INTERVIEW FOR URIEL THROUGH ELEANOR VIRTUAL BOOK TOUR

I recently had the pleasure of participating in a virtual book tour with Silver Dagger Book Tours. As part of the tour, I did an interview with the Silver Dagger team, which has been shared in bits and pieces across various literary blogs. Now, I’m excited to present the full interview here, offering curious readers an in-depth look at my life and writing process, Uriel Through Eleanor and my latest poetry project. Enjoy!

Can you, for those who don't know you already, reveal something about yourself and how you became an author? 

I felt incidental among, and largely ignored by, kids my age. I certainly wasn’t part of any in-group or popular in any way. I was also physically unwell for long periods of time and spent that time alone in my bedroom. At home, lots of people having lots of fun swirled around me and that only reinforced my feeling of isolation. So my internal life, which I discovered had no limits imposed on it and was controllable in a way my outer life wasn’t and could be rich and imaginative, became a kind of stand-in for what I was missing out on. I also loved music. In fact, my first influences were folk and rock stars, those who seemed to have something important to say about the world or, more precisely, those who interpreted it in a rather cynical, penetrating, fearless way. Bob Dylan, in particular, blew my mind. I didn’t just want to write songs like him, I wanted to be him. Unfortunately, I was a hopeless musician. Every instrument I tried to play sounded like I was torturing it. Or maybe worse, if there is such a thing. So I turned to poetry thinking I could at least emulate the lyrics (thankfully you don’t have to blow into, or strum, a pencil). I ended up writing a lot of poetry when I was young, which I suppose is a fairly typical rite of passage for a future writer. Of course I later threw away all those poems, after rereading them with the withering perspective of hindsight.

At the same time, I was also reading a lot. Poetry and fiction, The poetry, especially freeform, seemed within my reach as a young writer; the relative brevity, the absence of rules, the open-endedness. Novels, on the other hand, seemed as unreachable and complex as distant universes. I couldn’t fathom possessing the patience or discipline to write one. Then I read Virginia Woolf and William Faulkner and discovered writers with the sensibilities of poets. I read sentences that were so wildly unconventional, twisting and turning, veering off in unexpected directions before corralling themselves for a moment and then, with renewed energy, doing their beautiful zigzags all over again. Those sentences left me breathless. I knew right away I wanted to do the same thing. I began reading an entire book every night and at some point during that feverish period in my life, discovered Saul Bellow and suddenly all those previous, magnificent sentences I’d read now seemed like penultimate peaks on a mountain with his occupying the summit. I think I’ve read The Adventures of Augie March five times just to soak in its cadence. I doubted I could ever come close to writing with that type of depth of understanding of the human condition and raw electricity infusing every sentence, but I knew I was going to die trying. Later in life I had the similar experience of discovering something worth aspiring to when I first read Roberto Bolano. He seemed to spill entire libraries into his books. I believe his sentences occupy the same summit as the ones written by Saul Bellow. 

What is something unique/quirky about you?

I have an obsessive ability to concentrate on a single thing for an inhumanly long amount of time. I suppose this is a helpful quirk for a writer despite how unhealthy it is in virtually every other aspect of life. There have been days when I’ve sat down to write and, without any sense of the passage of time, eight hours have passed. One would assume this means a steady and plentiful output of words. However, I’ve just as often produced only a few sentences as I have a few (or more) pages. Thankfully, my wife, with her abundant commonsense, will often scream at me from another room to get up, brush off the cobwebs, and go for a walk.  

Tell us something really interesting that's happened to you!

I was in Iceland about eight years ago and went to a local swim club at five a.m. and swam laps in a geothermally-heated pool. That isn’t the interesting part. This is: eighty-year-old men and women swam infinitely longer and faster than me and many looked more youthful than me. When I was done, I stood on the deck as they continued to speed past me in both directions and had an epiphany of sorts—that if I ever wanted to achieve true happiness, I should exercise alone (or with an unhealthy, overweight friend).    

