Biography of Heidi Julavits

Jeff Giles called Heidi Julavits "such a gifted, visceral writer … that even her most painful visions can be beautiful to behold." She has also been described as “a woman of many parts” by Robert Birnbaum.

Background

Heidi was born in Portland, Maine to an English teacher and a lawyer. She attended Dartmouth College and after graduating, Julavits traveled to Japan until she returned to the US to work odd jobs such as a waitress, copywriter and teacher. She eventually enrolled in the graduate writing program at Columbia and took writing classes to improve. Julavits had a difficult time finding work until she met with a man named Dave Eggers who put a piece of her work in an issue of the Esquire. Her writing attracted the attention of G.P. Putnam’s Sons and a literary deal was worked out and her first novel, The Mineral Palace ,was published. The novel was given mixed reviews but Julavits says, "I would read a reviews with the tiniest little criticisms in it, and I would be completely under the table for three days." Mixed reviews never stopped Julavits and in 2003 her second novel, The Effect of Living Backwards was published. Heidi Julavits was able to overcome some challenges regarding the controversy surrounding the topic of a hijacking after the attacks of 9/11. Critics looked at Julavits’ second novel as “more livelier” and said she was able to go back to her black humor, unlike what was found in The Mineral Palace.

Along with turbulence within her writing, Heidi found trouble in her first marriage to Manny Howard, a former magazine editor. She married him in 1997 and divorced in 1999 after discovering he had been stealing money from her bank account. She then remarried another author, Ben Marcus in 2002 and they began editing a literary magazine, The Believer, together. They currently have one child and reside in Maine but travel back and forth between Portland and Brooklyn.

Accomplishments

Heidi Julavits is an eminent author who has shown to have several successful types of writings published throughout her career. Her credentials and experiences have led her to become more and more established in the literary field. In 1998, Julavits started her career with short stores and had her first one discovered in the Esquire magazine. In the same year, she also made two book deals with a publishing company, Putnam. Her writing includes books as well as short stories which have been published in The Best American Short Stories 1999, Zoetrope, McSweeney’s, and Time. Her main debut which established her as a respectable book writer was a novel known as The Mineral Palace in 2000. Another famous novel later written by Julavits was, The Effect of Living Backwards, which was labeled and awarded as a “New York Times Notable Book” and a “San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the Year.” Following after her many publications, Julavits was able to acquire the position as the editor of a well established literary journal called The Believer and a journalist for Esquire, Harper’s Bazaar, and the New York Times Magazine. Julavits has proven to be a very talented writer through the basis of her past accomplishments and experiences.
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Book Reviews

Although Julavits has an impressive history as an author, some of her writings seem to get mixed reviews. From one side of her reviews, there seems to be many readers who adore Julavits literary works. One notable quote about Julavits book was made by a previous author we have read from in our class. Aimee Bender’s opinion on The Effect of Living Backwards was, “A wonderfully absurdist game of chess—Julavits packs her novel full of odd and piercing moral dilemmas, wicked insights, and memorable characters. The Effect of Living Backwards is a delicious feast of case studies gone haywire.” Other well-known writers, who have some similarities in relation to Julavit’s writing style enjoy reading her books and believe her work and style of writing to be extraordinary. Another positive quote was from the San Francisco Chronicle Book Review and was, “Julavits is an energetic, playful writer, and one can imagine she crafted The Effect of Living Backwards for repeated reading, with each read-through revealing new Nabokovian tricks and riddles.” Some believe Julavits’ innovative writing style makes her books more interesting and desirable for the reader. Also her novel, The Mineral Palace, has received good reviews and was found by some reviewers as a "marvelous debut." Jeff Giles from Newsweek went on further to describe her book as "harrowing, poetic, and tragic enough to satisfy both Faulkner and Oprah." Some believe that Julavits’ books can be enjoyed by a variety of readers and is entertaining no matter who you are. Some readers will admit her books can be difficult to read, but are still worth the trouble. For example, Dave Eggers’ opinion on The Effect of Living Backwards was, “With astounding intelligence and unceasing acuity, Heidi Julavits fulfills the great promise of her talents, and jumps to the forefront of her generation. This could be the smartest and most challenging book I’ve read by anyone our age, and beyond that, it’s just plain hard to put down.” From reading many book reviews on Julavits’ works, it is apparent that many find her to be extremely talented and an insightful writer.

