Bruce Feiler is a stupendous writer (you can enjoy his work weekly on Bulletin in THE NONLINEAR LIFE). We were thrilled to sit down with Bruce to talk about The Good Left Undone and it's many themes.
Bruce: Let's turn to work for a second, because that's a theme in your work, and in the people in this story. The characters have such interesting jobs. And, speaking of coming from the land, the story opens in a mine. With tension between a mine and a town. So tell me the good things you learned about work from your parents and tell me the downsides.
Adriana: You didn’t have to be the prettiest, you didn’t have to be the smartest, you didn’t have to be the best athlete, but you had to be the hardest worker. It was the measuring stick by which we were judged and nobody really cared about the outcome, they cared about your engagement and how hard you worked. I remember, my brothers started out with a push lawn mower and they worked and pooled their money until they graduated to a rideable mower, so they could do more lawns faster. And I remember seeing them one day and thinking, “There’s the work ethic.” Now, my father didn’t like his job very much. And he wasn’t very mechanical like my grandfather or uncle. He was a big concepts guy, he always did big things. And my mother was a librarian. And the deal was, she took care of the home and I think she missed the library. And what I learned from them was do what you love, not necessarily by the example of them doing what they loved, but by observing them doing what they didn’t love.
Bruce: On your website it says, “…If there is one thing I hope my books do always and forever, it’s that they honor working people.” Why is that?
Adriana: It's my mission, it's my heartbeat. Look, I’ve been very lucky in my life in many, many, many ways. And one of the things that is always on my mind is the lack of appreciation for the working person. And it's played out politically because people are angry, as they have the right to be. Why is it that all of our presidents came from one school? There's a class thing, and I would like for the playing field to be better. You know, we get painted in a certain way, I see women getting written out of history. So, the work thing for me says, “You work hard and you don’t really think about the rest of it.” What I don’t want to hear is, “There’s only one way to get there.” One last thing, my people, where I come from, many of them were poor and that wasn’t something to be ashamed of. And being poor to us didn't mean poor in spirit, or poor in intellect, it wasn’t poor in books. And now the mentality is you’re working to be wealthy and I don’t believe in that. I think that goes hand in hand with what I’m saying about the working people… If you grew enough in your garden to make a great meal, you had a great day.
You can read more of our conversation NOW on Bulletin. Continue reading in Part Two: The Three Hardest Questions About Love.
Watch our full interview with Bruce Feiler NOW on Adriana Ink. Click the video below to start watching!
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