Author Heather O'Neill and daughter Arizona find a bit of magic on the Montreal Metro
In a Q interview, the mother-daughter duo discuss their collaboration on the novel Valentine in Montreal
When the award-winning Canadian author Heather O'Neill was approached to write a serialized novel, she knew she wanted it to be set in the Montreal Metro, which had long served as both an inspiration and an escape for her.
Originally published in weekly installments in the Montreal Gazette, the story follows a young orphan named Valentine who spots her lookalike in the subway. Earlier this month, the complete story was released as a novel called Valentine in Montreal, which features brand new illustrations by Heather's longtime creative collaborator — her daughter, Arizona.
For Heather and Arizona, the Montreal Metro has long played a special role in their relationship. Some of Arizona's fondest childhood memories are of riding the metro with her mother. Since they didn't have a car, they'd often travel long distances together by transit.
"I had trouble reading at a young age, so my mother read out loud to me, actually, until I was 12 because I have dyslexia and it's quite bad," Arizona tells Q's Tom Power in an interview alongside her mother. "When we used to ride the metro, she would read out loud to me — which must have been obnoxious to everyone else around — but I remember us on the metro and her reading A Series of Unfortunate Events to me. [The metro is] a very comfortable place and it almost feels like a home."
After graduating from McGill University, Heather unexpectedly became a mother at age 20, which changed the course of her entire life.
"I thought I was going to go live whatever the writer's life is, like getting drunk in Paris with three husbands," she says. "But then all of a sudden I found myself with a baby. So I was constantly in this world of play. I was reading Jean Genet all the time at night, and then reading Dr. Seuss to Arizona…. But then I was like, 'We're going to just make the best of it. And I'm going to show you how amazing the world is.'"
Heather published her debut novel, Lullabies for Little Criminals, in 2006 to widespread critical acclaim. It's about a 12-year-old girl named Baby who's growing up in Montreal's red-light district with her heroin-addicted father, Jules.
"I was writing about difficult childhoods, but then there was this possibility that a childhood could be magical," Heather says.
"Heather's writing has so much childhood fancy in it, even though oftentimes she's tackling very difficult subjects," Arizona adds. "So I feel, like, maybe trying to make me feel the magic, she's brought in this magic to her own writing. When I was illustrating [Valentine in Montreal] as well, [I could see] those moments of magic, because I see the world, actually, through my mother's eyes…. I never had to go to her and ask, 'What did you mean by this description?' I just had such an easy time illustrating it because I felt like I really knew the inside of her brain."
The full interview with Heather and Arizona O'Neill is available on our podcast, Q with Tom Power. Listen and follow wherever you get your podcasts.
Interview with Heather and Arizona O'Neill produced by Cora Nijhawan.