Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: Flicker of Old Dreams
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE: 1967
WEBSITE: http://www.litpark.com/
CITY:
STATE: NY
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY:
Agent: Gail Hochman, Brandt & Hochman Literary Agents, Inc.
RESEARCHER NOTES:
LC control no.: n 2010075050
LCCN Permalink: https://lccn.loc.gov/n2010075050
HEADING: Henderson, Susan, 1967-
000 00461cz a2200145n 450
001 8476737
005 20110601095041.0
008 101117n| acannaabn |n aaa
010 __ |a n 2010075050
040 __ |a DLC |b eng |c DLC |d DLC
053 _0 |a PS3608.E5274
100 1_ |a Henderson, Susan, |d 1967-
670 __ |a Up from the blue, 2011: |b E-Cip t.p. (Susan Henderson)
670 __ |a Phone call to Thorndike Press, Nov. 17, 2010: |b (Susan M. Henderson; b. Mar. 25, 1967)
953 __ |a rg12 |b rg04
PERSONAL
Born March 25, 1967.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer; founder of blog and LitPark (a “literary playground for writers and artists); former counselor.
AWARDS:Five Pushcard Prize nominations; Academy of American Poets Prize.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Susan Henderson is a writer and former counselor whose work has received five Pushcart Prize nominations as well as an Academy of American Poets Prize. The author of two well-received novels, she is also the founder of the literary blog LitPark.
Up from the Blue
Dysfunctional family dynamics resurface painfully when Tillie, the protagonist of Henderson’s debut novel, Up from the Blue, gives birth to her first child. With her husband overseas and her mother out of the picture, Tillie must turn to her estranged father for help when she goes into labor prematurely. Reconnecting with him brings back difficult memories. Tillie had been a feisty child who had dearly loved her eccentrically artistic mother Mara, but saw little of her father, a military officer who was often away from home. All seemed well enough until the day that Mara had suddenly taken ill and refused to leave her bed. With their father away from home, eight-year-old Tillie and her older brother Phil had had to fend for themselves for several days. On his return, their father responded angrily to this troubling situation, eventually moving the family from New Mexico to a new home in Washington, DC where, to the children’s horror, their mother is nowhere to be found.
The birth of her own daughter forces Tillie to confront the complex emotions she has harbored since her mother’s disappearance. She remembers the fun and affection and joy that had emanated from Mara, and that their father had been unable to provide them after Mara’s crisis. She remembers her loneliness, her acting out in school, and the one friendship she developed–with an African-American classmate who was bused to the school. Eventually, Tillie comes to understand better why her father had acted as he did, abandoning Mara at a time when her particular mental illness, which would later become known as bipolar disorder, had been stigmatized and little understood.
The sensitivity with which Henderson handles the novel’s themes of loss, family dysfunction, and grief favorably impressed reviewers of Up from the Blue. A contributor to Publishers Weekly described Tillie’s emotional journey “beautiful, funny, sad, and complicated.” Writing in Library Journal, Bette-Lee Fox hailed the book as “a triumphant debut.”
In an interview for Psychology Today conducted by Jennifer Haupt, Henderson said that she drew from some of her own memories in creating the eight-year-old Tillie. Like her protagonist, Henderson had been a biter at school, wanting friends but lacking the skills to get along with other kids. Asked about Tillie’s toughness, Henderson explained that though Tillie becomes self-reliant because she is forced to take care of herself, she has also inherited some inner strength from her parents. From her mother, she learns to embrace her emotional self; her father, on the other hand, provides her with stability and a sense of order.
The Flicker of Old Dreams
Set in the small town of Petroleum, Montana, The Flicker of Old Dreams is the story of a shy, withdrawn woman whose perspective on life is changed when a neighbor suddenly reappears after a long absence. Two decades earlier, a teenager had died a grain elevator accident, and the incident prompted lasting anger and resentment among the population. Petroleum’s economy suffered, and many people moved away. Mary, a quiet woman who works in her father’s mortuary, has resigned herself to a life in which it is easier for her to interact with the deceased than with the living. Though she is lonely and had once nurtured dreams of an artistic career, she takes comfort in the fact that her work provides the town with a necessary and compassionate service.
