Talking to: Jayne Joso
Alcemi: What was one of the biggest challenges in writing 'Soothing Music for Stray Cats'?
Joso: Writing about London. Writing about a more remote, less-travelled place would still pose problems, but I think they would be different. Writing about a city, which, whether you live there or not, everyone feels they know, poses huge challenges, and I struggled quite a lot. I was concerned that the London in the novel might feel too distant, too much 'at odds' with the readers' own take on the place. But then someone suggested I read Jonathan Raban's 'Soft City', and that helped enormously. Raban's book reminded me of something Virginia Woolf also grappled with, and that's the idea of there being versions of a place, in my case a city, and how places form themselves, or are seen in a writer's mind, and there is always some degree of separation between that territory and the real thing. I think Woolf calls these places 'phantom cities', and yes, they have to be authentic, believable, but only in terms of the fiction; so you're not writing a definitive London, or an 'everyman's London', you're writing 'a version'. It has to be convincing and accurate, of course, but once I realised I was writing the narrator's London, it felt like a major breakthrough. So what you get in the novel is 'Mark's London', and hopefully it's a place people will recognise and relate to.
A: Do you particularly enjoy writing about cities?
J: Well, there are certain things that might be true of all cities, or the experience of all cities, the excitement they offer, the buzz and sense of opportunity, and then there are the darker aspects, the fear factors if you like, the pressures to keep going at top speed, to 'keep up', and the greater potential for loneliness. But to answer your question, I'm interested in all of it really, a city's dark and sunnier side, and I loved writing about London and landmark places like, Trafalgar Square and Tower Bridge and The Thames, that felt great.
A: What do you think are some of the book's other main features and themes?
J: Grief and survival, that sense of getting through each day, taking it slowly…easy… or trying to; kindness; risk taking, especially encounters with strangers… let's face it, they can often go badly! Look at Ian McEwan's, 'The Comfort of Strangers'!—I love that; and other beautiful stuff, like the effects of good music, and good literature.
A: Speaking of good literature, who are some of the writers you admire?
J: Thomas Pynchon, Virginia Woolf, George Eliot, John Steinbeck, Kobo Abe, Jonathan Lethem, Alessandro Baricco, Ian McEwan… Christina Rossetti… I could go on.
A: The novel has a very contemporary feel about it, almost as though it can see the recession coming, what do you make of that?
J: Well, it takes a look at the way some of us have been living the last few years, that's for sure, the consumerism and acquisitiveness and how that relates to status; it was all a bit empty wasn't it? Maybe it's a bit much to say that it sees the recession coming, but yeah, perhaps it hints at it.
A: It says on your website that you think of Japan as your second home, how did that come about?
J: I lived in Japan for quite a long time and made some lifelong friendships. I also enjoy the traditional culture there and a sense of calmness I can't easily find anywhere else.
A: Going back to the question of cities, do you think you'll write more fiction with a strong sense of place?
J: I hope so. The idea of finding the right space/place, somewhere a person can feel at home or at ease is really what interests me, and I'm writing something new with that in mind.
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