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T H E W E N D Y P E R R I A M I N T E R V I E W |
| 09 | "A work in progress" is how Will describes Catherine in Second Skin. Is one always a work in progress throughout one's life, or have you finally discovered who you are and where you're going? | "Oh no. In fact, the novel was originally called Work
in Progress rather than Second Skin. I feel it's essential not to become too
rigid in one’s lifestyle or one’s outlook, but remain constantly open to change.
If I reach the age of 90 (and many of my family do - my father is 90 this year and he
still works full-time), I hope that even then I'll be a work in progress, in the sense of
being receptive to new ideas and able to change my views quite radically. "My 92-year-old aunt, for example, left the Catholic faith in her teens and was a defiant atheist the rest of her life, but on her death-bed she was converted back to Catholicism. And I don’t think it was simply out of fear. The priest in question told me that they’d had many long, in-depth discussions right up to the moment of her death. So she was a work in progress to the last breath! And in fact, even in her nineties she was interested in up-to-the-minute things like computers and the Internet, and willing to expand her horizons and embrace the new technology rather than condemn it, as many elderly people tend to do. "I must admit I envied her conversion, and I said to the priest, ‘make sure you're around when I’m dying.’ Who knows - I may be wrong about Heaven and a good God. |
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