Author Tracy O’Neill Answers One Question about ‘The Hopeful’
Many writers want their stories to be as relatable as possible. The stories we know and understand are the ones we can relate to the best. Authors, such as Alice Munro, do a spectacular job in creating compelling characters that could easily resemble a relative or friend. There are some authors, however, who delve into a narrow subject matter to achieve this same connection. Recently, acclaimed writers like Junot Diaz take particular communities with characters possessing odd, quirky characteristics and use them to establish that desired relatability. In particular, author of The Hopeful, Tracy O’Neill, involves readers through her characters’ unique circumstances, specifically in the highly competitive world of figure skating and the isolation of mental illness. Her characters are cut off from…