On the other hand, some critics did not consider Julavits’ writings as overall good pieces of work. According to a post by Anita Gates in the New York Times, there were shortcomings and dislikes found with Julavits's type of style and some of her ways of portraying information to the readers. Some readers have a difficult time making sense of Julavits’ meaning and purpose behind her stories. Some who reviewed Julavits’ books and styles of writing recommended the reader to read her book in one sitting in order to keep from getting lost in her story lines. Julavits tends to fill her books with many events and dialogue which can confuse readers at times. According to Elsa Gaztambide, “Julavits' writing style is a sophisticated balance of suspense, humor, and intellectually stimulating prose, which produces a novel unfit for the easygoing reader because of its intense and profoundly dark undertones.” Therefore, not everyone finds Julavits’ stories pleasant and would not consider her writing style to be proficient.

The Uses of Enchantment

The Uses of Enchantment, Julavits’ third novel, has been described as "[A] crisply written but overcomplicated novel, a cat's cradle with so many overlapping fibs, stories-within-stories, allusions, and red herrings that even multiple readings won't release all the knots. " Entertainment Weekly.
Booklist said it was "[A] moodily atmospheric yet sometimes wildly funny tale of sick, twisted love, into which Julavits effectively reels the reader by juxtaposing past and present, factual and conjectural sequences”
The Uses of Enchantment was published in 2006 and follows her pattern of dark stories that have a serious subject line. As in The Effect of Living Backwards, with a terrorist plot, this novel deals with the subject of kidnapping and witchcraft.

The story takes place in 1985 at a prep school where a 16 year old girl, Mary Veal, is abducted after a field hockey practice. She suddenly reappears and there become questions about her abduction. Did it really happen? Mary has no recollections about what happened to her and her mother thought it would be a good idea if she went to a psychiatrist named Dr. Hammer. Mary’s mother was socially conscious, yet came from a background of Salem witches. Mary is very hostel towards the doctor and he soon realizes her memories of the abduction is coming from a 17th century story about an Indian girls’ abduction. The doctor and Mary’s mother come to question whether the abduction really occurred and if Mary made all of it up.

Julavits follows her pattern of writing in the present and past and back and forth when Mary returns to her old town 15 years later for her mothers’ funeral and begins questioning her past and the people in it.

Below is a link to a video of Heidi Julavits describing how in a way this third novel was somewhat “autobiographical” and how her past living in a Victorian house and being allowed to play in a creepy cemetery gave her somewhat of a basis for this book. She also talks about how in her writings she creates adolescent women who are destructive and have had tortured rough lives, (such as Anne Frank, Ask Alice) as has her main characters and have something destructive such as kidnapping and hijackings occur in her novels. Yet as characters they are become strong, important, and in her words, “special”. Julavits believes that young adult women readers relate in some ways to these characters.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dapegY0nZ4

Hotel Andromeda

The work of Julavits is not limited to a purely written format. Hotel Andromeda is a short story that she has composed as she might any other, but she collaborates with a photographer named Jenny Gage to add a visual element to the work. The raw style of Gage’s photographic work coupled with Julavits’ sometimes very on edge style of writing blend together creating synthetic multi-sensory experience. The story itself revolves around the live of quintuplets who are abandoned by their mother who had undergone a process of artificial insemination, taking a samples from five “ …screened, gold-medalled men whose sperm was centrifugally spun into cellular cotton candy and layered over a glass honeycomb tray.” The five girls grow up to be little more than living, breathing science experiments living in a hotel and having daily visits with a certain Dr. Gloria. Their days are spent squandering, pillow fights and the immature behavior of adolescents marks their existence. In contrast the photographic work reflects haggard women in their late 20’s or 30’s, which look off at nothing in particular, reflecting little emotion as though they are internally broken. The humor in this work can be found in the insights into the women’s mindsets, and a deeper meaning can be found in the emotional trials in the lives of our specimens. The women take a downward turn after one of the five disappears, leading them ultimately break down and Danielle, brightest of the five reveals her inner feelings of inadequacy and isolation. To give an example of the humor found in this writing here is an excerpt of a question posed by their doctor, which also gives insight to the mindsets of the young women:

“Do you wish your mother would visit?
Regina: No
Lydia: No
Pamela: I don’t care
Dora: Do you wish your mother would visit?
Danielle: Our mother should do what she likes.”

Julavits vs. Slavin

Heidi Julavits and Julia Slavin represent a class of contemporary feminist authors who are adept at writing scathing and witty social and political satires. The status quo is called into question through the use of anecdotes on the everyday reality in which everyday people live. Julavits in The Effect of Living Backwards takes an approach that is more grounded in the realm of actual possibility, while Slavin in Carnivore Diet takes us into the world of magical realism. Both, however, seem to have the same effect on a reader in their use of the use of everyday situations and conversations that anyone for the most part could see themselves in and relate to. Both authors are also on the cutting edge in challenging old stereotypes as in the traditional roles of women in society, revealing a more ambitious independent image of women. The feminist element is only one of many that contribute to these well rounded and thought out satires as both authors are actually attacking, in a humorous way, all segments of modern American society, through their own unique perspectives.

