I don’t know whether to chalk up the unusually high caliber of this author interview to a rapport between the interviewee/interviewer that clearly predates the interview, or to the freedom to speak ones mind that is a hallmark of advancing age. Whatever the reason, what results is a rare gem: an interview with an author I actually enjoyed hearing. Although I usually toss kudos freely to NPR, the online stream I listen to most, bar none, when it comes to their interviews of authors, I usually have to set my headphones down and check in occasionally to hear if it’s over yet. The authors often come across as maudlin or self-congratulatory. Sometimes they’ll get a writer who puts on airs of humility, but the air is thin, and the tone practiced. It’s not that I need to like the writer. I don’t. And maybe that’s the problem I have with those sorts of interviews. I don’t know that they serve much purpose. There aren’t regular interviews of visual artists and, I believe, for good reason. The work should speak for itself. I’d rather, in fact, hear a reader’s review of the work and/or hear actors or others read parts of the work than have the author taking up precious airtime answering a question that’s been posed by a multitude of interviewers already. I run from these interviews, too, because I often think I’ll like the work but not the author or the interview, and don’t want to be swayed against buying the book. I don’t want to prejudice the pages that, in the end, have nothing to do with the interview. So, usually I don’t listen or cut it off after the first minute or two.
This one, however, kept me listening … maybe because Maurice Sendak is a hero of kids’ literature. Maybe because the only work of his I know well has so few words that I was affording him a few more. Likely, though, it’s that he’s old and I knew nothing of his race, orientation, history, or inspiration, and was pretty sure I wouldn’t find it in the pages of This Pig Wants to Party. From what Maurice and Fresh Air’s Terry Gross taught me, though, I may have been wrong. After hearing this interview, I will be buying the book and reading it like I’m back in English Lit.
Here, I invite you to listen to the interview. It presents an author who is refreshingly frank, sometimes annoying, completely misaligned with most of my ideals but – more importantly – is genuine. Ladies and gentleman, Maurice Sendak, the legend, and Fresh Air’s Terry Gross, who finally gave me an interview to trust.
http://www.npr.org/2011/09/20/140435330/this-pig-wants-to-party-maurice-sendaks-latest
I haven’t read this children’s book (This Pig Wants to Party) that is the subject of the interview but if anyone has and can make a recommendation, speak now or forever hold your peas.
revel mama 
Recent Comments