Midlife Authors: Novelist A.H. Kim
Plus, four novels about leaving (or not leaving) a tight-knit community
Hi friends! It’s April and we’re on to the next in the Midlife Authors series. (Find the first two here and here.)
Today’s interview is with novelist AH Kim (Ann), whose second novel Relative Strangers (Graydon House/HarperCollins) published this week. Relative Strangers is a contemporary retelling of Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, so if you’re an Austenite, take note.
Like me, Ann Kim is a late bloomer, fiction-wise: she got serious about writing fiction in her forties and published her debut novel in her fifties, during the pandemic. Her debut, A Good Family, was featured in Poets and Writers’ annual 5 Over 50 feature, and I love this quote of hers from the piece: “To those of you who have a dream, I say, ‘Go for it.’” Ann is also a literary citizen extraordinaire, cheering on other writers in person and on social media, and highlighting AAPI authors.
Here’s a little more background about Ann: She was born in Seoul, South Korea, and immigrated to the U.S. as a young child; she attended Harvard College and Berkeley Law School, then practiced corporate law for many years, serving as chief of staff to the CEO and as head of investor relations at a Fortune 200 company. She’s the proud mom of two sons, a longtime cancer survivor, and community volunteer. After raising her family in the Bay Area, Ann and her husband now call Ann Arbor, MI, home.
Ann's first novel A Good Family was inspired by her experience supporting her brother and nieces while her sister-in-law served time in Alderson Women’s Prison Camp. Her second novel, Relative Strangers, is a contemporary retelling of Sense and Sensibility and explores themes of love, loss, grief, and forgiveness.
Midlife Authors Q and A with A.H. Kim
Where/when did you notice the first glimmers of writing? Or to put it another way, when did fiction writing start calling to you more insistently?
I've always loved reading and writing, but I never dreamed of being an author myself until I was in my late forties and read John Green's YA novel The Fault In Our Stars. Something about that book sparked a fire in me, making me want to write a book that both entertained and touched people's hearts. Eight years later, my debut novel A Good Family was published.
What do you know now as a writer that you wish you’d known starting out?
I feel lucky to have been told early on that writers should be good literary citizens. That means we support and amplify other writers, mentor and inspire emerging talent, attend events and buy books whenever possible, and so forth. I've found this advice to be helpful not only for my publishing career (my writer friends are some of my best cheerleaders) but also for my mental health (writing can be a very solitary activity but having a community of writer friends makes it feel less lonely).
What makes a midlife writer a stronger writer?
I sincerely believe that the best training to be a writer is to be a reader. The older you get, the more books—and hopefully, the more broadly—you've read.
Can you share your advice for someone who’s just getting started with writing, or who thinks it’s too late?
First of all, it's never too late. I didn't write fiction until my mid-forties, and there are countless authors who didn't begin writing until their sixties, seventies, or older. Second, if you're unsure how to get started, try enrolling in a writing class or joining a writers' group. I recommend the Amherst Writers & Artists (AWA) method, whose core belief is that "every person is a writer, and every writer deserves a safe environment in which to experiment, learn, and develop craft." Check out www.amherstwriters.org to find an AWA-affiliated workshop near you.
Tell us about your new novel.
Relative Strangers is a contemporary retelling of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility that touches upon themes of blended families, race, class and wealth. Unemployed, newly single and completely broke, Amelia Bae-Wood finds herself hitchhiking across California to deal with the fallout of her widowed mother’s eviction from the family estate. Meanwhile, Amelia’s sister, Eleanor, is in a court battle with a man who claims to be their half brother from Seoul, while simultaneously preparing for her teenage daughter to head off to college.
Relative Strangers gives a modern, feminist twist to Austen's beloved classic with a diverse cast of characters searching for love and forgiveness in a bucolic Bay Area setting.
And if you like, tell us about a book that you think deserves more attention.
Oh my, where do I start? So many great books get published every single week, and yet it seems only a couple dozen make the "best of" and "most anticipated" lists each year. That said, one of my favorite books in recent years is Be Frank with Me by Julia Claiborne Johnson. This debut novel features a famously reclusive writer (think: a female JD Salinger) fallen on hard times, the writer's quirky nine-year-old son, and the young woman assigned to be the writer's assistant but who ends up as the little boy's companion. Be Frank with Me is my favorite kind of book: one that makes me laugh and cry in equal measures, with characters so original and fully formed that I mourn their loss when I turn the last page.
(Note from Sarah: I loved Be Frank with Me too! Julia Claiborne Johnson is a wonderful writer.)
More about Relative Strangers here and here.
Four novels about leaving (or not leaving) a tight-knit community
Speaking of retellings, I recently read Francesca Segal’s 2012 debut novel The Innocents, which reimagines Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence as a contemporary story set in London, with a Jewish cast of characters. Adam Newman and Rachel Gilbert are in their late twenties, and finally engaged after a long period of being a couple; they’re the modern counterparts to Wharton’s Archer Newland and May Welland. As with Age of Innocence, the novel follows Adam’s perspective as black sheep cousin Ellie Schneider, who’s been acting and modeling in New York after getting kicked out of Columbia, enters the picture. (Ellie = Countess Ellen Olenska in Age of Innocence.)
The Innocents’ narration feels Whartonesque, often wry and verging on omniscient, with lots of commentary about the novel’s tight-knit Jewish community based in northwest London, the unspoken rules everyone knows to adhere to, and the stratifications within. Just as with The Age of Innocence, a couple of late plot twists reveal some surprises about Adam, Rachel, and Ellie.
Fun fact: Francesca Segal is the daughter of Eric Segal, author of Love Story.
The Innocents reminded me of a novel I love, Allegra Goodman’s 1999 debut novel Kaaterskill Falls, set in the Seventies, about an Orthodox Jewish summer community in upstate New York. Kaaterskill Falls follows several characters over a few summers, focusing mainly on Elizabeth Shulman, a young mother of five daughters, who’s trying to find her place and some meaning both inside and outside of her cloistered Lubavitcher-like community. It’s a tender, immersive novel.
And to go back a little farther in time, Laurie Colwin’s Family Happiness (first published in the late 1980s and reissued in 2014) explores main character Polly Solo-Miller’s discontents with her loving, quirky, overbearing extended family. As with all Laurie Colwin novels, Family Happiness is funny, and minutely observed, but it’s a little darker than her other novels.
What are you reading? Let me know!
Coming in the next issue of An Unfinished Story: The largest house in America, and its relationship to Edith Wharton, Henry James, and John Singer Sargent.
I’ll leave you with a couple of scenes from our late-March and early-April snowstorms.
Am getting Ann’s books as well as Let’s Be Frank. Thanks for the inspiration and reminder that’s it’s never too late to become a writer.
Wonderful interview! I loved both A Good Family and Relative Strangers. Ann's journey is inspiring! If (when) I publish one of my novels, I will join you both in the "midlife authors" club.
I've added Be Frank with Me to my TBR list, and in a fun coincidence, Family Happiness is sitting on my shelf, ready to be one of my May or June reads.