What are some of your pet peeves?

I collect pet peeves like people collect baseball cards or stamps or coins. So we’d have to schedule a day-long meeting for me to have enough time to articulate them. The newest pet peeve I’ve added to my prodigious collection is how few people there are who convey meaningful information in few words. And how many people there are who convey meaningless information in many words.   

Where were you born/where did you grow up?

I was born, and grew up, in Toronto. Which in the province of Ontario. Which is in Canada. In case anyone outside of my country has a weird unmet need for geographical precision.

I also spent a couple years in New York City. While attending graduate school. It snowed only one day while I was living there. Which meant the climate grossly, perhaps purposefully, underachieved in making me feel at home.    

If you knew you'd die tomorrow, how would you spend your last day?

Paralyzed by regret probably. Trying and failing to convey something profound about life to, and adequately express my love for, my wife and children. Though, preferably, with ample debauchery.   

Who is your hero and why?

My son and daughter are uncompromisingly, courageously pursuing their dream careers instead of putting them off, like I did with mine, for far too many years. For that, they’re my heroes.

And also Bob Dylan. The reason for which I explain in great detail in my book, Auden Triller (Is A Killer).  

What kind of world ruler would you be?

The metric version. Same goes if I was a world meterstick. Just to annoy my American friends.      

What are you passionate about these days?

Poetry. I’m well into writing my third (and second publishable) book of poetry. The working title is, Bending In The Direction Of Her Sentences. It’s a series of spare raw poems about a doomed relationship. I read a lot of Elizabeth Browning and Louise Glück beforehand. Which helped me tap into the right mood—inspired and demoralized. 

What do you do to unwind and relax?

I’ll for sure let you know when I come up with something effective. Or even promising. Music is, at best, a temporary solace. Truthfully, my first thought was watching the Toronto Maple Leafs play hockey. My second thought was that that’s actually persecution. 

How to find time to write as a parent?

When my children were younger, I wrote through the night, between (and sometimes during) meetings at work. Really, whenever I had any precious free time. 

Describe yourself in 5 words or less! 

Uncomfortable in my skin. Devastatingly funny. And, clearly, someone who requires six, not five, words to describe himself. 

When did you first consider yourself a writer?

When, in grade five, I wrote a love letter to a female classmate. In retrospect, it was good preparation for the rejection letters I would later receive from publishers. 

Do you have a favorite movie?

Ordinary People. Which is anything but ordinary. It’s an extraordinary portrayal of a family shattered by grief. The scene in which they pose for a family picture at a Christmas party might be the best scene in the history of cinema. 

Which of your novels can you imagine made into a movie?

The Anna Geller Invention is my love letter to poetry. It’s magically-real and whimsical and would, I believe, lend itself to a killer fantastical satire.     

What literary pilgrimages have you gone on?

My son and I travelled back and forth by car through Northern Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota to visit Duluth and Hibbing, where Bob Dylan was born and grew up. To say it was a religious experience would only serve to elevate religion to a perch on which it doesn’t deserve or belong.  

What inspired you to write Uriel Through Eleanor?

I wanted to write something both grand and diminutive in scale. The entire book takes place at a kitchen table in a small house in a downtown Toronto neighbourhood. Though, concurrently, the competing memoirs Uriel and Eleanor are writing transport readers over great swaths of time and geography to faraway, far-back places shaped or, more accurately, misshaped, or, even more accurately, maligned by events of enormous historical significance. I also wanted to write about the untrustworthiness of memory, intergenerational trauma and the mounting personal toll of living a double or secret life. And, finally, I wanted to write something that honoured the victims of the Holocaust and their liberators. It was a tall order, though I think I succeeded. I’m hoping readers do as well.     

What can we expect from you in the future?

