Joyce Maynard’s new novel, After Her, follows two teenage sisters living in the shadow of Mount Tamalpais in northern California during a spate of killings of young women by a serial killer in 1979. But she says that this almost-thriller circles around what she identifies as her obsessive themes in her work: family, the coming of age of a young girl, and what she called recently "the wild card of human sexuality."
It's interesting to read the interview in light of her controversial memoir, At Home in the World, which explored her affair as an 18-year-old with J.D. Salinger.
Maynard spoke from a cottage in New Hampshire, where she was in the midst of a belated honeymoon -- she was married this summer.
My interview with Maynard for The Washington Post.
Katha Pollitt's review of At Home in the World, which touches on some of the themes Maynard discusses in this week's interview.
Maynard's own piece on her novel, in The New York Times.
And a story about her wedding, also from The Times.