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Sixth Novel By WKU Author David Bell Explores Issues Involving Family, Trust

Abbey Oldham

The Forgotten Girl is the latest book by author and WKU English Professor David Bell. Like many of his previous novels, The Forgotten Girl centers largely around family dynamics and unresolved issues from the past that rear their ugly heads in the present.

Bell came to the studios of WKU Public Radio to talk about his latest book,the book trailer that accompanied it, and whether or not he wishes he could change any part of his previous books.

Here are some excerpts from our interview:

WKU Public Radio: The Forgotten Girl opens with the character Jason Danvers having an unexpected encounter with his younger sister. Without giving away the ending, can you give us an idea of the dynamic between this brother and sister?

David Bell: Jason has moved back to his hometown because of a career change, and he has not seen his younger sister for five years. His sister throughout her life has struggled with substance abuse issues. So he and his sister basically reach this crossroads where he practiced tough love and said, “You’ve got to stay out of my life if you’re not going to have your act together.”

So he hasn’t seen her for five years, and out of the blue he sees her in town and she kind of doesn’t talk to him, and then—the next day—she shows up on his doorstep, saying, “Hey, I’m back. I’m clean and sober, and I need a favor from you.”

So he’s facing that question that I think almost everybody’s probably experienced—someone in their life with a substance abuse problem, whether it’s an immediate family member or a friend. And everybody has to face that question of when do we trust that person again? When do we believe that the change they say they’ve been through is a real, permanent change?

This book, as well as several of your previous works, is centered around difficult family relationships and secrets. Why are you drawn to those themes?

I think I write about families a lot because a family is a universal experience. We’re all in a family of some kind, or in some way. And even when we move away from our families, we end up in substitute families: work families, friend groups that seem like family, in-laws, etc., etc.

So families are always in our lives, and families are places in our lives where we experience the most love, the most comfort, the most familiarity—all of those kinds of things. But at the same time, families can be enormous sources of frustration and anger and difficulty. And sometimes we have the experience where we say, “Do I really know the people that are closest to me? Do I know them as well as I think I know them?”

And I think one of scariest things is to find out that someone who we think we know really well is not who they claim to be. That can be a real terrifying wake-up call.

The book trailer for The Forgotten Girl was filmed at the WKU Farm, not far from the campus. First of all, what’s a book trailer, and who helped you create it?

Book trailers have been around for about five years. You go to a movie theater, or you watch TV, and they show you a movie trailer to tease you about going to see the movie.

It’s the same thing with a book. It’s a minute, to two minute thing to get you to want to go read the book, and to raise some intriguing questions about the book. I did a couple in the past. I did one for Cemetery Girl, and I did one for The Hiding Place, and I did not do one for Never Come Back, and my publisher came to me and said, “Hey, we’d really like you to do a book trailer (for The Forgotten Girl).”

See the book trailer for The Forgotten Girl

The great thing about teaching at a university is that you have access to a lot of students who have talents as actors, and creative people like that. You have access to colleagues who you can try to sucker into appearing as actors in the movies. Mike Nichols from the WKU Art Department—we roped him somehow into acting and playing the lead role in this, and another student, Cicely Walters, played one of the lead roles in the trailer.

The WKU Farm was very generous. We went out there, and we needed an open, rural-looking area, and they said, “Hey, come out and use it anytime and do whatever you want.”

So everybody at WKU and the WKU Farm was very generous, and I think it looks great.

Do you ever reread your books? If so, do you ever get to parts where—if you could go back in time—you’d change what you had written?

I don’t necessarily reread the book after it’s published.

But as I’m promoting The Forgotten Girl and doing readings, and looking at it over and over again, I start to think to myself, “Boy, I would change that line.” Or, “I can’t believe I left that word in there.” And I find myself changing it for the reading.

I think all writers feel that way. If you could go back and look at something, I don’t think writers would ever finish anything. I think they’d constantly be tinkering with what they’re writing.

The only way books get published is because an editor comes along and says, “I’m taking this away from you. You’re done. It’s going away.” It’s kind of like we’re small children, where someone has to come along and take the toy away from us.                   

David Bell’s sixth novel, The Forgotten Girl, was released by New American Library, an imprint of Penguin Random House USA.

Kevin is the News Director at WKU Public Radio. He has been with the station since 1999, and was previously the Assistant News Director, and also served as local host of Morning Edition.
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