Grace Paley

August 25, 2007 | Filed Under Main |

I learned last night that Grace Paley passed away on Wednesday. She died at the age of 84 after fighting breast cancer at her home in Vermont (there’s that state again!).

Grace was one of my all time favorite writers. She was a quintessential New York writer. The city was her backdrop, her colors and her muse. Her characters were strong and honest and searching. None of Grace’s stories sat and stared into space. Her people were found in the midst of their lives and she let us watch them struggle, fight, love and survive.

Grace was also a political activist during all her years. She once referred to herself as “a somewhat combative pacifist and a cooperative anarchist”. Indeed. She fought against nuclear proliferation, went to Hanoi in 1969 to negotiate for the release of prisoners and was arrested as one of the “White House Eleven” for unfurling an anti-nuclear banner on the White House lawn. (This was a number of years back. Had she done it recently, the Eleven would have been shot.) Thanks to Wikipedia for some of this info.

Oh, to be that strong and write so beautifully. Her books of short stories - which I highly recommend! - included Enormous Changes At The Last Minute, Little Disturbances Of Man and Later That Same Day. One of her characters - Faith Darwin - appearred in about 5 or 6 stories. I was in love with Faith. A strong New York, Jewish single mother… but that doesn’t say anything. I can’t expalin Faith. You have to meet her. My favorite story is “Faith In A Tree”. Back in 1995, I had the pleasure of meeting Grace Paley at Symphony Space in NYC. There was a program where actors read her stories onstage and I hung out afterward to meet her. Which was fairly simple. She was an open and warm person - in her 70’s back then - and quite happy to meet and talk to people. I asked her to sign my copy of Enormous Changes and she asked what was my favorite story. I told her “Faith In A Tree” and she winked at me and said, “That’s mine, too”. So she signed that page of my book.

So - bon voyage, Grace. I now look around my library and the only one of my favorite authors still alive is Gabriel Garcia Marquez. A shame, really.

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2 comments so far
  1. Tommy August 27, 2007 1:44 pm

    Good interview with Grace from the Paris Review. Im sure you’ve already read it but just in case: http://www.theparisreview.org/media/2028_PALEY.pdf

  2. mburma August 27, 2007 5:08 pm

    I had not seen that interview. thanks!