Robert, the brother of the teen who had been killed, surprises everyone in Petroleum when he suddenly returns to town. He had left soon after his brother’s death, but now wants to spend as much time as possible with his dying mother. He and Mary are drawn to each other. Being with Robert enables Mary to see her town as it really is: a place of cruelty, pettiness, and intolerance. Also through her relationship with Robert, Mary begins to imagine a different future for herself. Booklist reviewer Melissa Norstedt admired the way the novel addresses Mary’s struggles to balance duty toward others with her responsibility toward herself. A writer for Publishers Weekly deemed The Flicker of Old Dreams “a contemplative and memorable novel.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, September 1, 2010, Aleksandra Walker, review of Up from the Blue, p. 47; February 1, 2018, Melissa Norstedt, review of The Flicker of Old Dreams, p. 26.
Library Journal, August, 2010, Bette-Lee Fox, review of Up from the Blue, p. 69.
Publishers Weekly, August 23, 2010, review of Up from the Blue, p. 27; January 15, 2018, review of The Flicker of Old Dreams, p. 32.
ONLINE
Psychology Today Online, https://www.psychologytoday.com/ (March 19, 2018), Jennifer Haupt, interview with Henderson.
Susan Henderson’s LitPark, http://www.litpark.com (March 19, 2018).
Susan Henderson is a five-time Pushcart Prize nominee and the recipient of an Academy of American Poets Prize. She is the author of two novels, Up from the Blue and The Flicker of Old Dreams, both published by HarperCollins. Susan lives in Kings Park, New York and blogs at the writer support group, LitPark.com.
Print Marked Items
The Flicker of Old Dreams
Melissa Norstedt
Booklist.
114.11 (Feb. 1, 2018): p26.
COPYRIGHT 2018 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist_publications/booklist/booklist.cfm
Full Text:
The Flicker of Old Dreams. By Susan Henderson. Mar. 2018. 320p. HarperPerennial, paper, $15.99
(97800626867011.
Petroleum, Montana, is a town easily missed, a place without fast-food chains or cell service, where people
know the true meaning of hard work. Rocked by tragedy decades earlier, Petroleum never recovered.
Neighbors hold tight to resentment, and the population dwindles away. In her second novel, Henderson {Up
from the Blue, 2010) brings this dying community to life, detailing the lives of eccentric residents
surrounded by a harsh yet beautiful environment. The novel's main character, Mary, is an introvert who
works as an embalmer in her father's mortuary. Unable to connect with the living, Mary finds comfort in her
unusual career and channels herself into the care of the deceased until a neighbor suddenly returns and
changes everything. Mary sees the town in a new light, witnessing the same cruel intolerance she's been
trying to escape for years. Henderson's latest tackles the difficult moments of life and death, weighing
security against doubt, loyalty versus selfishness, and what it costs to give up everything to find one's true
self.--Melissa Norstedt
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Norstedt, Melissa. "The Flicker of Old Dreams." Booklist, 1 Feb. 2018, p. 26. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A527771807/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=6185d11e.
Accessed 5 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A527771807
The Flicker of Old Dreams
Publishers Weekly.
265.3 (Jan. 15, 2018): p32.
COPYRIGHT 2018 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
The Flicker of Old Dreams
Susan Henderson. Harper Perennial, $15.99 trade paper (320p) ISBN 978-0-06-268670-1
Henderson's grim and meaty second novel (after Up from the Blue) tackles the subject of death in an allconsuming
way. The fictional town in which the story is set, Petroleum, Mont., population 182, has been
dying for over two decades, since an accident in a grain elevator took the life of a local high schooler and
shut down the town's main source of employment. The protagonist is the mortician's daughter, Mary, who
embalms bodies in the basement of her father's house. She is a shy misfit whose dreams of becoming an
artist have long since been extinguished, though she remains awed by the majesty of the barren landscape
into which she was born. The townspeople resent that their town is dead, and none are content, although
Henderson allows readers an occasional glimpse of stolen laughs and stolen love. When the dead teen's
brother, Robert, returns to keep his mother company in her dying days, the community's old resentments
resurface. Meanwhile, in Robert, Mary finds a soul mate and a fellow oddball who does not conform to the
expectations of parents or townspeople. Henderson gives a glimmer of hope for the future at the end of this
meditation on death, grief, and emotional freedom, resulting in a contemplative and memorable novel.
(Mar.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"The Flicker of Old Dreams." Publishers Weekly, 15 Jan. 2018, p. 32. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A523888859/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=f072f6d9.
