The impending 50th literary anniversary of Ordinary People, prompted me to propose this series for Classic Chicago Magazine. In previous issues, I’ve analyzed the novel, released by Viking in the summer of 1976, and the 1980 Best Picture Oscar-winning movie version, directed by the late Robert Redford. I also decided to request an interview with the novel’s author, Judith Guest.
What follows is the result of my request, which, due to the author’s advanced age, became a mutually agreed upon correspondence of questions and answers in writing. This writers’ exchange between myself and Judith Guest, as far as I know, is the author’s first public statement about this seminal literary work in over 25 years. Penguin Classics publishes a new 50th anniversary edition this fall.
Scott Holleran: Whose idea is the novel’s title, a term which appears once in the book?
Judith Guest: Mine, and I had to fight for it. Viking did not like the title. They said readers don’t want to read about ordinary people. It’s based on the idea of how things like this happen to ordinary people.
Scott Holleran: Is Calvin Jarrett heroic?
Judith Guest: No more than anybody else in the world. He’s just a guy.
Scott Holleran: There are multiple references to Calvin’s drinking. Is he an alcoholic?
Judith Guest: Nope.
Scott Holleran: Do you think it’s reasonable for the reader to conclude that Beth Jarrett returns from her European vacation?
Judith Guest: The reader can conclude what they want. That’s what’s fun about being a reader. There are things that happen in novels that the reader is left to decide. And that’s what makes the connection between the writer and the reader. The writer gives options, and the reader chooses the option they favor. The more open-ended a novel the more successful a writer is in involving the reader.
Scott Holleran: Do you have a favorite literary review of the novel?
Judith Guest: I don’t read reviews, they’re too scary.
Scott Holleran: Was and/or is the novel assigned reading in any school curriculum?
Judith Guest: When it first came out, absolutely. These days, I’d guess not, because in any school curriculum, they’re always updating, and OP was written 50 years ago. I sure hope so though!
Scott Holleran: Is the ending of Ordinary People happy?
Judith Guest: It’s real, I don’t know if it’s happy. I guess it would depend on whose point of view you’re looking at.
Scott Holleran: What’s the most meaningful reader reaction to your novel?
Judith Guest: That life goes on, no matter what, and you’d better be ready. It’s not always easy, but it’s always interesting.
Scott Holleran: Is there anything in the book which you wish you had written differently?
Judith Guest: No. I wouldn’t know how. When I finished that novel, I moved on and wrote another. I really don’t look back on it, because it wouldn’t be pleasant to think “oh, I wish I’d done this instead of that.”
Scott Holleran: Did the Paramount movie’s critical and commercial success surprise you?
Judith Guest: Not a bit. I love Redford, I couldn’t have chosen a better director than him.
Scott Holleran: What are your thoughts on the life and career of the late Mr. Redford?
Judith Guest: Is he dead? Not to me he isn’t. He was a funny guy, a smart guy, and man was he handsome!
Scott Holleran: Do you remember the first time you saw the movie version?
Judith Guest: I saw it with my best friend Margaret, in New York City. We had fun.
Scott Holleran: Have you ever watched the movie with a paying theatrical audience?
Judith Guest: Yes, but I can’t remember where or when. I’m 90, okay!
Scott Holleran: Is the omission of Calvin’s being an orphan from the motion picture a flaw?
Judith Guest: No, it isn’t. It’s not an essential element of the story, and movies have to condense. Movies intensify novels. they are meant to tell the essential story, whereas novels can wander all over the map and tell lots of stories.
Scott Holleran: Is your research firsthand in terms of the novel’s setting—for example, did you visit Chicago’s North Shore suburbs?—and why choose Lake Forest as the setting?
Judith Guest: It’s an important element in the story, in terms of who lives there and what their preoccupations are. I lived in the Chicago area for a little while, Palatine actually. Very different from Lake Forest.
Scott Holleran: Why did you decide to open the novel with a sonnet by Edna St. Vincent Millay?
Judith Guest: “But what a shining animal is man, who knows, when pain subsides, that is not that, for worse than that must follow—yet can write music, and laugh, play tennis, even plan.” It fits, right?
Scott Holleran: Was Viking Penguin a good publisher by your estimation?
Judith Guest: Absolutely, they treated me great.
Scott Holleran: One of the novel’s heroes is a Jew. Did you meet resistance to Dr. Berger’s characterization from the publisher, literary types or Hollywood?
Judith Guest: Nope.
Scott Holleran: Whose is your favorite performance in the film?
Judith Guest: Mary Tyler Moore. She asked Redford for it, specifically. She said something to the effect that it was her, as I am recalling.
Scott Holleran: Which is the most essential to the novel’s meaning: uncertainty, resilience or vulnerability?
Judith Guest: Resilience, if I have to choose.
Scott Holleran: In your judgment, has there been a lifting, even partial, of what you describe in the novel as “the veil of suicide”?
Judith Guest: Not really, in the main it is still very true.
Scott Holleran: Speaking of suicide, there’s a reference to Ernest Hemingway, who’s quoted in Ordinary People about not confusing movement with action. Are you an admirer?
Judith Guest: Sure, who isn’t? He’s such a damn good writer, though I don’t always agree with him.
Scott Holleran: Your movie Rachel River is based on short stories by Carol Bly. Do you have a favorite Bly short story and, if so, why?
Judith Guest: No, I just love her work. I like all of them. She’s such a good writer.
Scott Holleran: Who is your favorite author?
Judith Guest: Oh no, I can’t do that, way too hard. Depends on the day of the week. Tuesdays it’s Updike, Wednesdays it’s P.D. James. Joyce Carol Oates. Flannery O’Connor, my very good friends Rebecca Hill and Kate Dicamillo and a whole bunch of others, too many to mention.
Scott Holleran: Which works of literature influence and influenced your writing?
Judith Guest: See the above list.
Scott Holleran: What’s the greatest misconception about the novel?
Judith Guest: That it’s a sad story. It’s not a sad story, it’s a real story. It’s not any sadder than life.
Scott Holleran: The character Lazenby gets the last word in your novel. Is this deliberate?
Judith Guest: Yep, he’s the thinker.
