Pywell, Sharon L.

PERSONAL:

Married; children: one daughter. Education: University of Virginia, graduated; holds two graduate degrees, one from Boston University, 1989.

ADDRESSES:

Home—MA. E-mail—sharonpywell@whathappenedtohenry.com.

CAREER:

Has worked variously as a teacher, director of modern dance companies, and program manager for schools and museums.

AWARDS, HONORS:

MacDowell fellowship.

WRITINGS:

Writing That Works, Business One Irwin/Mirror Press (Burr Ridge, IL), 1994.

What Happened to Henry (novel), Putnam (New York, NY), 2004.

Everything After (novel), Putnam (New York, NY), 2006.

Contributor to periodicals, including Antioch Review, Western Humanities Review, Southern Review, Soft Sculptural Sell, Washington Post, and Virginia Quarterly Review.

SIDELIGHTS:

Sharon L. Pywell is the author of the critically well-received What Happened to Henry. In this debut novel, the Cooper family must confront the powerful emotions and devastating aftereffects of a child's death from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). The story opens in 1958, when Henry, Lauren, and Winston Copper, respectively aged ten, seven, and five, are alone with infant sister, Sally, when she dies in her crib. Their mother is shattered by the event, and she sinks deeper and deeper into depression. Their father copes by devoting himself more obsessively to his work. Henry helps the other children deal with the situation as much as he can, but things deteriorate as each of them manifests their grief in different ways. Four years later, the stress becomes too much for Henry, who has become obsessed with a photograph of Asagao, a Japanese man who died from radiation poisoning after the infamous Hiroshima blast. Worse, he begins to think he is being taken over by Asagao's angry, restless spirit. Inexplicably, Henry begins to speak Japanese and to claim Japanese beliefs in the afterlife. As the children grow and mature through college and into adulthood, they remain close to each other, but continue to share the trauma of Sally's death even as they accept Asagao's presence, through Henry, as a "shadow brother." Henry's eventual need to speak to Asagao in person leads to the book's "poignant denouement," commented Deborah Donovan in Booklist. A Kirkus Reviews contributor called the book a "striking debut" and a "fascinating blend of family drama and metaphysical inquiry." Donovan named the book a "powerful novel full of surprises, unbreakable sibling bonds, and insightful reflection" on how love can overcome grief. The Kirkus Reviews critic concluded that the novel's ending "will haunt those who can accept ambiguity and uncertainty."

In her second book, Everything After, "Pywell achingly depicts a grieving family bitterly divided by the politics of war," related Joanne Wilkinson in Booklist.

Writing on the What Happened to Henry Web site, Pywell described the novel as "the story of a blended family whose individual members, though they've lived together their whole lives, still have entirely different histories." Nineteen-year-old Iris Sunnaret, the youngest of the four Sunnaret siblings, narrates the story. Iris and her other siblings—sister Angie and brothers Eddie and Perry—were adopted by their Aunt Eleanor, Uncle Charlie, and Cousin Hank when their father left them and their mother drowned. In the midst of the political and emotional turmoil of the Vietnam War, Eddie volunteers to serve in the conflict and brother Perry soon follows. Angie, furious at Eleanor and Charlie for allowing the boys to enlist, becomes a radical antiwar protestor. Iris and Hank find themselves occupying the middle ground, unable to mediate between their adopted parents, staunch patriots and war supporters, and the rebellious, counterculture-living Angie. The situation worsens when the family finds out that Eddie and Perry were both killed in action on the same day. Later, they are shocked when a member of the brothers' platoon arrives with a much different story than the official version of their demise. More shocking still is the possibility that Perry may have had a role in Eddie's death. Grimly determined, Iris sets out to find out what really happened to her brothers in the war-ravaged jungles of Southeast Asia. Her investigation uncovers difficult truths about her family's background and her brothers' fate, not the least of them being that it is "possible to love members of your family and at the same time wish them dead," observed Bostonia reviewer Natalie Jacobson McCracken. "There are no easy answers in Pywell's rich narrative" of the troubled Sunnaret family, past and present, commented a Kirkus Reviews critic.

The Kirkus Reviews writer favorably compared Everything After to Jane Smiley's Pulitzer Prize-winning A Thousand Acres, calling Pywell's novel the "best examination of political and moral issues within the framework of family life" since Smiley's work. People reviewers Francine Prose, Liza Nelson, and Pope Brock remarked favorably on the novel's "quietly beautiful" prose, which they also found to be paced "perfectly." A Publishers Weekly reviewer commented that Pywell's "ability to nail the dynamics of a family in crisis make[s] this an immersive, affecting read."

Pywell told CA: "Every time writers read for the public they're asked about their ‘process,’ and I've never understood what people mean. Each book I've written demanded different kinds of time, different working methods, and different kinds of technical skill. I've met authors who throw nothing away and write one paragraph a day and those who don't leave their desks until ten pages are done. I myself wrote my first book in five years (with three major rewrites) and the second one in ten months (with one minor rewrite). It was just a different book. All I know about writing is that the book itself will demand things of you, and if you don't cooperate, it won't either."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, July, 2004, Deborah Donovan, review of What Happened to Henry, p. 1819; April 1, 2006, Joanne Wilkinson, review of Everything After, p. 21.

Denver Post, April 29, 2006, Tom Walker, "Seductive After Is a Paean to Memories," review of Everything After.

Kirkus Reviews, April 15, 2004, review of What Happened to Henry, p. 357; February 15, 2006, review of Everything After, p. 155.

People, May 22, 2006, Francine Prose, Liza Nelson, and Pope Brock, "Books," review of Everything After, p. 53.

Publishers Weekly, February 27, 2006, review of Everything After, p. 32.

ONLINE

Bostonia,http://www.bu.edu/alumni/bostonia/ (September 29, 2060), Natalie Jacobson McCracken, review of Everything After.

Virginia Quarterly Review Online,http://www.vqronline.org/ (September 29, 2006), autobiography of Sharon Pywell.What Happened to Henry Web site,http://www.whathappenedtohenry.com (September 29, 2006).