In conversation with Terrance Gelenter.

We met at one of my favorite new discoveries, Mères et Filles in the Marais. She was easy to spot, Junoesque and sporting earrings and a necklace of her own design and manufacture. We shared the obligatory, although not unpleasant, bisous before ordering the formule of Chickpea soup, tomatoes stuffed with beef and a glass of Petit Pont, a red from Languedoc.

To add the appropriate finishing touch to a perfectly delightful afternoon we were overheard by a group of twelve women and never missing an opportunity to market I began to promote Vanina’s book. One of the ladies wished me a Happy St. Patrick’s Day and I responded with a few bars of DANNY BOY.

TG: When did you first come to Paris?
VM: I’m half-French, so I’ve been coming to Paris all my life.  To visit relatives when I was a kid, then to study here, then live here after college.  Afterwards, when I lived in LA, I came every fall for a decade, spending 6 weeks each time.  For the past five years, I’ve divided my time between Paris and Los Angeles.

TG: When and why did you start to come back and realize that you had to be here?
VM: After I finished my MFA, I realized that I needed to spend some more time here to work on my book. Subsequently, I developed a nice rhythm of spending time both here and in the US.

TG: Where do you live when in Paris? (arrondissement)
VM: In the 11th.

TG: Why?
Because my family has an apartment here that they let use.

TG: What’s your favorite café?
VM: Ooh, that would be telling.  Most obvious: Le Flore, it’s like the beach.   In my neighborhood: Aux Folies.

TG: What do you drink when just kicking back at home?
Rooibos tea.  Russian Earl Grey.  Lots of water.  With friends: red burgundy.

TG: What’s your favorite starred restaurant?
VM: Arpege. 

TG: What’s your favorite bistro du coin?
VM: My “coin” has so many great places: Astier, Le Chateaubriand, the table d’hotes at Chapeau Melon, le Villaret.

TG: What’s your favorite market?
VM: The one on boulevard Richard Lenoir.

TG: What’s your favorite park or garden?
VM: Definitely the Palais Royal.  I’m also fond of the view at the parc de Belleville and the folly at the parc des Buttes Chaumont.

TG: What’s your favorite time of the year?
VM: In Paris: la rentrée.  In LA: June.

TG: In your new novel your protagonist is translating an erotic novel from French into English. It has been said that translations are like women: The beautiful are not faithful and the faithful are not beautiful. Did you find that to be true in the book within a book as she struggles to find the right words for two cultures that don’t share an emotional language?

VM: I hadn't heard that one!  So many interesting things are said about translation, partly because I think it's so hard to put your finger on what is essential about it. 

But if you consider that languages have pronounced yet subtle differences in both structure and affect--for lack of a better term--then of course, a faithful translation in the strictest sense of the term will not be beautiful; it probably won't even be worth reading. 

On the other hand, the second part of that saying is precisely what the character in my book struggles with: how to remain true to the spirit of the text while at the same knowing that to do so will mean messing about with concrete elements of it.

One of the interesting problems I had while writing the book was trying to demonstrate the translator's increasing awareness of the difficulty of translating even as her skills improve. Almost as if the difficulty of the task increased to meet her proficiency level.  I think that's something that actually happens: the deeper you get into something, the deeper you realize it is.

TG: Was this an entirely autobiographical journey or did you have other models in mind?
VM: It’s a first novel, so invariably there are autobiographical elements, but it’s more like I  took a woman very much like me on a specific journey I completely invented.  So she may start off as me, but she goes to places and in directions I haven’t been, which means she’s actually not me at all.

Talk about the differences between French and American men and the complications of cross-cultural romance.
VM: There’s an interesting difference I find in notions of masculinity in the two cultures.  In the US, we had to invent the term metrosexual, which is kind of funny to the French, because all men are kind of metrosexual here.  They care about food and wine and interior decorating and clothes and aesthetics and it's considered entirely normal, not merely the realm of highly sophisticated, urban men. 

I can't really speak about the complications of cross-cultural romance, because I consider myself both French and American.  I can say the American side of me always longs for the kind of intense emotional and psychological conversations that we have in the age of therapy, and the French side of me always longs for more of the unspoken, subtle, layered approach.

I think Americans, going hand in hand with a directness of the English language, like to be clear and precise, and I think the French like to express themselves in elegant, indirect, nuanced ways.  Obviously, this could pose certain problems in cross-cultural relationships...

TG: Since you worked in Hollywood for ten years were you always conscious of writing a work that would be easily adapted to the screen?
VM: Actually, no.  I didn’t necessarily think a novel about a bilingual woman's relationship to language and cultural identity translated to the screen.  Most films have a hard time depicting a character’s internal life.  So, while there's definitely a plot and a love story, the heart of the book lies in an examination of the two cultures viewed through the differences in their language.  But I’m just happy it’s being considered for a film adaptation!
 
TG: How has Paris affected your life & work?
VM: It is, and always has been, the landscape of my dreams. That said, I don't know that I get the most work done here -- I seem to be more productive in terms of actual daily writing in Los Angeles -- but I think it's absolutely accurate to say it’s the place that inspires me in everything.

Vanina on Camera