It even ran for weeks on the best-seller list, an almost unheard-of event for the unheard-of author. She sent the completed book to Viking Press cold - no letter of inquiry, no agent, nothing - a route that usually guarantees defeat for the would-be author.īut a year and a half later, ''Ordinary People'' emerged as Viking's first ''over-the-transom'' publication in 27 years. Nearly 10 years ago she did exactly that - pecking out her first novel while her family was away during the day. For all the housewives who dream of launching a writing career from a typewriter parked on their kitchen table, Guest is a dream come true. In fact, within publishing circles, Guest is something of a Cinderella - that one-in-a-million exception to the rule that unknown writers without agents and a proven track record can't break into print. The movie version of ''Ordinary People,'' directed by Robert Redford and starring Mary Tyler Moore, earned Academy Awards in 1980 for best picture, supporting actor, director, and adapted screenplay. ''Ordinary People'' and last year's ''Second Heaven'' have both netted hefty fees for paperback and film rights.
A tall woman with short, clipped hair and a blunt manner, she is bereft of the sophistication and literary airs one might expect of a successful author.
She happily digs into her applesauce, chatters on about her three sons and her new cabin in Wisconsin (''northern Minnesota was just too expensive''), and makes fun of arugola - ''that new hot lettuce everyone is eating out in L.A.''īut Judith Guest is no ordinary person, despite her everyday conversation.
This is typical of this atypical housewife and author of two nationally acclaimed novels, who seems intent on being ''just plain folks,'' limousine notwithstanding.
Guest, looking every bit the Minnesota homemaker that she is and not the least bit the best-selling author that she also is (she wrote the book ''Ordinary People''), settles for a small dish of applesauce. It is midmorning and the limo waits patiently around the corner from where Judith Guest is querying the Hilton Hotel waiter, ''You got any bananas?'' There are, unfortunately, no bananas to be had, so Ms.
0 kommentar(er)
