Author profile: Novelist ponders motherhood in latest novel, life

J. Courtney Sullivan traveled to Ireland 12 years ago to see the home of her great grandmother, a woman who immigrated to America alone when she was 17.

'There was something so powerful about being in that room,” Sullivan said in a phone interview. 'The whole reason we're Americans comes down to this 17-year-old girl coming here on her own. It's extraordinary.”

That experience planted the seed for Sullivan's new novel, 'Saints for All Occasions.” The book's primary characters, sisters Nora and Theresa, leave their home in Ireland to pursue new dreams in America. Those dreams quickly go awry, and the novel explores the consequences of decisions the sisters make early on.

A case could be made that the book is, in large part, about sisterhood. Sullivan acknowledges that but says she came at the story from a different angle. 'I think I was thinking more about motherhood and different forms of motherhood.”

Nora, for example, 'is a traditional mother figure, but also a mother to her sister. Really the only mother she ever has.”

For her part, Theresa experiences a form of both sisterhood and motherhood as a cloistered nun. That decision is a kind of sacrifice and a kind of salvation for her.

'Her biggest struggle is going into the abbey,” Sullivan said.

The book, she said, 'is so much about the inner lives of these women.” Readers are invited to share the innermost thoughts of Nora and Theresa as well as other family members struggling to connect with one another.

All of this, said Sullivan, explores a key question: 'How do we make our families?”

Sullivan married into a family of Iowans, and as a result, she does quite a bit of writing in the state. She and her husband (and their dog) often make the trek from New York to Des Moines. Cumulatively, she said, they spend as much as a quarter of the year in Iowa.

'A high percentage of each of my books has been written in Des Moines. I can remember being in the guest room in my mother-in-law's house writing those passages.”

Those passages, and everything Sullivan writes, are grounded in research. She's a former researcher for the New York Times, and the skills serve her well.

'I love research,” she said. 'I could do research for these books for years and years and never write a word.”

Part of the research for 'Saints for All Occasions” involved learning about the lives of cloistered nuns. Fortunately, a close family friend, a woman who went into the abbey before Sullivan was born, was willing to share her experiences with the author.

'One of the best parts of being a writer is getting to peer into other worlds,” Sullivan said, 'even if you aren't going to stay very long.”

The narrative of 'Saints for All Occasions” moves back and forth in time, but Sullivan took a more straightforward approach to writing the story.

'I wrote it in a linear way,” she said. 'I couldn't toggle back and forth.”

Once that was done, she moved various sections of the book around on the floor of her apartment, looking for the best order and pacing.

'This was probably of all my books the one that changed the most as I wrote it,” she said.

Asked what she's working on now, Sullivan laughed.

'I'm eight months pregnant, so I'm working on paint colors for a nursery.”

The upcoming birth means Sullivan won't be going on a lengthy tour. She was invited to read at Prairie Lights for this book, which she would have loved to do.

'I've shopped there a ton,” she said, 'but I've never read there.”

'It's little disappointing not to do a full tour,” she said. 'But no one wants me going into labor in their store.”