with the protagonist, Mina, on George Washington Bridge looking down into the water. A police car pulls up… she tries to say she wasn’t considering suicide, but to no avail: the police take her in and won’t let her leave until her husband comes to get her, setting in motion the rest of the novel as the couple tries to navigate the fall-out of a single moment. In her conversation with Maris, Rowan reflects on having to feel grounded in a place as a non-negotiable aspect of her writing, as well as “having to come to terms with who we’re stuck with” in quarantine. Please purchase Starling Days online from your local bookstore or through Bookshop.
From the episode:
Maris Kreizman: What a very strange time to be reading this book, when most of the people I know who have spouses are literally stuck in one place with them. The couple moves to London early on in the book, in the hopes that perhaps a change of scenery is required and its like, yeah that’s a great fantasy!
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Rowan Hisayo Buchanan: I know, moving anywhere seems impossible right now. But I think any novelist is going to have moments right now going, “Ah, what am I doing, is this relevant anymore?”, but to me mental health and how we manage our relationship and how our personalities affect and shape the lives of those around us does still feel important to me.
Maris: More than ever, don’t you think? It’s a wild thing to be really focused on—in the book there’s a reason why the husband is so focused on his wife’s every move—but it’s a funny time to be thinking about the dynamics of a relationship and what make a person happy.
Rowan: One of the things I think about a lot is, the fact that who you choose to spend your life with, even according to serious economists, will have a huge effect on your financial and emotional life. It’s a quite serious endeavor! Right now I think we are very aware of who we have chosen to spend this time with, if it’s a romantic partner or parents, or whoever. I think it comes home very deeply.
