| | No. As a rea Toms Shoes Outlet der, I have from very early days loved ranting books. Certainly since the second half of the 19th century there's been a pretty strong tradition of misfit, ranting narrators, and they're all men. My father's side was a Mediterranean lot窶杯here was a lot of emotion expressed. My mother's side, a Canadian lot of English origin and not a lot of emotion expressed. So I think you put those two things together and for me it maybe wasn't such a stretch to conceive of somebody who had a lot of emoti Cheap Louis Vuitton Handbags on and didn't express it. In the book, you describe work by a woman who is supposed to be an accomplished artist. Was it hard to create a believable work of fictional art? She's supposed to be having some positive reaction to her work in the world, so then you're going to come up against issues of plausibility. I did various different kinds of research, going to lots of galleries. I have a very good friend who is an artist and I asked her. She Toms Shoes Sale said even where <the> art is bad, it seems plausible, which I was grateful for. Do y Toms Outlet ou read your reviews? I guess I do read them. I remember one time meeting somebody at a party and having a nice chat with her and James said afterward, "She wrote a nasty review of your book a few years ago." You'd think you'd remember. Do you ever respond to readers who comment on your books online? At the time of "The Emperor's Children" there was an online book-room chat and I was astounded by the tone. It was supposed to be several days long and after a day I recused myself. I wrote to the people who organized it and I said, "Surely you don't expect me to smile politely and respond cheerfully to the invective." I just logged right out. What type of book is your guilty pleasure? What's sort of embarrassing that I secretly read窶杯here are half a dozen on the pile窶祢 get these books like a history of Alexander the Great for 12-year-olds. I really would love to know more about Alexander the Great but in my real life am I going to read the 500-page book? But I'll read the 120-page book for 12-year-olds. I got "The Magic of Reality: How We Know What's Really True" by Richard Dawkins, an atheist's history of the universe, to read to my son. He's 9. It's a little hard for him to read to himself. Is it difficult to get writing done with two kids? All these people who say, "You have to write four hours a day." Really? If I had to do that then I wouldn't do anything. You're in the middle of doing something and you suddenly look at your watch and you think, "I have to go." The nurse at the kids' school is called Nurse K. There's a terrible moment when you pick up the phone窶敗he do Cheap Christian Louboutin esn't address anybody by name窶敗he says, "Mom. It's Nurse K." Can I hang up? Write to Ellen Gamerman at ellen.gamerman@wsj.com A version of this article appeared April 26, 2013, on page D4 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Claire Messud's Furious Follow-Up.
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