Jan Elizabeth Watson was raised in Maine, where she currently lives, writes, and teaches and which also serves as the backdrop for her novels Asta in the Wings (Tin House Books) and What Has Become of You (Dutton). Her third novel-in-progress is set partly in Maine and partly in Ireland.Recently I asked Watson about what she was reading. Her reply:
I never read fewer than three books at a time because I like having different kinds of irons in any given fire. Currently on my nightstand is Outline, by Rachel Cusk. With this novel I believe Cusk is putting herself in the company of such writersLearn more about the book and author at Jan Elizabeth Watson's website.as Calvino and Nabokov and Kundera, whom I envy and adore.
I am also reading Ballerina, Ballerina, which is an adolescent stream-of-consciousness novel by Slovenian writer Marko Sosič, and Martin Chuzzlewit, by Charles Dickens. I have made it my personal goal to read every novel Dickens wrote within the next two years. Some literary highbrow types dismiss him as a populist, but for my money, any writer could learn something from the way he develops scenes and characters.
The Page 69 Test: What Has Become of You.
--Marshal Zeringue
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