I’m currently writing a book of poetry, titled, Bending In The Direction Of Her Sentences. I’m also two-thirds of the way through a book of three thematically-related stories about storytellers, titled, Voy, Varlane and Vickie. After that, I’ll be turning my attention to an epically long, stream-of consciousness novel that’s been percolating in my mind, and causing me to fill notebooks with fragments of mad thoughts, for twenty years, titled, Alton Dodger’s Doctrine of Unified Religions. Whether I live long enough to finish all this, or for them to finish me, remains to be seen. 

Do you have any “side stories” about the characters?

I’ve served up the characters with all their sides.

Can you tell us a little bit about the characters in Uriel Through Eleanor?

They fall on a continuum of victims of trauma from highly functional to nonfunctional. What they believe, they believe to their core. And when confronted with evidence that forces them to believe differently, their cores meltdown. Some find replacement cores, some remain empty shells.   

How did you come up with the concept for the book?

I had what I believed was a unique idea for the genre of memoir writing; that the real author wasn’t the memoir writer but the person to whom he was dictating. Hence the title, Uriel Through Eleanor. 

Where did you come up with the names in the story?

I tend to have each character try on a bunch of names until one appears to fit properly. There’s no science to it. Just a lot of time spent in the dressing room.

What did you enjoy most about writing this book?

It was like going to the dentist. I didn’t enjoy my time while I was going through it. But, afterward, I was happy I did.

Tell us about your main characters- what makes them tick?

In the case of Uriel’s friend, Danny, and Eleanor’s mother, Frieda, their frayed nerves. Literally. Or, rather, physically. For the rest of the characters, seeking shelter from a storm of memories that stubbornly refuse to peter out.   

Who designed your book covers?

The talented crew at Next Chapter, my publisher.  

Did you learn anything during the writing of your recent book?

I learned that my words are more than capable of making me cry. More than I’d previously thought possible. I felt ridiculous, watching my tears fall on my open notebook. Writing about the passage of time, was the likely catalyst.   

If your book was made into a film, who would you like to play the lead?

Off the top of my head, I think Gary Oldman would make a good older Uriel and Michael Cera a good younger Uriel. And I think Helen Mirren would make a good older Eleanor and Emma Stone a good younger Eleanor.  And I think Rachel Weisz would make a good younger Frieda. And… that’s it, out of ideas.     

Anything specific you want to tell your readers?

My deep and heartfelt appreciation.  

What is your favorite part of this book and why?

The part in which Frieda, on her deathbed, shares her story with Eleanor. It was written in tears and blood. The sentences themselves breathe anxiously. 

Are your characters based off real people or did they all come entirely from your imagination?

All were imagined. Some reimagined. In the case of an army major, nicknamed Jaw, mischievously, wickedly and gleefully re-reimagined. 

Convince us why you feel your book is a must read. 

Because you’ll experience something exhilarating, teetering between the bizarre and deadly serious. Because you’ll delight in the unfolding of the lives of absurdly eccentric, flawed, self-critical, heartbreaking, redemption-seeking characters shaken by past experience and its present reverberations. Because you’ll be spellbound by odd and unexplained behaviours that are ultimately explained. By mysteries that are ultimately solved. Because you’ll feel exhilarated by two narratives that twist and turn and surprise and where fantastic predicaments are the norm. And because you’ll dance joyfully in your mind to the unique rhythm and beat of the writing. 

If your book had a candle, what scent would it be?

The smell inside a field hospital.

What did you edit out of this book?

Although one of my goals in writing the book was to elevate bickering to the ranks of high art, I still edited out a healthy amount of bickering between the main characters. You’ll understand why when you experience the healthy amount that remains.

What are your top 10 favorite books?

The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow

The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano

The Diviners by Margaret Laurence

Absalom, Absolam! by William Faulkner

The Waves by Virginia Woolf

Auto-da-Fé by Elias Canetti

Middlemarch by George Eliot 

Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

God: A Biography by Jack Miles

What book do you think everyone should read?

The Adventures of Augie March (twice).

How long have you been writing?

40+ years. Though, within that timeframe, there have been days that felt like years and years that felt like days.

Do the characters all come to you at the same time or do some of them come to you as you write?

