Welcome to BookView Interview, a conversation series where BookView talks to authors.
Recently, we talked to Martin Sneider about his writing and his soon-to-be published novel, Amy Unbound, a stunning literary tale that explores how external pressures, personal ambitions, and misunderstandings can strain marital bonds, and how seemingly small decisions can have far-reaching effects, unraveling layers of emotional, psychological, and interpersonal fallout. (Read the review here).
MARTIN SNEIDER has been a leader in the shoe and clothing industries for more than five decades. Since 1992, he has served as an award-winning adjunct professor at Washington University’s Olin School of Business, where he created and taught a course devoted to luxury goods merchandising and marketing that included trips with students to Milan, Paris, and London to visit the showrooms of Armani, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Burberry, and Cartier. A fourth-generation retailer, Sneider started as a shoe salesman and rose to president, chief merchant, and co-CEO of one of the nation’s largest fashion and shoe apparel specialty chains. He served on the Alumni Board of Directors of Harvard Business School, was chairman of St. Louis Children’s Hospital, and received the Distinguished Alumni Award from Washington University. In addition to his acclaimed debut novel, Shelf Life, and it sequel, Amy Unbound, he is the author of a nonfiction book on the shoe industry. He has two children and four granddaughters and lives in St. Louis, Missouri, and New York City.
Do you find writing therapeutic?
Yes! When writing I am transported mentally, intellectually and emotionally. My mind blocks everyday problems and instead is laser focused on creating memorable characters, story lines and plot. The daily three hours I spend on the keyboard writing are fulfilling and provide me with satisfaction…even though I frequently have to rework what I wrote the previous day.
What was the best money you spent as a writer?
Without question the best money I spent was enlisting the help of a no-nonsense coach/editor. After sending him a draft of a novel, he would inevitably send me 30-40 pages of suggestions and corrections. I incorporated the vast majority of his comments whether minor, major or virtual reconstructions. It took weeks of rewriting to satisfy his very high standards. When I sent him the revised draft, he would “reward” me with 15 pages of further suggested changes. I owe him big time.
Have you read anything that made you think differently about fiction?
My coach/editor demanded I re-read Updike’s masterpiece, Rabbitt Run, even though I had read it and the series years ago. His masterful development of plot, his portraits of his characters and his weaving of story lines constituted Fiction Writing 101 for me.
Were your parents interest in literature? Did they read a lot? What books did you have in the house?
My mother was a voracious reader and filled our modest home with hundreds, maybe thousands of books. She claimed to have read a book a week and encouraged me to do the same. She enrolled me in every summer reading program my grade school offered and saw to it that I read every book on the list. Not satisfied with my assurances that I had completed the task, she drilled me about each book. Rather than resenting her schoolmarm routine, I rose to the challenge. I loved those books. My mom later became an editor at New York Times Books. And I became an author.
What authors do you like to read?
What books (and authors) have had a strong influence on you or your writing? In recent years The Dutch House by Ann Patchett, the Lucy Barton trilogy and Olive Kitteridge novels by Elizabeth Stroud are in the forefront of superb fiction for me. Prior to that Richard Ford’s Bascombe series struck me as remarkable as did the Rabbit series by John Updike.
Who has had the greatest influence on you as a writer?
It all began with my mother. My coach/editor also played an integral role in my development. But perhaps the greatest influencer was my late wife Jill, who was a PhD in American/English literature. She gently…maybe not so gently…urged me to read some of the classics she had read, Jane Austen, George Eliot, Henry James and Edith Wharton who was the subject of her doctoral dissertation. We spent dinner hours talking about House of Mirth, Custom of the Country and Age of Innocence and other classics. Getting me acquainted with the masters of literature was a capstone in my journey as a reader. It began with mom, continued with my coach/editor, and concluded with Jill.
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