Book interview: How Aussie in exile JR Thorp brings Lear’s wife back to life in first book

Author Jennifer Thorp — aka JR Thorp — wrote part of her first novel in the aptly named Bookshelf cafe in Cork.

Sun, 27 Feb, 2022 - 10:00

Interview: Carina McNally

ANY reader or contributor to the Irish Examiner Books section would probably consider themselves a word buff, but when author JR Thorp introduced herself as a writer and librettist she sensed the tangible pause. “I write lyrics for operas; I know, it’s a confusing bio as no one seems to know what the word means.”

An Australian living in Cork city, author Jennifer states: “I studied creative writing in Oxford. My husband’s friend, composer Toby Young, complained of a commission to be accompanied by lyrics. My husband said — ‘My wife — she can write lyrics!’ That’s how the opera work started.”

Jennifer reveals how her new novel was borne of out of a subsequent Phd in creative writing.

“For my thesis I wrote this amazing hilarious behemoth which was unpublishable but really fun. It taught me how to write a novel though, which I then applied to Learwife.”

Her first published novel Learwife is based on a formerly invisible queen. To quote her own words, King Lear’s wife was ‘unwritten’; barely mentioned in the Shakespearian play of the same name, she was presumed dead. Knowledge of the play is an advantage but by no means obligatory, her story begins where the play ends, with husband Lear and her three daughters, Goneril, Regan, and Cordelia, dead.

“The word has come that he is dead, now, and the girls. And that it is finished.”

Banished to a nunnery until this moment, the book is a rollercoaster of ponderings on two marriages, a life in exile, the untimely death of her family and grieving for two ungrateful daughters. The third daughter, Cordelia, she only imagines, having been banished by Lear to the convent when she was a baby.

“It was important to me that it was a first-person novel and she had a defined character. As I was worked, her voice became clear; she had a point of view, brutal in some ways and loving in others. At times she’s dislikeable. Main characters don’t have to be likeable. You just have to go with them on their journey.”

The love of her daughters is clear throughout as is the love for both husbands.

“She has a great capacity for human connection. Sometimes she’s funny and perceptive. She likes to shock the nuns. Even though she’s got blind spots, she understands the world. She’s been through a lot. People don’t have to like her all the time, just connect with her enough to keep going.”

The writing is magical. Queen Lear states: “The world is an O, and is outside and inside, and falling through itself.”

Like so many other women written out of history, when asked if she felt it was important to give this previously unknown a voice, Jennifer replied: “Yes, I thought she was a good idea. I felt someone else must have done it, but when I went hunting all I found was a poem Lear’s Wife by WS Merwin.”

Learwife took five years to write. “The last bits were written on the (somewhat aptly named) Bookshelf cafe just off the South Mall, Cork city, in what used to be a library.

“Upstairs there’s a work space; I came in literally every afternoon. Mid-lockdown when they were finally able to reopen I went in and said ‘the book I was writing. It’s published’, they replied ‘what?’. They had literally no idea what I had been doing.”

Learwife can be a tough read; not only do we relive memories of the violence and hostility she experienced in life, we also witness her as a child bride locked in a lonely marriage, coupled with her later union to an explosive King Lear. Subsequently ending in disaster, her greatest ally Kent referred to her as “a greater queen than he was king”.

Neither marriage produced a male heir for the kingdoms. ‘I am the queen of two crowns, banished fifteen years, the famed and gilded woman, bad-luck baleful girl, mother of three small animals, now gone. I am fifty-five years old. I am Lear’s wife. I am here’.

While appreciating the language in Learwife as an art form, I expressed that on reading I sometimes felt ‘it wasn’t working’.

Jennifer comes to the rescue of her writing. “It’s meant to be a bit mad. The book has a lot of thick dense prose. That’s the sort of book I wanted to write, one where you read two pages, get a few lovely things out of it and then leave. If it’s too much, listen to the audiobook instead. Here the writing really comes alive; it’s easy to have on in the car or somewhere you can listen to a page or two.” It’s read by actress Julia Stevenson in a voice that Jennifer describes as glorious and beautiful.

“I had a pool of very talented writers and editors, mostly from my Masters, to give me honest feedback.”

Fellow writer Jing Jing Lee is one of her best friends. On asked how she feels about the book, author Jennifer states: “I’m proud of it; I think it’s a beautiful thing. I’m really heartened by how many people read it and liked it. I set out to make a beautiful character portrait and I think I’ve done that as well as I could. It’s not perfect; I’m still learning how to write novels, you learn your whole life.”

On its release last November, Learwife was Indie bookstore’s book of the month, attaining a listing on Waterstones’ 2021 fiction books of the year. Following the receipt of The Markievicz Award from the Irish arts Council Jennifer is now concentrated on a new novel. Established to honour Constance de Markievicz — herself an artist — and the first woman to be elected to Parliament and appointed to Cabinet — this fund provides support for artists to develop new work that reflects on the role of women in the period covered by the decade of centenaries 2012–2023.

“When they rang and told me I got it — that was a wonderful moment. You have to apply even if you think you haven’t a chance in Haiti. You’ve got to put yourself out there in the hope that someone will read your work and connect to it. In this instance, the Arts Council thought I had a good idea. Now I’m writing the first draft.

“When I was young I loved books and wanted to own a bookshop. Then my teacher told me that ladies don’t own bookshops. Maybe that was my defining moment, the reason why I became a writer instead,” Jennifer laughs.

“I miss some things about Australia — the plants, the smells, and the seasons, but not the politics. One of the things I like about Ireland is that people are open, like Australians. Part of my family came from Northern Ireland. I have big hopes for the resilience of the Irish art scene and a renaissance post-covid. There’s so much good art of all genres in this country, and so many wonderful artists.

“Ireland has been welcoming to me both artistically and personally, it’s such a lovely place; I want to thank everyone for being so kind to me here. And, if anyone in the Irish lyric or opera world would like a new lyricist, don’t forget, I am here.”