My Interview with Teresa Neumann:
LF: Can you describe your book in 20 words or less? TN: It’s a fun, engrossing, coming-of-age tale of regret, rebellion, tragedy, comedy, unconditional love, romance, hope, redemption, and reconciliation.
LF: What made you want to write a novel set in the 70s? TN: Primarily because Freaks is loosely based on my observations living in northern California during that time period. 1972 was a pivotal year for the West Coast counter culture, as that is when the “back to earth” movement really took off and hippies began to spread out of urban areas to seek a more rural environment in order to be closer to nature. The whole polyester leisure suit and disco-music scene had yet to arrive, so the atmosphere was still deeply ingrained with the 60’s full-blown hippie vibe.
LF: How much of what is included in the book is based on true events? TN: No particular scene, experience or character is based on a single true event. Rather, it is a composite of many different experiences, people I knew, and places I lived in or visited. For example, Ketch – the albino biker from Texas – is a character closely patterned after a Texan my husband and I befriended in the late 70’s in Boulder, Colorado. And anyone who partied during the 60’s and 70’s will, no doubt, identify with the “getting high” scenes in the book.
Most people have also heard about the “Jesus Movement” in the 60’s and 70’s, but don’t realize how truly radical and pervasive it was at the time. I can’t tell you how many times, hitchhiking, or just out and about in San Francisco, that I was approached by what we, at the time, called “Jesus Freaks.” Most of them were long-haired hippies, rather than “red-necks,” so there was at least a superficial connection with them. I’ll never forget one, who gave me a ride in his rainbow painted VW van, praying for me to be safe. He gave me a feeling as though he were my brother who truly cared for my safety. Encounters like that, and others, helped break the stereotype I had of “Jesus Freaks” being totally weird oddities.
LF: I grew up in the 70s as a young child and lived my teen years in the 80s, yet I could relate to some of the cultural references. Do you see any parallels to any other time period with the hippie movement of the 70s? TN: There was the lawless “Roaring Twenties” that followed WWI (The Wiemar Republic in Germany was notorious for its descent into debauchery). I don’t think it’s a coincidence that rebellion via hedonism is typically higher after a bruising war, such as it was with WWI or Viet Nam. There was a huge loss of faith following WWI with many embracing nihilism. That tendency only increased after WWII and Viet Nam. (For the record, I am NOT a nihilist; far from it!) The “Peace and Love” movement of the 60’s was more accurately called that at its beginning with a select sub-groups of hippies who truly wanted to opt-out of society and pursue utopia.
Soon after, however, the movement became politicized, e.g. the Weathermen, SDS, etc. and some of the initial “hippie” values became radicalized and perverted with cults forming around them. There definitely remains a strong remnant today of the original “Flower Children” who still live communally and live by nearly communistic standards; they’re often parodied today in print and on screen by more conservative Americans – which shows you the cultural divide addressed in my book hasn’t changed that much ;-) Of course, there’s the far tamer hipster movement today. I must say, I love their beards!
LF: The main character is of half Italian descent. Do you think that our parents' culture helps to define who we are? TN: Though most of us rebel to some degree against our parents, I think their culture definitely contributes to who we are ultimately. As a matter-of-fact, I’d go so far as to say my grandparents (who were born in 1899) were a huge influence in my life – as much as my own parents. You couldn’t have told me that in my 20’s, but today I am thankful for it. And when it comes to Italian families – well, all bets are off. The influence of family members in Italy is nothing short of astonishing. I love it. That’s why it plays such an integral part in my book’s main character, Sid.
LF: What feedback have you received from your readers that has made you happy you wrote this book? TN: Unlike Bianca’s Vineyard, my first book, where the feedback was about immigration and WWII, people are responding to the issues of stereotypes, divisiveness and cultural discrimination addressed in Freaks The lesson to be learned in, I hope, is that we CAN live together and that we need each other – as different as we might be – to sharpen us; iron as to iron.
