In Depth
Patricia Wood: Love and the lottery
02.11.07 Anna Richardson
Patricia Wood has had many incarnations. She has served in the US army, been a horse riding instructor, and taught marine science to problem children. She is a PhD student at the University of Hawaii and lives on a 48-foot sailing boat. Now, in her 50s, she has added a début novel to her CV: Lottery (Heinemann, January).
"I think I had to get to be 50 before I felt I had something to write about," comments Wood on her roundabout path to becoming a published author. "One morning, I woke up with a voice in my head, and it was the first line of the novel: 'My name is Perry L Crandall and I am not retarded.' "
Within seven months, Wood had found an agent, and last November the book was snapped up at auction. She still marvels at the speed at which Lottery came to life: "A year and a half [after the initial idea], it's actually a book in my hand, which in publishing terms is blazingly fast."
Lottery tells the story of Perry L Crandall, a young man with an unspecified mental disability who lives with his protective grandmother. Soon after her death, which leaves him alone, he wins the lottery and suddenly finds himself at the centre of faked affection and attention from relatives and strangers alike.
The central premise is not as far-fetched as some might think, considering that Wood's father himself won $6m (£2.9m) on the lottery a few years ago. Wood experienced the reaction of friends—an initial thrill, then alienation—as well as the guilty feeling of using up other people's chances of winning, and even visits from mafiosi keen to launder money. All these made their way into the book.
One element that was "absolutely non-negotiable" according to Wood was the use of Perry's voice as narrative. "I'm sure I could wow you with my prose if it was third-person omniscient, but this was far harder."
Perry's voice is one of simple yet quirky and left-field observations, with endearingly naïve renditions of the people around him, both friends and foes. "People [might] think the narrative voice is bland, that some of the people that Perry doesn't know well are stereotypical, [but] that's the way he would see them," Wood says.
Just as important was creating a story that was compelling. "I love to curl up with a book and not be able to put it down," Wood says. "And if I've done that, if I've taken you to a world that you've never been in before, and if I've made you look differently at
people, I have succeeded."
Perry's tale of trust, loyalty and love is a parable, she adds. "It's a statement of our times, about how we marginalise people, how we value money and intelligence, and how we sometimes don't
value heart."
Wood's latest incarnation as author certainly sits well with her: "It feels like I have now done what I was meant to do. Because it feels so right. I am absolutely gratified and grateful. You will never see me not answer emails, you will never see me not give an interview and you will never hear me not thank all of my readers from the bottom of my heart."
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