Gretchen Berg was born on the East Coast, raised in the Midwest, and spent a number of years in the Pacific Northwest. She has taught English in South Korea and in Northern Iraq and has traveled to all the other continents. A graduate of Iowa State University, she lives in Chicago, Illinois. The Operator is her first novel and she recently agreed to talk about with Daryl Maxwell for the LAPL Blog.
What was your inspiration for The Operator?
It was a combination of my genealogy research and the discovery that my grandmother had been a switchboard operator in the 30s, 40s, and 50s. My mom said, “She used to eavesdrop on all the conversations,” and I thought, hmmmm…
Are Vivian, Edward, Betty or any of the other characters in the novel inspired by or based on specific individuals?
Vivian and Edward were definitely inspired by my maternal grandparents, and Charlotte a little bit by my mom, although they are all their own fictional characters. Betty wasn’t inspired by anyone in particular, but I’ve definitely met a number of people who behave the way she does.
How did the novel evolve and change as you wrote and revised it? Are there any characters or scenes that were lost in the process that you wish had made it to the published version?
Believe it or not, Vivian got nicer. I think some readers find her terribly unlikeable, so that will be hard to believe. When I’d first started writing, she was pretty bland. I had my mom read a few chapters and she said, “She’s not angry or resentful enough,” so I went a little overboard with that feedback. My editor advised me to soften her up a bit.
You capture the feeling of living in a small town, where everyone knows everyone else and their business, well! Have you ever lived in a small town like Wooster, Ohio?
Thank you! It probably does help that the town I grew up in was 27,000 people, roughly the same size as Wooster back then. I understand the dynamics of that pretty well.
The days of telephone operators are now long gone, but if you had the chance to work as an operator, would you listen in on the calls you connected?
No. I probably would have when I was a lot younger, but I feel like it would be so invasive now.
What’s currently on your nightstand?
Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China by Jung Chang; Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, I’m re-reading the series because I never read the last 2, and don’t want to be lost; and You Can Heal Your Life by Louise Hay.
What was your favorite book when you were a child?
I have gotten this question a few times, and my answers are always different because I keep remembering all these amazing books I loved when I was little. I read a lot of books. One of my favorites was Alexander and the Magic Mouse by Martha Sanders, about a distinguished old lady who lived in a big Victorian house with an alligator, a yak, a cat, and a mouse. I still have it in my bookshelf.
Was there a book you felt you needed to hide from your parents?
No—they were extremely encouraging of reading pretty much everything.
Can you name your top five favorite or most influential authors?
Dr. Seuss
Beatrix Potter
Beverly Cleary
Judy Blume
Clement C. Moore
What is a book you've faked reading?
Ha! Do people really do this? I did it for a photo, pretended to be reading War & Peace, but I’ve never done it in real life.
Can you name a book you've bought for the cover?
The Shoemaker’s Wife by Adriana Trigiani. That wallpaper! And the drape of the gown. And the font of the author’s name. It’s just all so beautiful and elegant. I would have removed the image of the woman because I prefer inanimate covers, but that’s the only thing I would change. When there’s a person on the cover I spend a disproportionate amount of time wondering which of the characters that image is supposed to represent. Is that the shoemaker’s wife? Or was it her grandmother or her mother? And the cover image person almost never matches the description of any of the characters. It’s just a weird personal issue I have.
Is there a book that changed your life?
I would say Eckhart Tolle’s The Power of Now changed the way I look at life.
Can you name a book for which you are an evangelist (and you think everyone should read)?
The same as above—either The Power of Now or A New Earth or both. They’re great guidelines, and then reminders, to get out of your head. To ignore that spastic monkey-brain thinking that never does anyone any good.
Is there a book you would most want to read again for the first time?
This is an excellent question, and I cannot come up with a good answer.
What is your idea of THE perfect day (where you could go anywhere/meet with anyone)?
Bundling up for a quiet, snowy walk in the woods, and returning to a roaring fire and hot chocolate. And then, probably a cheese board and wine. Or fondue and wine. Have you seen the Rick Steves’ holiday episode where they’re in the mountains in Switzerland? They’re night-skiing down a mountain, carrying torches? And then there’s fondue. Something like that.
What is the question that you're always hoping you'll be asked, but never have been? What is your answer?
This is another excellent question for which I do not have an answer.
What are you working on now?
A historical novel, set between 1915 and 1920.
In an age of handheld computers that also provide telephonic functions, it’s easy to forget that just a mere six decades ago if you wanted to place a phone call, ANY phone call, you needed the assistance of an operator. Operators were the, mostly, faceless voices that asked for the number you wanted to reach and then connected your call. First-time novelist Gretchen Berg resurrects this now defunct function of phone calls in a novel that chronicles the work of an operator in a small town in Wooster, Ohio and what happens when she hears something she shouldn’t have through her receiver. This is a heartwarming book with witty dialogue and a true sense of life in a small town over half a century ago.