Hitting the heights: Iowa native finds inspiration in novel N.Y. neighborhood

By Diana Nollen

Peter Hedges wrote “What's Eating Gilbert Grape” in about four years. He started his latest novel, “The Heights,” in 1998. It hit bookshelves in March.

In between those first and third novels, he also wrote “An Ocean in Iowa” and the screenplays for “Gilbert Grape,” starring Johnny Depp and Leonardo DiCaprio; “Dan in Real Life,” starring Steve Carell and Juliette Binoche; “Pieces of April,” starring Katie Holmes and Oliver Platt; “A Map of the World,” starring Sigourney Weaver and Julianne Moore; and “About a Boy,” starring Hugh Grant, for which Hedges received an Oscar nomination.

Pretty heady stuff for the writer who grew up in West Des Moines, moved to New York after graduating from the North Carolina School of the Arts in 1984 and now lives with his wife and two sons in Brooklyn, the setting for his latest novel.

He'll be coming to his home state this week for readings and book signings, including an appearance at the Iowa City Public Library at 7 p.m. Thursday (4/15/10).

“The Heights” exemplifies the best piece of advice Hedges has received along his writing path.

“‘Anything worth doing well will take you 20 years to learn,'” he says, quoting a teacher who added, “‘In your case, Peter, it may take 21.'

“We live in a culture where we want things quickly, and along came a teacher who said it may take a while. That made me more patient,” Hedges, 47, says by phone from his office in New York. “I take my time. I'm only now beginning to write well. When he first told me I'd need 20 years, I felt a little bit depressed, then I realized a freedom in knowing it will take time.”

The book revolves around the lives of a married couple with two young sons, living in a tiny apartment in the tony Brooklyn Heights area and trying to eke out an existence. Their routine is shaken when their new neighbors introduce them to a whirlwind lifestyle outside their grasp.

Hedges actually had the first draft nearly finished when the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks rocked the nation.

“At that point, I was writing more of a tragedy. After 9/11, our idea of tragedy changed,” he says. “I wanted to put in the world a book that had more humor in it and didn't try to turn something into a tragedy.”

Even though he set his first two books in home state, he was a tad nervous setting his new book in his current surroundings.

“I've been careful, too, to not write about people I know, because I love where I live and want to be able to live here,” he says. “No story is good if it doesn't make you a bit uncomfortable to publish it.

“I selected The Heights as a location because it's a unique place. It's not like any other place I've lived. I feel as if I live in a small town across the river from one of the world's great cities. Anyone who knows their neighbors and doesn't know New York will be surprised to learn there are places in New York where one knows his own neighbors. That's what draws me to The Heights - this community of people I could write about.”

The characters are not based on anyone he knows, however.

“Invariably, little bits of life will creep in,” he says, “ but I like making people up; it's the fun part of writing. Sometimes how the characters look or how they sound or the rhythm in how they speak might be a hybrid of three or four people. Sometimes I see a name in the paper and say, ‘That's a great name. Who would that character be?' Sometimes the characters have something in common with me, but the list of differences is 10- to 20 times longer.

“If I write too close to my own experience, it inhibits the flow of the work. If I work more from a place of imagination, hopefully the story will feel real. But if it's more imagined, I have more freedom to think and do and say those undoable, unthinkable things of good stories.”

Since he began writing “Gilbert Grape” at age 24, his process has changed.

“I used to write books by reading them out loud. I wrote ‘Gilbert' and ‘Ocean' by making meals for friends. They'd come over and I'd read to them. ‘The Heights' I didn't read.”

In the early days, when he focused on writing plays, “I'd rent a theater and get actors to agree to be in a play,” he says. “Sometimes I'd create the need for work and now it's the opposite. I write, and when I'm ready, I move out in the world with it.”

The way he works also has changed with his family. He and his wife, Susan Bruce, have two sons, Simon, 15, and Lucas, 13.

“I now work 9 to 5, five days a week, and not on nights or weekends. ... When (his sons) were younger, I wrote all the time. Now I only write when the kids are at school.”

His office is in a studio apartment he owns, within biking distance of home.

“I've written at the same desk for 20 years,” he says. “I have lots of books and a piano in my office. I play the piano every day. I also have art from my kids when they were younger. That makes me happy.”

He says is desk is normally neat. “My walls are covered with cards outlining my next film. I have a bulletin board where I stick images, titles and nice e-mails. I have big cushy chairs. An old computer sits in the corner. Sometimes I go on it and look at the old stuff I attempted.”

His next project is a screenplay for “The Odd Life of Timothy Green” for Disney Studios. That's all he'll say, except that he also wants to direct it.

“I don't tell anybody what it's about. It's a big secret,” he says. “I think it's special. That's my hope anyway.”

And his most proud achievement to date?

“That my wife hasn't left me,” he exclaims. “It's that I get to do this. My life. I have a wonderful wife and kids and a life where every day I go to work and make up stories. I left Iowa and I gambled that I was going to try everything to live a creative life. I've had a lot of good fortune, a lot of breaks. I went for it and I found my place in the world doing what I'm supposed to be doing.

“The quality of life - that I'm able to do the work I love and live with those I love. That's everything.”

FAST TAKE

What: Author visits by Peter Hedges

In Des Moines: 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 13, 2010, Des Moines Public Library, Hoyt Sherman Place, 1501 Woodland Ave.; (515) 283-4152

In Ames: 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 14, 2010, Sun Room, Memorial Union, Iowa State University; (515) 294-9934

In Iowa City: 7 p.m. Thursday, April 15, 2010, Iowa City Public Library, 123 S. Linn St.; co-sponsored by Prairie Lights Books; http://calendar.icpl.org/ or (319) 337-2681

Author information: http://peterhedgeswriter.com/ph

[naviga:h2 style="text-align: left"]BOOK REVIEW: Hedges creates intriguing intersections for diverse life paths

By Diana Nollen

I can't remember the last time I picked up a book I couldn't put down.

 “The Heights” lives up to its title, even though Peter Hedges' third novel actually is named for his Brooklyn, N.Y., neighborhood.

I cared about all the characters from each introduction.

First, we meet Kate, a stay-at-home mom living with her husband, Tim, and two young sons in a cramped apartment amid much tonier brownstones. They're leading an unremarkable life full of tantrums and sticky-faced smiles, simple little pleasures and late-night pillow talk where Kate makes buttering toast sound sexy. Tim has shelved his dissertation in favor of teaching history at an exclusive private school.

Everywhere they look, they're surrounded by people of privilege. And suddenly, through a chance encounter, they're invited into that world.

They step cautiously into the foreign territory and find themselves falling farther and farther into the arms of opportunity. No pleasure is simple in the realm of power-plays and high society; each comes with a price.

Kate and Tim's world slowly turns inside out to reveal a hot, molten underbelly.

Hedges takes us on this creeping downward spiral with tight, crisp dialogue and an intriguing cast of characters. Even the annoying ones have just enough color to make us care about them. Well, perhaps not the social climbers who clamor over Kate when she's befriended by a high society seductress. But certainly the hopelessly mousy high-school girl mooning over her dreamy teacher, Tim.

Hedges has a keen ear for diverse voices across the generations and gives us just enough intriguing glimpses via short, crisp chapters to keep us clamoring for each new point of view.