The main character in Matilda is Missing (Random House, 2011) isn't little Matilda, and it isn't really her parents. The main character is Barry Harrison, who is asked by his old friend, a Family Court judge, to tell Matilda's story.
I like Barry because he's not the type of bloke who would take it upon himself to write a book, or indeed to tell anybody else's story.
He feels honour-bound, in part because he promised his friend, and he's the type of man who keeps his promises; and later, because he can see that an injustice has been done.
What kind(s) of character do you consider this character primarily to be, or how would you describe this character?
Barry is the narrator, meaning he's able to take the reader on the journey, through a story about divorce, and custody battles.
But he's also a man with a family of his own. As it happens, his son is getting divorced; he isn't seeing his own grandchildren, so he can bring personal experience to the story.
Also, because he is much older than the couple caught in the custody dispute, he is able to bring perspective, and reflect on both changing social mores, regarding marriage, divorce.
What is a character from a published fiction story by another author you would compare this character to and why are they similar?
I'm not sure about this question. Barry has a role to play as a narrator, but he's very definitely his own man.
To what extent did you use any pre-exisiting character formula, template, paradigm, character design, archetype, or theory or principles of making or analysing character in planning, writing, and refining this character?
None at all. I wrote him as I saw him, and I could see him very clearly.
How would you describe the first chapter, scene or section of this story in one paragraph?
I was important to me to set the scene in the first chapter: this is a story about a bitter divorce, and an equally bitter custody dispute over a small girl, in the age of shared care. It's to be told by a man who is at once removed from the case (he has no relationship with the mother, father or the child) but has some experience of family breakdown, because it's happening in his own family.
Pick one of your published stories. How would you describe the introduction of the main character, or one of the main characters, in this story?
To my mind, you can tell a lot about a character by the way he talks. Barry introduces himself, and he speaks throughout in the voice of a man aged about 65, raised in a working class Australian suburb, proud of his long marriage, his fine sons, and his grandchildren. I hope that readers can `see' him through what he says, and how he acts.
What makes this an effective character introduction for this story?
To me, it worked more effectively than trying to describe Barry from my own point of view. I wanted him to be who he was.
What major changes does this character go through, or what major challenges does the character encounter and how does the character respond to them?
I think it's fair to say that Barry was somewhat reluctant to get involved in the story of somebody else's divorce. He's not the type to want to pry. He avoids confrontation, where possible. His own son is getting divorced, and he is very much of the view that it needs to "play itself out'' and that lawyers, and courts, won't help anyone, or fix anything.
Over the course of the novel, he's drawn into the story of somebody else's divorce and, having made a commitment to his friend to examine it, ultimately steps up, and gets quite involved, in trying to put things right.
How would you describe the most important minor characters in this story and the changes in their character, or the challenges they encounter and how they respond them?
The character who gets least attention of all is little Matilda, and that is absolutely crucial to the story.
What does the story gain from the minor characters?
The point of it must be that while Matilda is ostenisbly the subject of all the fuss, her needs, and her voice, are barely heard, as the adults go to war around her. I wanted to keep her as elusive as possible.
To what extent would you describe the characters in this story as typical or atypical of characters in your fiction stories?
My aim, in writing four books for Random House, is to tell Australian stories, as honestly as possible. All my characters are deeply Australian (including the Sudanese refugees.) Their lives are quite ordinary, their troubles very typical of so many of us. In every book, I hope to write characters that people will recognise, from their own lives.
Author website: www.carolineoverington.com
