For decades, Sigrid Nunez had been publishing novels—pointed, esoteric character studies that lived somewhere between fiction and essay—to little fan
For decades, Sigrid Nunez had been publishing novels—pointed, esoteric character studies that lived somewhere between fiction and essay—to little fanfare but consistent acclaim. In 1995, The New York Times called her debut, A Feather on the Breath of God, “a forceful novel by a writer of uncommon talent.” Those who kept up with her work surely agreed, even if it wasn’t the largest group.
Then came 2018’s The Friend, in many ways a typical endeavor for Nunez: a semi-autobiographical tale of a writer grieving the death of her mentor. But this book found a whole up-to-date audience thanks largely to its irresistible second main character: an elderly Great Dane. He’s called Apollo, and was owned by the protagonist’s delayed mentor; he’s now hiding out in her rent-controlled, no-dogs-allowed New York apartment while she figures out what to do with him. The Friend went on to win the National Book Award for Fiction and become a New York Times bestseller. Her next book, What Are You Going Through?, kept up the momentum with a slew of rave reviews.
This year, adaptations of both books—her first ever—hit US theaters. Oscar winner Pedro Almodóvar adapted What Are You Going Through into The Room Next Door, which won the top prize at the Venice Film Festival and earned Tilda Swinton a Golden Globe nomination. (Julianne Moore also stars.) Meanwhile, the writing-directing duo of Scott McGehee and David Siegel, known for canny adaptations What Maisie Knew and The Deep End, took on The Friend, casting Naomi Watts, Bill Murray, and Bing (that’s the dog, and yes, he’s spectacular) in the lead roles. The film hits theaters this weekend after bowing in New York this past Friday, riding a wave of similarly sturdy reviews.
Nunez is a fan of both movies, different as they are from her books. The Room Next Door expands on a compact strand of its source material, while The Friend gives Nunez’s idiosyncratic prose a cozy cinematic shape. “You probably know that most writers are disappointed with their film adaptations,” she tells me as we begin our interview. “But that’s partly based on a misunderstanding that somebody’s going to make a movie of your book. I never thought that.”
Vanity Fair: Was it weird for both movies to come out around the same time, since they’re the first-ever adaptations of your work?
Sigrid Nunez: Yeah, totally weird—except that it never occurred to me ever in my writing career that anything of mine would ever be on the screen because of the way I write. One of my books was optioned, The Last of Her Kind, and nothing ever happened with it. That’s kind of the expectation.
You didn’t work on either adaptation, but did you want to?
No. With The Friend first, I had the idea—which I think was a good idea—that if I was going to say, “You can have the book,” then I should have nothing to do with it. I don’t know anything about screenwriting or directing or acting. When I write, I never visualize the characters—except for the dog. At our first meeting, I said, “Oh, by the way, I just want you to know I will not bother you. You’ll not hear from me. I will not protest. I will stay completely out of it.” They didn’t necessarily believe that.
I knew they had some kind of vision. I knew it could turn out very, very good. I also knew there was a possibility it would turn out badly because these things happen. I just thought they were very separate. I didn’t think it was going to hurt my book.
With some authors that I’ve spoken to over the years, it’s tough to get to that place. It sounds like you were there pretty immediately.
I think of myself, unfortunately, as something of a control freak. I thought, this is going to be a disaster, if they want me as a consultant. If I’m in there and then I say, “Oh, but my idea was that we shoot this from a helicopter, wouldn’t that be…?” then they would explain to me, “You can’t do that,” or, “We don’t want that.” That was asking for trouble. But I also really love movies. I have a great passion for them, and in my case, with both of these people—with [The Friend] directors and also Almodóvar—these are people who I trust with whatever happens.
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