May/June 2002

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Elizabeth Dewberry's first novel, Many Things Have Happened Since He Died (1990), introduced a distinctive voice to American fiction. That novel and her second, Break the Heart of Me (1994), both of which were published under the name Elizabeth Dewberry Vaughn, were followed by several plays, including Flesh and Blood and Four Joans and a Fire-Eater, as well as a stage adaptation of Many Things Have Happened.

In February, Dewberry's third novel, Sacrament of Lies, was published by Blue Hen/Putnam. In one sense, it marks a new departure for her, crossing into the territory of the psychological thriller—though it's not strictly a "genre" book. It is also a natural continuation of her earlier work, particularly in its attention to spiritual reality. And like Jane Smiley's novel, A Thousand Acres, which retells and revises the story of King Lear, set on a farm in Iowa, Sacrament of Lies tranposes Hamlet to contemporary New Orleans and makes the protagonist a young woman. Dale Brown, who has been following Dewberry's career from the beginning, talked with her about the new book.

There was a gap of eight years between Break the Heart of Me and Sacrament of Lies. Did you have to write a bad book or two to get to this new novel?

Sort of. For a while, I was working on a book about a woman who set her house on fire while her husband was asleep inside. Then I started writing about a woman who thinks the Virgin Mary has appeared in her bathroom window. But neither of those went anywhere. I didn't even give them titles. Sacrament of Lies was first conceived about six years ago, while I was working on other things. I guess I actually worked on it for maybe three or four years, depending on what you count as work.