http://triblive.com/aande/books/1078069 ... ar-writing
Mary-Louise Parker is a star in the literary world, too
BY REGE BEHE
Saturday, July 23, 2016
As an actress, Mary-Louise Parker's work is visceral and immediate. In the film “Fried Green Tomatoes,” or the television series “Weeds,” or via her work on stage, her natural luminosity radiates.
It can be argued she's as equally talented — perhaps even more so — as a writer. Parker, who appears July 27 as a guest of Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures' New & Noted series, is a contributor to Esquire magazine and the author of “Dear Mr. You” (Scribner, $18), a collection of letters to some of the men in her life.
While her acting talents are unquestioned, sometimes her writing ability is doubted.
“I grew accustomed to people smirking a little bit,” Parker says, “and I understand why it wouldn't be a natural assumption that I could write. I understand that, but it just led me to not to advertise it so much that I was writing a book.”
Of course, name recognition didn't hurt when “Dear Mr. You” was published. But Parker drew rarefied praise from writers including Colum McCann and National Book Award winner Andrew Solomon, who wrote that Parker “has a warrior's determination and a poet's insight.”
Poetry is Parker's main literary influence, with poets Sharon Olds, Mark Strand, Kevin Young, Philip Levine and Mary Karr among her favorites. Songwriters, such as Joni Mitchell and Elvis Costello, also have influenced her. The directness of “Dear Mr. You” mimics how these writers approach their craft.
“These people are being completely honest,” Parker says, “and they say something in a fresh way because there is no other way for them to say it. It's not that they're trying to show off or be unique. This is the way it comes out of them. They are somehow hyper-connected to the truth, the way those words fall together.”
If there's a commonality between Parker's acting and writing, it's the necessity to be observant. She calls herself “the quiet one in the corner,” and that natural tendency enables her to “absorb and remember a lot.”
“I am a big daydreamer, and my imagination is probably what best feeds the writing,” she says. “I am not sure how it informs the acting, though. Now that I am about to be 52 years old, I don't feel like I have to apologize for being such a daydreamer anymore. Maybe it's more charming on an older lady and people don't automatically assume you are aloof or on narcotics.
“In many ways, I am more suited to writing because it's solitary and you have more control over the final product. I don't feel very comfortable around large groups of people, and by large I mean anything over three, so writing is easier in that sense.”
“Dear Mr. You” primarily consists of letters to men — there is one chapter called “Dear Miss Girl” — who are addressed variously as “Dear Man Out of Time,” “Dear Lifeline” and “Dear Risk Taker.” Celebrity gawkers may be able to match the letters to famed addressees, but Parker thinks the anonymous approach yielded at least one advantage.
“I have heard from a couple of people lately that they really appreciated that they didn't know anything about who certain men were and that allowed them to project their own experiences and memories onto the letters,” Parker says. “It was also just fun coming up with some of the code names, and in the end it was really intended to be a bunch of thank-you notes.”
