The interview was lead by Hans Bouman (Dutch author and journalist). A lot of questions were about the writing process, where inspiration is coming from and how it was to win the Man Booker Prize.
It is interesting to listen to Barnes. He has a lot of anecdotes about people reacting to his books. The part that touched me the most was his telling about grief and mourning. Saying that the American Psychiatric Handbook says that after a person is still emotionally distressed after 3 months it should be treated as a depression. Saying that grief is not a medical condition it is an emotional condition. It is extreme sadness, the worst sadness you will learn. Sentences like these are why I love his books and it was interesting to listen to him saying these things making it clear he is a realistic writer, writing about things he has experience with.
The host did not really jump on the answers Barnes was giving though, following his question sheet more trying to get Barnes to say something on all the books he has written. I did feel it could have been an even more interesting night if he would have thrown the paper out and discussed openly with Barnes about the subjects that were touched. Barnes was giving long and thoughtful answers but jumping to other subjects too in his answers that could have made interesting topics on their own.
A few days later I went to an interview between John Irving and Rik van de Westelaken. It is clear from his books already that Irving has a certain view on life and that was showing in almost all his answers. He talked about the fact that it was sad news that his book 'The World According to Garp' was still relevant. That he was very sceptical about people wanting to make movies and tv-shows out of his books as they often did not dare to show the raw and horrible situations he wrote. That things get romanticized for the big audience. Obviously the political situation in the US was mentioned and a lot of people had a laugh when Irving said a republican will never play a part in his book, or maybe for a few chapters as they are bores who can only talk about money.What I found interesting in his story too was what he told about his writing process. How he has multiple stories lying around and all of a sudden gets a feeling for one of those stories and finishes it. The host obviously was more comfortable with loosing his questions and just react to what Irving said. It was a very enjoyable evening.
I have been to the Literature Festival before when it was just a weekend. The organization always manages to get a few big authors. In the old setup it was possible to meet more great authors on one day which was nice but with this set up it was clear there was so much more time to interview the authors. I did miss audience participation though. I would have liked it if there would have been a possibility to ask questions.
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