美国国家公共电台 NPR In 'Orchid And The Wasp,' An Unapologetic Heroine Who's No Gentle Flower

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LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

There is a type of orchid¹ that resembles a female wasp². And in rare occasions, this trick of nature will attract a male wasp to pollinate the flower. This is portrayed³ on the cover of Caoilinn Hughes' new book "Orchid And The Wasp," though the symbiotic⁴ relationship represents something else in Hughes' debut⁵ novel.

CAOILINN HUGHES: So I was using this as a way to explore the relationship between the exploited and the exploiter and ask the question, is it really exploitation if the loser isn't aware of what they're losing?

GARCIA-NAVARRO: The exploiter in "Orchid And The Wasp" is the book's heroine, Gael Foess, a young Irish woman who will do anything to get what she wants. Reviewers have called Gael despicable, three times smarter than everyone around her and ruthless.

HUGHES: There are all these sorts of novels about men out in the world. And I wanted to write a novel about a woman out in the world. She's quite a macho character. I was really baffled and concerned by the fact that there don't seem to be many novels and even films or stories about women who aren't given kind of an element of trauma⁶, who are unlikeable or ostensibly unlikable and who you see kind of succeed. Normally, if you have kind of unlikable female characters, they're given this measure of - this and this trauma is revealed in their past - and kind of apologizes for their unlikability or their bad behavior. So I really wanted to avoid going down that route.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Something that Gael doesn't apologize for? Her sexuality. The only person who pierces Gael's tough exterior⁷ is Harper, her college roommate. Gael falls in love with Harper, but Hughes doesn't label her or the relationship.

HUGHES: Gael's sexuality - I wanted to avoid having to address that directly in the sense that it's part of the privilege of straight people not to have to address their sexuality. On the other hand, it is also a little bit tragic⁸ that you get this feeling when you read the book that because Gael understands the world quite cynically⁹, she's aware of the fact that being in a relationship with a woman will take away some of her clout¹⁰.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Despite Gael's cynicism, Hughes says this complex heroine does have a conscience.

HUGHES: Her moral compass is kind of a plaything in her hand that, occasionally, she puts away and forgets where she left it.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Caoilinn Hughes's new book is "Orchid And The Wasp."