Accessed 5 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A523888859
Up from the Blue
Aleksandra Walker
Booklist.
107.1 (Sept. 1, 2010): p47.
COPYRIGHT 2010 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist_publications/booklist/booklist.cfm
Full Text:
Up from the Blue.
By Susan Henderson.
Oct. 2010. 320p. Harper, $13.99 (9780061984037).
When Tillie goes into labor while her husband is overseas, she must turn to her estranged father for help.
Seeing him brings up painful memories. Her childhood was defined by the conflict between her flighty,
moody mother and taciturn, controlling father. Henderson shifts to the past and has young Tillie tell the
story of how her father's military position forces the family to move, after which her mother sinks into a
deep depression and withdraws from her family's life completely. Tillie cannot process why or how her
mother has disappeared, so she places the blame on her father. Now, with the birth of her own daughter,
adult Tillie must come to terms with how her father chose to protect her. Henderson shows remarkable
compassion in her debut novel, an affecting portrait of depression through a child's eyes.--Aleksandra
Walker
Walker, Aleksandra
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Walker, Aleksandra. "Up from the Blue." Booklist, 1 Sept. 2010, p. 47. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A237304298/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=3aac75e6.
Accessed 5 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A237304298
Up from the Blue
Publishers Weekly.
257.33 (Aug. 23, 2010): p27+.
COPYRIGHT 2010 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
* Up from the Blue
Susan Henderson. Harper, $13.99 paper (320p) ISBN 978-0-06-198403-7
In this elegant debut, Tillie Harris, about to give birth to her first child, traces her mother's tragic descent
into madness when Tillie was eight years old. A weird, rambunctious girl, Tillie admires her eccentric
mother, Mara, but when Mara refuses to get out of bed for several days while their father is away, Tillie and
her older brother, Phil, are left to fend for themselves. When their father, a stern, emotionally cold army
colonel, returns to find the house in a state of chaos, he begins a daily ritual of dragging his wife from bed
and setting her crying on the floor, where she remains for hours. The colonel then accepts a job at the
Pentagon and moves the family cross-country. Tillie and Phil arrive at their new home, but their mother is
missing, erased without explanation. Henderson's fascinating novel fearlessly examines the complexities of
depression, romantic and filial love, and motherhood. Beautiful, funny, sad, and complicated, Tillie's quest
to understand her complex, troubled family is filled with lush descriptions of painfully emotional moments.
(Oct.)
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Up from the Blue." Publishers Weekly, 23 Aug. 2010, p. 27+. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A236248202/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=c5e470e2.
Accessed 5 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A236248202
Henderson, Susan. Up from the Blue
Bette-Lee Fox
Library Journal.
135.13 (Aug. 2010): p69.
COPYRIGHT 2010 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No
redistribution permitted.
http://www.libraryjournal.com/
Full Text:
Henderson, Susan. Up from the Blue. Harper: HarperCollins. Oct. 2010. c.317p. ISBN 978-0-06-198403-7.
pap. $13.99. F
This first novel from Henderson (curator, NPR's Dime Stories) opens in 1991 as twentysomething Matilda
Harris goes into premature labor in her new Washington, DC, apartment. The only person she can think of to
call is her father, with whom she hasn't spoken in three years. The story then turns to eight-year-old Tillie as
she and her family relocate to Washington from New Mexico when her father, a weapons system designer,
gets a new job at the Pentagon. But Tillie's mother isn't in Washington when she arrives. Tillie's older
brother, Phil, isn't much help, and her father just wants her to be a good soldier and avoid the usual chaos
that surrounds her. Tillie longs for the bright colors and dancing and joy she associates with her mother.
Instead, she basks in the praise from her teacher and feels an affinity for the one black girl in her class, who
comes in on the bus. VERDICT Henderson beautifully portrays this family in crisis through its most voluble
and consistent member. Rapturous prose reveals young Tillie's heart as she yearns for the mother who will
make her world better but who can't seem to mend her own tortured soul. A triumphant debut. [Online
reading group guide.]--Bette-Lee Fox, Library Journal
Fox, Bette-Lee
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Fox, Bette-Lee. "Henderson, Susan. Up from the Blue." Library Journal, Aug. 2010, p. 69. General
OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A234308731/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=e3b9ed3d. Accessed 5 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A234308731
One True Thing
Interview with Susan Henderson, author of "Up From the Blue"
Tale of manic-depressive mother and mystery around her disappearance.
