Nancy Johnson has always been a writer.
Fiction allowed her to have that control and shape the narrative of her community.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: How didThe Kindest Liecome about?
Credit: Nina Subin; William Morrow
What inspired your debut?
It was a really difficult bittersweet year for me.
How did you create the characters Ruth and Midnight?
William Morrow
What made them the right ones to put at the center of this story?
That’s Ruth, and then Midnight was the perfect character for this.
Ruth’s search for her child could be told with Midnight as a character in her story.
Why did you choose to incorporate his perspective into the book?
I didn’t want Midnight to just be a vehicle for assisting Ruth.
I did want to give voice to the concerns of different kinds of people in different corners of America.
What was it like writing from the very different perspective of Midnight?
When I decided to tackle this racial divide, I knew Midnight needed to be white.
I was able to get a flavor for what the life of an 11-year-old white boy might be like.
Also, I did draw upon my own experiences with being bullied as an outsider.
There are certain things that bind all of us.
What made the time right after Obama’s presidential win the right setting for this story?
People were struggling just like today.
People were losing their jobs, so I just think this was a time of economic strain and scarcity.
In those times, the divisions of race and class became more evident and pronounced.
There are many characters surrounding Midnight and Ruth in this story.
Did any of them jump out as favorites as you wrote the book?
My favorite character to write was Eli, Ruth’s brother.
With the titleThe Kindest Lie, what were you trying to explore about the lies people tell?
The title works on several levels.
Many of the characters withhold information, and they tell lies with the best of intentions.
They do it often to protect the people they love.
She doesn’t want to saddle [Ruth] with a child.
Sometimes the characters lie to themselves because the truth is too difficult to face.
You have Ruth who lies to herself, thinking that she can outrun her past.
The Kindest Liereally dives into the intersection of race and class.
What did you want to explore?
Race and class don’t exist in a vacuum, one impacts the other.
It’s not going to disappear.
There are a few instances where children are shown to be processing race and its significance.
Why was it important to include that topic in the novel?
That was another reason to have a child-like Midnight in [the book].
He is impressionable and vulnerable, I wanted to show that the children are watching the adults.
What was writing that scene like and what did you want to convey?
I rewrote that scene many times trying to strike the right tone.
What were you aiming to explore or say about motherhood?
In books, and on the large and small screen, we often see two extremes of motherhood.
That’s exactly what Ruth does in this book.
That is not an easy or popular choice.
Also, we don’t usually see older Black women mothering and in a certain way.
In this book, we see her outside of her mothering role.
What do you hope people take away fromThe Kindest Lie?
We [recently] had a pivotal election in America and elections have a huge impact on our lives.
