Chapter 12 Summary: A Conversation with Enid Shomer

⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.

Summary

In this interview with poet and novelist Maxine Kumin, Enid Shomer discusses the inspiration, craft, and themes behind the stories in Tourist Season. She explains how her childhood in Florida and her grandparents’ early settlement there created a deep emotional attachment to the state, which permeates many of the stories. She describes the origins of “Chosen,” sparked by an NPR interview about a reincarnated Tibetan saint, and how it led her to explore cultural and religious relativism. Shomer clarifies that “Chosen” stays within the realm of physical possibility, while “Laws of Nature” fully enters magical realism. She talks about writing from the unconscious, letting stories surprise her, and the role of the “if” question. She addresses character choices: Iris acts as a cultural bridge in “Chosen”; Janet’s death in “Rapture” results from nitrogen narcosis amplified by a forgotten prescription drug; Sheila in “The Other Mother” is resourceful, not helpless. Shomer defends her male characters as ordinary men and discusses how the unconscious drives behavior, referencing Freud and Greek tragedy. She explains that characters like Garland slide into crime sideways, shaped by unacknowledged beliefs. She reveals that “Crash Course” is the most autobiographical story, stemming from a real car accident. Shomer discusses her interest in older women, the changing paradigm of life after mid-century, and the role of humor that emerges organically. She also talks about writing across genres and her current project: a historical novel set in 1849 Egypt featuring Florence Nightingale and Gustave Flaubert.

Key Events

Shomer describes her childhood attachment to Florida and how it shapes her settings.
She explains the inspiration for “Chosen” from an NPR interview and the “if” question that drives both “Chosen” and “Laws of Nature.”
She discusses cultural relativism: religious dogma often determined by birthplace, and the possibility of a Jewish woman becoming a Buddhist saint.
Kumin and Shomer explore the “bridge between cultures” theme in “Chosen” and how Iris’s simple words carry deep meaning for the Tibetan messengers.
Shomer outlines the narrative technique of “Rapture”: a life flashing by in disconnected lyrical patches, inspired by the phenomenon of near-death reviews.
She clarifies Janet’s death: a combination of nitrogen narcosis and a forgotten panic-disorder medication, leaving room for debate about volition.
She defends male characters like Claude and Eastman, arguing they are not villains but scared, grieving, or struggling.
Shomer discusses how Garland slides into crime sideways due to her mother’s death and unexamined beliefs about dying young.
She explains leaving “the other mother” intentionally vague to remain a sad presence.
Shomer reveals that “Crash Course” is autobiographical, based on her own car accident.
She discusses her interest in older women, noting that aging characters are moving from the edges to the center of fiction.
Kumin and Shomer discuss the seamlessness of writing across genres; Shomer says poetry teaches the power of imagery and keeps prose concise.
Shomer talks about the origin of “The Hottest Spot on Earth” from a Slash pornography lecture and a Las Vegas visit, and her love of cultural collisions.
She describes how humor enters her stories organically, often surprising her.
She shares her current project: a historical novel about Florence Nightingale and Gustave Flaubert in Egypt.

Character Development

Iris (“Chosen”): She becomes an unwitting bridge between cultures; her mundane actions and words carry profound meaning for the Tibetan messengers because they listen with different ears.
Janet (“Rapture”): Her death is ambiguous—whether accident or unconscious choice—adding complexity to her character; Shomer resists pinning down volition.
Sheila (“The Other Mother”): Characterized as resourceful and spunky, actively forging a new identity after divorce; the biological mother remains a haunting, undefined presence.
Garland (“Sweethearts,” “Fill in the Blank”): Her criminal acts stem from unacknowledged grief and belief she will die young, not from attraction to crime; she misinterprets her father’s gift.
Claude (“Laws of Nature”): Not a villain but a scared man who reacts to his wife’s transformation out of fear of being abandoned.
Helen (“Laws of Nature”): Her transformation into another creature reflects themes of invisibility and the new paradigm of life after middle age.
Eastman (Garland’s father): Portrayed as a grieving, struggling parent whose gift of a necklace is an act of love that Garland fails to appreciate.
Frieda (“Tourist Season”): Drawn from research on the Women’s Airforce Service Pilots; part of Shomer’s effort to include older women characters.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs

Cultural Bridge: The idea that a person can be a conduit between vastly different worldviews without fully understanding her own role; Iris in “Chosen” exemplifies this.
Unconscious Motives: Shomer emphasizes Freud’s insight that humans rarely understand their own motives; characters like Garland and Janet act from hidden beliefs or forgotten details.
Magic Realism vs. Possibility: Shomer distinguishes between stories that stretch reality but stay within physical laws (“Chosen”) and those that fully enter another realm (“Laws of Nature”); both begin with “if.”
Aging and Visibility: Older women and men become invisible in society; Shomer’s inclusion of characters across decades challenges that and reflects a new life paradigm where midlife is not the end of the story.
Writing as Seamless Art: Shomer views poetry, fiction, and nonfiction as the same activity—making art; each genre enriches the others, especially poetry’s gift of metaphor.
Humor as Organic: Humor arises naturally from serious subjects and is strongest when not forced.
Cultural Collisions: The juxtaposition of Renaissance fairs and Civil War reenactments, or Slash conventions and nuclear protests, enriches American openness to new ideas.

Why This Chapter Matters

This interview offers readers direct access to Enid Shomer’s creative philosophy and thematic intentions. It provides context for the collection’s recurring concerns: the unknowable depths of human motivation, the power of “what if” to generate fiction, and the representation of women across the lifespan. Shomer’s candid discussion of research, autobiography, and craft demystifies her process and deepens appreciation for the stories’ construction. The interview also situates Tourist Season within broader literary conversations about genre, aging, and cultural relativism. For students and book-club readers, this chapter is an essential companion that clarifies ambiguous endings and controversial character choices without prescribing a single interpretation.

Study Questions and Answers

1. How does Shomer explain the dual meanings of “bridge between two cultures” in “Chosen”?
Shomer believes Iris does act as a bridge, but because she is bound by her own culture, neither she nor the reader fully comprehends how her words and deeds affect the Tibetan messengers. She points to Lu’s lengthy translations and his daily debriefings as evidence that he finds deep significance in Iris’s simple acts, much like readers extract meaning from a translated poem.

2. What role does the unconscious play in Shomer’s characterization of Garland and Janet?
Garland’s slide into crime is driven by an unacknowledged belief that she will die young, inherited from her mother’s early death. Janet’s failure to list her panic-disorder medication may be a simple oversight, but Shomer leaves open the possibility of unconscious volition. She argues that humans are not in control of their emotions and often act without understanding their motives, a debt to Freudian psychology and Greek tragedy.

3. Why does Shomer argue that “sixty is the new forty” matters for fiction?
She notes that up to the twentieth century, most novels ended with marriage, but longer lifespans now allow people to lead multiple lives—multiple careers, marriages, blended families. This opens a huge narrative space between marriage and death, creating a new category of wisdom in fiction that reflects the older women (and men) who are moving from the edges to the center of stories.