Once I start writing a novel or short story, I have a clear idea about all the characters, major and minor, who are going to make an appearance. They do, however, undergo iterations of themselves until they’re acceptably flawed.  

Do you see writing as a career?

Absolutely. Largely because not writing would be intolerable. And, I imagine, it would be even more intolerable for those I would desperately depend on to fill my days. 

Do you read yourself and if so what is your favorite genre?

I read furiously and voraciously between writing projects. While I’m writing, I have to temper the amount of time I spend reading. I’m susceptible to having the voices of the narrators of other authors, particularly those I admire, fill my head and, rather than writing in my own narrator’s voice, I slowly begin to emulate theirs and then, once I’m fully conscious about what’s transpiring, the contrast is withering and paralyzing.    

Do you prefer to write in silence or with noise? Why?

When I’m writing the first draft of a novel, I prefer silence. Perhaps because that’s the heaviest lifting I do, as well as the least amount of fun, and anything that competes for my attention would easily win. After the first draft is complete, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell and Mozart are my writing partners. When I’m writing poetry, I’m so absorbed in the emotion I’m trying to convey, a jet engine could be blaring in my ear and I wouldn’t hear it.    

Do you write one book at a time or do you have several going at a time?

Several. Though only one receives the care required to properly mature. The others are minimally fed and clothed. 

If you could have been the author of any book ever written, which book would you choose?

The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow. In fact, if I was the author of only a single sentence in that book, I’d be in awe of my achievement.   

Pen or typewriter or computer?

Pen and notebook for the first draft. After that, a computer. For reasons that remain mysterious to me, I seem to think more clearly with a pen in my hand. 

Tell us about a favorite character from one of your books. 

If I had to pick one, it would be Auden Triller. He’s easily the most organic character I’ve written. One I poured my soul into. Which is just another way of saying I poured everything I love and hate about myself into him. 

A day in the life of the author?

Dreadfully boring. And certainly not performance art. Long stretches of solitude. Immersion into a world that’s imperceptible to others. 

Advice they would give new authors?

Write. Keep writing. Prioritize writing—over sleep and relationships if necessary. Write whenever time allows. Like everything else in life, practice makes for proficiency. If you aren’t willing to pour your soul into it, don’t bother.   

Describe your writing style.

Poetry dressed up like prose. Deadly serious satire. 

What makes a good story?

For me, beautiful, breathtaking sentences. With those, any story is a joy. 

What are they currently reading? 

Zero K by Don DeLillo. Like all his books, it’s difficult to say if it’s a dream one never wants to wake from or a nightmare one is desperate to wake from. Either way, it’s a telescope magnificently trained on human folly and the writing itself, as always, is wondrous.    

What is your writing process? For instance do you do an outline first? Do you do the chapters first?

I begin by writing the last few paragraphs or sentences then chase them for the duration of the writing process until I catch up to them. I learned from experience (resulting in a first novel casualty) that if I don’t begin with the ending, I’ll almost certainly wind up miles away from it and have to write my way back, which makes for a lousy last chapter or two.  I also complete an outline of major events as well as a list of characters and their speech patterns, vulnerabilities and motivations. 

What are common traps for aspiring writers?

That writing should resemble writing in movies—those romantic portrayals of novel-writing where bestselling books are produced by authors during a single burst of inspiration lasting no more than one or two days and/or nights. In the real world, however (unless you’re William Faulkner), this is a recipe for frustration, for prose that meander to the point of reaching a dead-end and, ultimately, for the abandonment of an entire project.  

What is your writing Kryptonite?

Impatience. Writing is a war against impatience.

Do you try more to be original or to deliver to readers what they want?

Original. I don’t have readers in mind when I write. I figure if I can please myself, with my impossibly high expectations, I can please, or at least come close to pleasing, anyone who’s kind enough to read one of my books.

How long on average does it take you to write a book?

Generally one and half years. 

Do you believe in writer’s block?

No. I believe in the seduction of easier activities.