Alexis Landau
Author Interview - Alexis Landau
Author of Those Who Are Saved
Author Interview - Alexis Landau
Author I draw inspiration from: So many: Deborah Levy, Nabokov, Joseph Roth, Rachel Cusk, Elena Ferrante, Irene Nemirovsky, Aimee Bender, Julie Orringer, Zadie Smith, Murakami, Lauren Groff, Jhumpa Lahiri, Viet Nguyen and many many others.
Author Interview - Alexis Landau
Favorite place to read a book: In bed because it is the quietest place in the house.
Book character I’d like to be stuck in an elevator with: The unnamed narrator of Rachel Cusks' trilogy because she has such keen observations and cutting commentary.
Author Interview - Alexis Landau
The moment I knew I wanted to become an author: It was a slow realization that took decades.
Hardback, paperback, ebook or audiobook: Hardback always!
The last book I read: A Lie Someone Told You About Yourself by Peter Ho Davies --a beautiful and honest account of fatherhood; it was refreshing to get the male perspective, to see how fathers suffer and worry about their children too, in different ways from mothers.
Author Interview - Alexis Landau
Pen & paper or computer: Computer for writing and pen and paper for note taking and remembering fragments of ideas.
Book character I think I’d be best friends with: Elena (Lenu) from Elena Ferrante's "My Brilliant Friend"
Author Interview - Alexis Landau
If I weren’t an author, I’d be a: Religious Studies professor or art historian
Favorite decade in fashion history: The 1940s! I love the utilitarian influence on women's fashion due to the war effort, with those wide legged trousers and high waist. And the evening clothes were form fitting and glamorous whereas by the fifties, the dresses became very poofy given Dior's influence with an extreme waist line --there was a lot more fabric by then and more to work with.
Place I’d most like to travel: Brazil and Columbia
My signature drink: Whiskey along with a hot cup of chamomile tea
Favorite artist: Wassily Kandinsky and Max Beckmann and many of the German expressionists working in the 1920s and 30s. "Glitter and Doom" is a wonderful book from an exhibit at the Met that compiles many of my favorite artists in one place.
Number one on my bucket list: Live in Rome for a year.
Anything else you'd like to add: So nice to read that Ashley (of this book list) has a deep knowledge of fashion history... fashion and the way people wear clothing and interact with their physical environment through what they wear on their body informs my writing and gives it that sensory detail that I think is important especially when bringing history to life.
Find more from the author:
Instagram: @alexis.landau
Author Bio: Alexis Landau studied at Vassar College and received an MFA from Emerson College, and a PhD in English Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Southern California. She is the author of Those Who Are Saved and The Empire of the Senses. She lives with her husband and two children in Los Angeles.
