Jane Hamilton isn't a pop culture novelist who churns out the goods for the hungry masses. No, Jane Hamilton, who has lived in a Racine County farmhouse for a long time now, has written five novels in 17 years, but every one of them has been hard-hitting and has been well-reviewed and her fans are lovers of serious fiction.

Hamilton -- who is friendly, personable and charming, making us wonder where the novels' dark sides come from -- takes her time and it pays off.

Her new book, "When Madeline Was Young," is the story of a newly married woman who suffers brain damage in a bike accident and has the mental capacity of a 7-year-old. How will this nascent family deal with such a tragedy and how will it reverberate?

The book has gotten a coveted starred review in Booklist and raves from other literary magazines, too. But it didn't come easily, as we found out when we asked Hamilton to submit to a few questions.

OMC: It's been a long, long time since your previous novel, but I hear you didn't spend it watching TV. Can you tell us a bit about the novel that you started writing before this one?

JH: that poor old thing was a disaster. It was about a girl, a librarian and an old lady. In a small town. It was about mental illness, adultery and old age!!!! Nothing happened!!! They were dull!!!!!!!! But I made it the best failure I could.

OMC: Did anything survive from that one? Are there traces of it in "When Madeline Was Young"?

JH: No trace, none, zero.

OMC: Was there a period of exhaustion between to two books or did you dive right into this one?

JH: writing a terrible book is so exhausting -- getting to the new one was invigorating, pure joy.

OMC: Was there external pressures to get something done?

JH: on the whole there was internal pressure. Doubleday has always been patient.

OMC: How did the idea for "Madeline" germinate. It's not the kind of story one hears about regularly. Is it strictly a result of your imagination or was there a real-life story that sparked it?

JH: I went to see "The Light in the Piazza" in Chicago, a musical based on the Elizabeth Spencer novella. In it a mother and daughter travel to Italy. It's 1950, or so. The daughter is brain damaged from an accident. She falls in love with an Italian. Because of the language barrier the family doesn't realize she's impaired. The mother, in the end, manipulates the situation so that her daughter marries Fabrizio. It's a glorious novella, with that cockeyed wedding as the finale. I wondered, what happens next? You know it's not going to be good. So, although my characters are not Spencer's, I used that situation as a springboard into my novel.

OMC: Are you into another novel yet or taking a breath?

JH: thinking about it, and breathing.

OMC: Wisconsin has figured in a number of your works. Is that solely because you live here?

JH: I occasionally venture forth from Wisconsin into Illinois, Vermont and New York City. But Wisconsin seems inexhaustable.

OMC: Do you get up to Milwaukee much? Do you have a favorite spot here?

JH: not as much as i'd like as my family takes me to Chicago. But favorite spots -- the lake! Brady Street, the Third Ward, or starters.

Jane Hamilton visits Schwartz Bookshop, 17145 W. Bluemound Rd., in Brookfield, Thursday, Sept. 21 at 7 p.m. to read from and sign copies of "When Madeline Was Young." Admission is free.

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Posted by OMCreader on Sept. 20, 2006 at 9:50 p.m. (report)

Darlene said: I can always use more Jane Hamilton! Her books bring you into the characters and Midwest and you feel involved. Excellent reading.