What are the current threads of New England culture you tried to represent?
I wanted people to see a multi-ethnic, multi-racial society. The two Boston books give you a conversation between African Americans and Irish Americans. And the Wasps in both cases. That was nice. People really get that. Also, because of my own personal interests, I wanted people to really understand that Native Americans are identified with this region, small in numbers but important in presence. … There’s a literature there, and there’s some contemporary writers, but there isn’t a New England Louise Erdrich. How much do you read, and how do you choose what you read? I’ve focused myself on New England in my teaching and my writing in the last several years, and I do try to read New England literature, but I also read a lot of newspapers, too, two or three newspapers a day. I’m interested in politics, that’s part of it. I don’t know. It’s hard. I think that one of the things, ironically, is being a professor these days means you have less and less time to read. I think that’s a probl
