Michael Paterniti
Michael Paterniti's new book is The Telling Room: A Tale of Love, Betrayal, Revenge, and the World's Greatest Piece of Cheese.
From the author's Q & A with Alexandra Alter for the Wall Street Journal's Speakeasy blog:
--Marshal ZeringueI was surprised how much of the book is about you and your struggle to write it. Did you set out to make the story as much about writing as cheese making?
I had no intention of having myself in there. I thought of the book originally as the legend of Ambrosio Molinos and this great cheese. The deeper in there I got, the more I realized that what was happening was really personal. The person who was changing the most in this story was me, and I had this obligation to show that. I was the emotional center of the story.
You describe in the book missing deadlines, getting a two-year extension, and missing it again. Why did it take you so long to wrestle the story to the ground?
When I started, I did not intend to take 10 years on this book. It became a totally different journey. When I went to visit the village, I realize the cheese represented this other way of life that was so different from our fast-paced American way of living. It’s a slow food tale gone awry. I thought, maybe this is good. Maybe...[read on]
