Amy Bloom on Where the God of Love Hangs Out

Amy Bloom Interview Better Audra: Well if you’re looking for a new book to read Best Selling Author Amy Bloom has one that’s already gaining a lot of praise right there. Rhiannon spoke with the author about the book and why readers might like this book even more than the last. Rhiannon: Passion, infidelity, divorce, don’t let the innocent cover fool you Amy Blooms new book gets real. Amy: I am not the Little Mary Sunshine of fiction I think that’s safe to say. You know I think that love is a very powerful force but that doesn’t make it entirely benign. Not everything that people do because they love is sweet and like a box of chocolates. I mean they can be dark and powerful. It’s like the ocean sometimes it’s beautiful in a sunny day and sometimes it takes you out to see and you never return. Rhiannon: Thanks to her writing style Amy has fans of all ages. Fan: She cuts to the bone and she’s talking about real emotions and even if you know it sort of makes you cringe. It makes you recognize something deep within yourself. Rhiannon: Amy’s writing may make you squirm but she also has the skill to make you laugh unexpectedly. [Amy Reading Her Book] Rhiannon: What’s up with the title Where the God of Love Hangs Out, what does that mean? Amy: Well I think what I had in mind actually I have to say was sort of a crappy bar and a crappy town and my own feeling that these things are always quite unexpected. I really did sort of have this vision of cupid and sort of a full grow bright gold man who was sort of lolling about at subway stations and bus stops just waiting to see what unlikely person he might hit with his arrow. Rhiannon: And is that where your inspiration comes from just all those unlikely places? Amy: I think so very much the unlikely places. There’s a great quote from— which he says “We do not choose whom we love” and I think that’s true. You can choose how you can behave. You can’t choose how you feel. Rhiannon: Three years ago Amy captured people’s attention with her book away set in the 1920s about a Russian woman in search of her lost daughter. The book was on the New York Times Best Seller list and one critical praise but Amy says she felt no pressure to compete with that success with her new book unlike her last book Where the God of Love Hangs Out is a collection of short stories. Amy: For some people who have read away and really loved it. They actually prefer this because they like the fact that it’s contemporary. It’s set in America now though people are, people you would meet at the supermarket or at work or at the movies they are no different than the rest of us. Rhiannon: This is why fans say they couldn’t put the book down once they started reading. Fan: I do like her because she’s talking about real things and you got the sense that she’s talking about you know humanity and it isn’t necessarily being self indulgent. Rhiannon: Amy says there is talk of her last book away being made into a movie but she won’t believe it until the contract is signed and it’s playing in theatres, Audra? Audra: Thanks a lot Rhiannon. Amy Blooms new book where the God of Love Hangs out is in stores now.