Benjamin Wood's Literary Journey: From Steinbeck to Auster
In a revealing interview, acclaimed author Benjamin Wood delves into the books that have shaped his life and writing career, offering a personal glimpse into his literary influences and passions.
Earliest Reading Memory
Wood recalls his earliest reading memory at age eight, when his mother gifted him Stanley Bagshaw and the Short-sighted Football Trainer by Bob Wilson. He grew up believing the author was the same Bob Wilson who played as a goalkeeper for Arsenal and presented sports on ITV, a misconception that never diminished his appreciation for this brilliant rhyming picture book. Wood passionately advocates for its reissue to inspire more children to read, noting that his own sons adore it.
Favourite Book Growing Up
During his secondary school years, The Red Pony by John Steinbeck had a profound effect on Wood. He was amazed by how vividly a writer could evoke a landscape through words, and it marked the first novel that moved him to tears. Stories with such emotional power, he reflects, will always hold a special place in his heart.
Book That Made Him Want to Be a Writer
Around the age of 20, Wood experienced a bout of illness that left him bed-bound for several weeks, during which he felt particularly low. It was in this period that he read Mr Vertigo and In the Country of Last Things by Paul Auster back-to-back, having already devoured The New York Trilogy earlier that year. These books, he explains, made him ache to write fiction of his own, sparking his creative drive.
Book He Came Back To
Wood initially struggled to enjoy Gilead by Marilynne Robinson upon its publication and again after returning from studies in Canada, finding the religiosity of the narrator's voice difficult to connect with. However, after becoming a father, he picked it up once more, and John Ames's letter to his young son resonated with him fully, highlighting how life experiences can transform one's reading perspective.
Book He Rereads
While Wood does not typically reread novels, he often revisits short stories, with Drinking Coffee Elsewhere by ZZ Packer being the collection he has returned to most over the past 20 years. He particularly shares the story The Ant of the Self with his undergraduate students at the start of term, praising it as a near-immaculate work that explores the complexities of a father-son relationship, almost committing it to memory.
Book He Could Never Read Again
The Magus by John Fowles is a book Wood describes as clever and engrossing, yet it features one of the most frustrating endings he has ever encountered. Fowles himself was dissatisfied with how he resolved the plot's intricate threads, creating different versions for updated editions. Wood admits it is perhaps the only book he has loved so much that he threw it at the wall out of disappointment.
Book Discovered Later in Life
Corregidora by Gayl Jones, a short novel from 1975, stands out as a discovery later in Wood's life. He admires how it unravels a character's inherited trauma and depicts her haunted consciousness through time with devastating effect, noting the fluidity of its movement from present to past as purposeful and affecting.
Current Reading
Wood is currently reading Bad Attitudes by Agnes Owens, an author he had never heard of before but now plans to explore further due to her extensive backlist. He mentions that starting from such a point is how he prefers to begin a novel these days.
Comfort Read
For comfort, Wood turns to Tobias Wolff's Old School, describing it as a literary blanket he has wrapped around himself at many stages of his life, praising its quiet beauty and insight. Similarly, Mildred Pierce by James M Cain captivates him, as he never thought he could be so invested in the success of a 1930s chicken and waffle restaurant, but he was and always will be.
Benjamin Wood's latest novel, Seascraper, is out in Penguin paperback on 2 April.