LF: What was the most challenging aspect of writing this book? The easiest? TN: The most challenging aspect of my book were the multiple edits. The original draft of Freaks was basically a novella; half the size and with twice the number of boarders -- TWELVE to be exact! My editor, the incomparable Sandra Byrd, suggested I drastically pare down the characters and considerably lengthen the word count. As always, she was right. I can take her recommendations to the bank. I love meeting my readers, but the actual marketing of my books is the least enjoyable aspect of being an author. The easiest (if you can call it that) part of writing Freaks was immersing myself into that time period. It seems like yesterday!
LF: If you could travel back in time, where would you go? Who would you see? TN: Ah, it wouldn’t be the 1970’s, I can tell you that ;-) I’m far too much of an old-school romantic for all the relationship incongruities of that era. There’s something about the first decade of the 1900’s where the world was on the cusp of so many exciting inventions and breakthroughs and unjaded by the yet-to-happen world wars. No wonder my favorite seasons of Downtown Abbey, for example, were the years before WWI!
LF: What is the funniest (or strangest, or scariest) incident that has ever happened to you? TN: Readers may think it’s strange/funny that when I lived in California I was the secretary for a mail-order “head” shop in Sausalito, located on a houseboat. It was called “Interplanetary Posters.” Because we shipped a lot of paraphernalia to prisoners around the country, my boss wanted to protect my identity and told me to create an alias to use in my correspondence. The name I came up with? Marsha Mellow. So 70’s, right?
The scariest experience I had living in California involved hitchhiking. I didn’t have a car (it was cool to be poor and unattached to material possessions) so I hitchhiked every day to my job about 30 miles from Novato where I lived. I also hitchhiked, alone, at night. Just crazy. I’d die if my daughters did that! Anyway, I prided myself in using “safe” tactics – not getting in a car with more than one person, not getting in the back of a two-door car, etc. One day, a guy who picked me up after work asked if I’d mind if he pulled off the freeway to get something he’d forgotten. Stupidly, I said, “Okay.” He parked in front of an apartment complex and said he’d be just a second. When he got back into the car – just a minute or two later – I glanced over and saw a hunting knife in a sheath attached to the driver’s door. My heart stopped and I froze. He started the car and I noticed he was acting strangely; jittery. I guessed that he had “shot up” something. As he slowed on his approach to the freeway entrance I insisted he stop the car. When he didn’t, I opened the door. He slammed on the brakes and I jumped out, feeling as though in doing so I had just saved my life. You’d think that would have compelled me to buy a car, but no. That would have been too bourgeois. Like I’ve often said, it’s a miracle I’m alive thinking of all the stupid things I did in the 70’s!
LF: Can you share with us some of your favorite authors and what you are currently reading? TN: I cut my teeth on the classics at the parochial high school I attended in the Midwest, so they always score highest: Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Dumas, Hardy, Dickens, Hugo, Austen, the Bronte Sisters, Sigrid Undset, G.K. Chesterton, etc. Tennyson and Edna St. Vincent Millay are my favorite poets. I love Elizabeth Goudge’s book,
The Dean’s Watch. There are so many good writers out there today, I don’t know where to begin! Leif Enger’s
Peace Like a River is, I think, a modern American classic. I also like fun, light travel memoirs, like Peter Mayle’s “
Provence” books. I’m currently reading
Map of the Heart by Susan Wiggs.
LF: Thank you so much, Teresa, for taking the time to chat with me!
About the Author:
Author of highly-acclaimed "A Year in the Company of Freaks," Teresa was raised in a large Midwest family and now lives in Oregon. She is also the author of "Bianca's Vineyard," and its sequel, "Domenico's Table." Both books are based on the true stories of her husband's Italian family in Tuscany. In addition to enjoying family, writing, reading, meeting her readers, wine tasting, traveling, and all things Italian, Teresa loves playing the fiddle with other musicians.
