Q&A …

… An Interview with Louise Erdrich | Commonweal Magazine. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

One detail about my grandfather that I didn’t put in the book was this: in spite of how hungry he was during his field work, he always saved half a sandwich from his lunchbox for my mother. As a child, she was always delighted to have that treat. Eventually she realized what a sacrifice for him that was and stopped asking. But that story tells me the sort of man I was writing about. In his letters my grandfather takes great joy in the trust of children and recounts details about the things they do and say. I remember him that way. I tried to layer Thomas’s character with small acts of kindness, but I wasn’t aware of doing that until now, answering this question.