Robin Farrar Maass
Robin Farrar Maass is a lifelong reader and writer who fell in love with England when she was twenty-two. She enjoys tending her messy wants-to-be-English garden, painting watercolors, and traveling. She lives in Redmond, Washington, with her husband and two highly opinionated Siamese cats. The Walled Garden is her first novel, and she’s already at work on her next novel set in England.
Twitter: @RobinFMaass
Instagram: @RobinFMaass
Are there particular films that have influenced your writing?
Definitely! Besides the gorgeous English countryside scenes in films like Pride and Prejudice and Persuasion, Enchanted April especially resonates with me—because of the lush, gorgeous backdrop of the Italian castle the four women share for the month of April, and because it’s such a woman-focused story. Each of the four, Lottie, Rose, Lady Caroline, and Mrs. Fisher, is weighing the choices they’ve made in their lives and considering whether a different way of life might suit them better.
The other thing that always fascinates me about Enchanted April is that it defies the conventional wisdom to have lots of action and keep the story moving constantly. It’s a movie about four women thinking! Somehow its leisurely, languorous pacing gives the viewer time to enter the interior life of each woman and really experience their inner journeys. As well as being beautiful, Enchanted April captures the quiet courage it takes to not just keep doing what you’ve always done or what everyone expects you to do, but to really honestly examine your own life and open yourself to the possibility of change. The book is celebrating its one-hundred-year anniversary this year, so I think it’s a message that continues to resonate!
Is your go-to comfort food sweet or savory? Is it something you make yourself? Does food inspire your writing?
Food definitely inspires my writing! There are two important tea party scenes in The Walled Garden, and a couple of dinners as well. I always feel cheated as a reader when an author situates a scene during a meal and doesn’t describe what the characters are eating! I think that’s a big part of the vicarious joy of reading for me. My go-to comfort foods are definitely sweet and they’re all things I make myself: my grandmother’s Gingersnaps, a heavy, moist spice cake from an old Betty Crocker cookbook, and the pink cupcakes from a cookbook of my mother’s that I like to serve at tea parties.
Not all books are for all readers… when you start a book and you just don’t like it, how long do you read until you bail?
I used to be a die-hard reader who would hang in there till the bitter end, no matter what! But as I’ve gotten older and more aware of the passing of time, I’m less tolerant than I used to be. It’s not like I say to myself, OK, I’ll give you 10 chapters (or 2!) to get interesting and if you haven’t done it by then, I’m out. It’s more like I just find myself pushing the book to the bottom of the stack and reaching for something else. I’ve been realizing lately that I seem to be constitutionally unable to keep reading a book that doesn’t hold my interest, no matter how many people tell me, “Oh, you’ve got to read Such-and-Such!”
I think it’s true: not all books are for all readers.
Is there a work of art that you love? Why? Have you ever visited it in person?
I had an extraordinary experience with a work of art that became one of my favorites after I saw it. I had gone to Kenwood House, which is on the edge of Hampstead Heath in London, in the late afternoon of a short, dark December day. There were hardly any other visitors, and I had Kenwood’s amazing collection of art almost to myself. In a beautiful wood-paneled gallery, I came across Rembrandt’s late-life “Portrait of the Artist,” also known as the “Self-Portrait with Two Circles.” It was getting close to closing time and there was no one there except me and the curator.
As we stood there with the light fading, he told me the story behind the painting and some of the theories about the two mysterious circles. I fell in love with the picture because of the mystery and because Rembrandt has the courage to show himself exactly as he is near the end of his life. There’s none of the youthful romanticism or idealism of some of his younger (and also brilliant) self-portraits. It’s a portrait of an old man, dressed in his artist’s smock and holding his paintbrushes, looking straight out at you and saying, “This is who I am.” Seeing the painting that way was a magical, unforgettable experience.
Do you have another artistic outlet in addition to your writing? Do you sew? Paint? Draw? Knit? Dance?
Yes, I paint watercolors. I love color and there’s something about the delicate transparency of watercolor that just captures me. Writers go through lots of ups and downs over time, and I took up painting during a period of my life when I’d given up on writing. I thought I could sublimate my desire to create art by painting, which though I love it, did not turn out to be true! Writing always draws me back. I can’t not write.
As the pandemic began, I happened to be taking a drawing class and even though drawing is hard for me (partly because it’s so black and white—not enough color), I was so grateful for the mental escape that I found in drawing. It was one of the few activities during that time that absorbed my attention so completely that I couldn’t think (or worry) about anything else. I’d like to be able to sustain a daily drawing or painting practice to partner my writing, but so far, I haven’t been able to do that. But I live in hope!
