Dan's Papers - June 27, 2008 - A.M. Homes

A.M. Homes may be one of the most fearless authors of this generation. Fantastically original and outrageously honest, she has written nine works of fiction. Her books have been translated into 18 languages, she has been awarded a Guggenheim and an Emmy, and her work has been featured in nearly every major publication in the United States. Homes uses her words in a smart, funny, thought-provoking and sometimes shocking - but always lovable - way. Homes lives and breathes what it means to be a writer, and by the way, she just happens to call East Hampton home.

During conversation, Homes is as sweet as apple pie, and while the people who live in the Hamptons find her remarkably interesting, she finds where she lives even more so. "I just think that this place is so fascinating. The East End has a mythological feel to it. The social economics of the Hamptons are just so interesting, and always changing. And its history is incredibly rich. Just from the time I've been here, I've watched how the landscape in Sagaponack has changed so dramatically, and yet I still see the same names of people that settled there hundreds of years ago. There aren't other places like that."

Born in Washington D.C., Homes has been a New Yorker since 1985, when she first started coming out to Amagansett. "The first time I was out here I was working on short stories for The Safety of Objects, and the time that I spent out there was deeply reflected in my writing. The Hamptons is in my blood."

Her passion for the area comes across naturally in her words. She has not only included the Hamptons in her books, she has also written a television show about the area for HBO. "I spoke to HBO a couple of years ago and wrote the script. It's hard to tell if they are going to do it or not, but we are working on it, so that is a really good sign."

Homes certainly knows how to tell a story. Her lengthy list of novels begins with her first book, Jack, which was published in 1989. This work, with its exploration of family life and sexuality, was what propelled Homes into the spotlight. It was so widely read and critically acclaimed that in 2004, Showtime decided they wanted to make a film based on the book. Other works include Things You Should Know, In a Country of Mothers, The End of Alice and Music for Torching. It's been six years since she has come out with a new book, and this year, readers get to enjoy two. Her newest novel, This Book Will Save Your Life, about life seen through the eyes of a Los Angeles day-trader, has already created international buzz and struck a chord with readers. Her memoir, The Mistress's Daughter, has already made The New York Times bestseller list. The book is a strikingly honest story about when her birth parents came looking for her 30 years after giving her up for adoption. It is a story of finding identity, a theme that Homes loves to explore through her writing. In some parts of the book, you find yourself tearing up from laughing so hard, and from a less defined, melancholy emotion at the same time. Stirring this reaction is an incredible feat that few writers can achieve.

In one section of her memoir called "My Father's Ass," she writes about taking a DNA blood test with her biological father, and at the lab, recognizing his ass as her own. She explains, "Having never known anyone related to me, I had to be told by others that I looked like my biological parents. Having never seen myself before, I didn't know what I looked like. No doubt there is biology that one can't escape, but at the same time, one can also hope to develop and improve on that biological root."

In addition to receiving a Guggenheim Fellowship and an Emmy Award, Homes has also received fellowships from the Cullman Center, New York Public Library, Center for Scholars and Writers, National Foundation for the Arts and New York Foundation for the Arts. She's also received the prestigious Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis. Her work has been the subject of countless classroom discussions about literature, and the reason is because she has the undeniable ability to find a unique writing voice for all that she writes. Some may call her voice scary, or honest, or brutal. But all reviewers, readers and scholars agree that her writing is simply brilliant.

What clearly comes across from Homes is her love for the East Hampton area, and the way it has affected her happiness. More than once in our conversation, she described how East Hampton brought her a sense of solace, and how she feels lucky to be able to live there year-round, as well as travel to her apartment in New York City. "There are many days that I drive through town and just think to myself that this is the most beautiful town in America."