Writers and Company

Steve Pitt is a Toronto-based freelance writer and an award-winning journalist. He has written many young adult and children's books, including Day of the Flying Fox: The True Story of World War II Pilot Charley Fox.

The basic format of this book is 21 interviews gleaned from Eleanor
Wachtel’s Sunday afternoon CBC radio program of the same name. As a
radio host, Wachtel boasts an enviable guest list. There are few
interviewers who can assemble in one volume recent interviews with
Margaret Atwood, André Dubus, Doris Lessing, Bernard MacLaverty, Alice
Munro, Michael Ondaatje, Salman Rushdie, and Amy Tan.

Wachtel also has the benefit of a full CBC radio production team that
provides her with background material and technical support. All that
said and done, some real credit now has to be given to Wachtel for not
fumbling the ball once it is lobbed to her. Though matched one-on-one
with some of the finest writers in the world, she never seems out of her
league. Her questions are probing and on target. Except for the Margaret
Atwood interview (Atwood conducted her own interrogation by consistently
rewording the questions), Wachtel always seems in control.

And yet, there is still something missing. After a brief introduction,
Wachtel provides no information about what was going on with any
particular writer during the interview. From just the printed page it is
impossible to tell if the writer is uncomfortable with any of
Wachtel’s questions, or charmed, or even bored.

Perhaps Wachtel has too much respect for her guests to venture a
personal opinion. Perhaps she has too little faith in her writing
ability to capture the nonverbal essence of the interview. The result is
that these interviews sometimes come across as informative but
impersonal.