Posted Sep 21, 2010
SHARE
TWEET
MORE
Susan Henderson (link is external)'s debut novel, "Up From the Blue," (link is external) is the heart-breaking and inspiring coming-of-age story of a girl growing up both with and without her manic-depressive mother Mara. At the center is a mystery involving Mara's disappearance and her husband's possible involvement, all seen through the screen of Tillie's fertile imagination. Here's my conversation with Susan, who is the founder of the popular literary blog LitPark: Where Writers Come to Play (link is external) and the curator for National Public Radio's DimeStories (link is external).
article continues after advertisement
Jennifer Haupt: What is one true thing you based this novel on, or discovered while writing it?
Susan Henderson: I was a biter. I was that kid parents didn't want at their house for a play date.
I used that memory of wanting friends but knowing how rotten I was at getting along with others to burrow into the head of my eight-year-old narrator. She's also a biter, an extrovert with no friends, and she's in over her head with a situation at home-one she's supposed to keep secret.
JH: How did you come up with or research Mara, the mother who deals with severe depression?
SH: Mara was pretty well formed in my mind, and I'd been a counselor for a number of years so I used my clinical knowledge to bring her to life. But in order to really see the world through her eyes and understand how she could spiral into something so debilitating, I actually read volumes of poems by Ann Sexton and Sylvia Plath.
It's interesting, though, that you and I can use the word depression because this isn't part of the vocabulary of the Harris family. They're living on a military base in the mid-seventies, and this isn't the best time or place in history to have a breakdown. They're simply blindsided and confused by what's happening. And since there isn't a name for it, Mara's husband reaches for words like "lazy," "stubborn," and "helpless". Shame begins to guide the choices they make, sending the family down a slippery slope.
article continues after advertisement
What really intrigues me about Mara is that, while she's far along on the spectrum of depression, she echoes the emotions I've heard from plenty of good and healthy moms. She feels buried by housework, depleted by Tillie's need for attention, and she's lost connection with the activities that feed her sense of passion and identity. Without the safety net of friends or an understanding spouse, or professional help, she's really fighting this alone. At one point in the book, Tillie wonders who her mother might have been if they'd gotten her help. I wonder that, too.
JH: Tillie seems like a very strong little girl. From where does she draw her strength, given that neither of her parents are psychologically equipped to care for her?
SH: I think that's just her nature. She's kind of a feral, muscly, bold little girl; and I placed her in a very quiet neighborhood that values rules and order.
Some of her strength comes from learning to fend for herself, but I think some of it comes her parents. Her father, though he isn't terribly emotional or affectionate, provides her with a sense of stability and order-the walls for her to bounce against.
Her mother gives her access to the emotional world, and permission to abandon the rules. For Tillie, her mother is like stepping into the Technicolor world of Oz, complete with music, rubies, and flying monkeys.
JH: Phil, Tillie's brother, is a heart-breaking character who is rejected by both parents. (At least Tillie has the illusion of her mother's love.) How do you see Phil turning out as an adult?
SH: I do think he was loved, but some parents have limited reserves, and sometimes the good kid-the one who's dutiful and quiet-can get lost in the chaos. This is a boy who's learned to win his father's approval by manning-up, so his suffering goes unnoticed until he reaches a breaking point.
article continues after advertisement
As an adult, hmm... I suspect he'll continue to be somewhat closed off and self-protective. But I'm generally hopeful about peoples' resiliency. I think of flowers that can grow in the cracks of the sidewalk and plants that twist and turn to reach for the light. I think people are like that, too. Phil, like anyone who's come through a trauma, will have some vulnerabilities and some armor, but I suspect he'll carve out a life that, for the most part, satisfies him.
JH: How long did it take you to write this novel, and how much did it change from the first draft to the final manuscript?
SH: Tillie started turning up in my short stories consistently for quite some time, and my first attempt at this book was a collection of stories that spanned into her adulthood. I kept whittling away at it until I realized the heat of the story was concentrated on the year Tillie lost her mother.
JH: Is there anything else you want readers to know about Up From the Blue?
SH: While it's a journey through the grieving process, I think it brings the reader to a place of hope in the end. To a possibility of forgiveness and a future that breaks free of the past.
by Jennifer Haupt