“Beyond the Pages: Lidia Yuknavitch Reveals the Hidden Depths of ‘Reading the Waves'”
LL: With the ocean, which yes — I love immensely — I want to ask about two things: 1) how the title Reading the Waves fits into the narrative, what that means to you and 2) Toni Morrison’s quote on this concept of creative conjuring and how water has ‘perfect memory.’ These are big, tumultuous waves. The depth of this response, I realize, could go really deep. Let’s keep it surface-level.
LY: Fellow ocean lover, I salute you. Yes the title is definitely a bit of a kiss to Virginia Woolf, because The Waves and To The Lighthouse profoundly inspired and influenced me. But the title also gestures toward how we might loosen up — make more fluid — our interpretations of the events in our past that have marked us. This is why I keep questions about reading and returning, about interpretation and memory at the surface of the storytelling. Does that make sense?
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