Thank you, Ron Charles, WaPo

(Lucky) 13 days until publication of The Waters

I write this blog on the occasion of receiving the most thoughtful and generous review of The Waters from The Washington Post, along with this super fun graphic (the whole thing is below). To my great surprise, Ron Charles compares me to a very important novelist. He writes:

“It subtracts nothing from Campbell’s originality to suggest that she’s taken up the mantle of John Irving. Like the elder novelist, Campbell explores mysteries of paternity (and maternity) with tremendous sympathy. Her mingling of comedy, sex and calamity — without diminishing their distinct impacts — serves as a kind of feminist counterpoint to Irving’s priapic stories. And fans of both novelists will notice their similarly thoughtful consideration of abortion, their use of animals and even a missing hand.

“But Campbell is less encumbered than Irving by the autobiographical impulse. She moves deftly and sympathetically from character to character and from family out to community. And for a novel so devoted to an island of wise women, she’s equally insightful about the unbearable sorrow of unappreciated men. Even while fully acknowledging the long scar of rape and mocking the masculine tendency toward self-pity, Campbell can hear the plaintive desperation of guys who know their livelihoods, their prowess and their time are fading.”

Four weeks ago, I said I started this blog to keep my sense of humor while waiting for publication date, January 9. I’m not sure I’ve succeeded entirely. I’ve cried a lot, sometimes that happy kind of crying. Many mornings I wake up at 5am in a panic about something I have forgotten or not thought of or an email I did not respond to promptly. (Or today, I realized I responded to an email from an important person thinking that it was a different person!) One morning I woke up in a panic because I didn’t know what to do with my hair on the book tour—usually my friend Mary cuts it, but I haven’t seen her in a while.

After reading the wonderful novel Yellowface, by R.F. Kuang, about a plagiarist, I woke up one morning terrified that I had plagiarized The Waters from another writer without realizing it. And there is a sense in which I do feel that I didn’t write this book myself, that this book rose up from the Michigan landscape and the community of which I am a part, though I’m sure I’m the one who shaped it all into sentences!

I am super happy. My friends want me to be filled with pure joy, anticipating the upcoming birth of my long-awaited sixth baby. But those who know me well will not be surprised that I’m feeling anxious. I’ve learned in the second half of my life that there are just as many anxieties connected to potential success as there are to potential failures. And maybe those two things are the same animal.

So many kind and brilliant people (my friends and fellow writers, my agent, my publisher, my publicists) are doing all they can to give the book its full chance at success, its full flowering, a welcoming, which is all anybody can ask for a book. Right this minute, I am living the dream of many writers, and I appreciate that fact every minute of the day. Others probably think I’m making too big a fuss about the book—it’s just a book, and look at all the problems of the world! (Though people who would read this blog are probably a little book-obsessed themselves.)

And there’s some part of me that says, watch out! Some part of me is sure somebody will come along and knock this all out from under me (sadly, a certain brother of mine would do it if he could). Those of us raised on farms or in the Midwest have always been reminded of the dangers of getting too confident, too full of ourselves, and sometimes that can make us feel afraid to enjoy the good things that are happening. And by us, I mean me. Probably many of you would be smart enough to muster pure joy this time!

Also, there are plenty of challenges here on the home front—those that I dare mention include no ductwork yet for the new (used) furnace we brought into the family house but have not hooked up. (At least we finally got the asbestos removed—three cheers for that abatement and three more cheers for the mild weather!)

Since I’m admitting to anxiety, there’s also the book tour. Let’s hope the mild weather holds up, both for me traveling and for my darling Christopher holding down the fort at home. That said, a good sustained freeze would be good for my donkeys’ hooves, I think. Yes, I have been a worrier since childhood. Sometimes I wonder if that sense of worry is why I write stories, allowing myself to worry on the page.

And yet I’m thrilled about everything that is happening!

I’ll paste in the January schedule here in case you didn’t see it before. (More events in the months to come, stay tuned), and I look forward to seeing old friends and making new ones along the way! Below this you will find a link to the Washington Post review.

And a hundred cheers for the glowing review in The Washington Post, this beautiful news, a gift that I did not anticipate. Thank you, Ron Charles.

Some info about Ron Charles from the Washington Post (Note below how much of his bio he devotes to his wife!):

Ron Charles writes about books and publishing for The Washington Post. For a dozen years, he enjoyed teaching American literature and critical theory in the Midwest. Before moving to the District, he edited the books section of the Christian Science Monitor in Boston. His wife is an English teacher and the cinematographer of their satirical series, “The Totally Hip Video Book Review."

Honors and Awards: Louis Shores Award for reviewing, American Library Association; Arts & Entertainment Commentary, First Place, Society for Features Journalism; Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing, National Book Critics Circle; Veritas Media Award, Romance Writers of America