Writing Style

Overall, Julavits has a unique style of fictional writing which some consider creative and inventive while others find it unusual. One thing that can be observed about Julavits is that although her books contain some absurdities, she conveys a bit more realism in her stories then by past authors we have read such as Bender. For example, The Effects of Living Backward has a more realistic view of two sisters who share a love/hate relationship compared to a family with pumpkins for heads as we see in Bender’s writings. Many of Julavits’ works do tend to have an exceptional type of humor that can also appear unpromising. Julavits also admitted that her first novel, The Mineral Palace, is not normally like something she would write because of its overall sense of seriousness. In her later writings, Julavits incorporated more humor in her works. When referring to The Effect of Living Backwards, she said, "Since my first novel was primarily bleak, I really wanted to inject some humor into this new book." Also when being interviewed about her writing style, Julavits said, "I am a fan of literature that is funny but kind of savage at the same time. The books I love most are the ones that make you laugh, but an hour later, there's an aftertaste of despair." Even though she has humor in her writing, many of her stories reveal to the readers serious topics through imaginative and metaphoric ways.

Julavits is known for convey real life experiences in her writings and focuses more on modern themes. One prime example is when she referred to the terrorist attack as “The Big Terrible” rather than calling it “911”. Her message about “The Big Terrible” can be put in the perspective of real life experiences just like the tragic event of September 11th. Furthermore, as a reader, one can see the theme of human nature and truth in Julavits’ writing. Many of the ideas from Julavits’ stories come from her very own personal experiences. The Mineral Palace was about a young bride who moves to Colorado to be with her husband. Some of the events in the novel come from her grandmother’s personal experiences. Furthermore, one thing that inspired Julavits in the plot of, The Effect of Living Backwards, was when she was young, one of her cousins was killed on a plan that was bombed by terrorists in Rome.

Terrorist Attack (Side note)

Readers may pay special attention to the fact that Julavits actually started writing The Effect of Living Backwards before the event of September 11th. Here are direct quotes from an interview pertaining to the accommodations she had to make just recently after the event.

“I decided that I relied too heavily on landscape in my first book to do the lion’s share of the psychological work—not that this was a fault in the book, but rather it was a strength of mine that made me subsequently weak in other ways. So deciding to set my entire book in an airplane was the conceptual equivalent of tying my stronger hand behind my back. That said, of course, I since have moved out of the airplane, and my book is hardly, hardly, short. I also failed to follow my own restrictions, and introduced a formal element, alternating each chapter with confessionals by ancillary characters, which ends up blowing the whole plane idea wide open. Of course, I am up against an entirely new set of challenges now, given that the book is not only set on an airplane, it features a hijacking. My choice to pursue this subject matter has been severely shaken these past few weeks; also my choice to utilize terrorism as a metaphor for family dynamics (my two main characters are sisters). This is not to say that terrorism, due to its new immediacy, is beyond the reach of metaphor; it is simply to say that the book I will write now, versus the book I might have written, will necessarily be the product of a very different mindset.”

"Once the trade towers were attacked, I had to decide, 'did this book take place before or after?' It changed everything.”

In the days following September 11th, Julavits had a difficult time deciding whether or not to finish her novel that was about terrorism. She had to make some adjustments in her book and she made a bold statement by having it published after one of America’s most disastrous events. Julavits waited many months and finished The Effect of Living Backwards at the end of the summer of 2001.

Work Cited
"Believe! Heidi Julavits Has Emerged from Her Tennis-Ball Canister!" Powells. 16 April 2007. http://www.powells.com/authors/julavits.html.

Benson, Heidi. "Funny things happen when a hijacking occurs in young writer Heidi Julavits' second novel". San Francisco Chronicle. 5 July 2003. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/07/05/DD245371.DTL

Birnbaum, Robert. "Heidi Julavits". The Morning News. 10 January 2007. http://www.themorningnews.org/archives/birnbaum_v/heidi_julavits.php.

"Heidi Julavits Biography". Encyclopedia of World Biography . 2007. http://www.notablebiographies.com/newsmakers2/2007-Co-Lh/Julavits-Heidi.html

Julavits, Heidi. "Hotel Andromeda". Artspace Books. Hong Kong, 2003.

Maclaughlin, Nina. "The uses of Heidi Julavits". The Phoneix. 15 November 2006. http://thephoenix.com/Boston/Arts/27467-uses-of-Heidi-Julavits/

"The Effect of Living Backwards: Editorial Review". Amazon.com. 2008. http://www.amazon.com/Effect-Living-Backwards-Heidi-Julavits/dp/product-description/0425198170

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