Author
Michael Chabon (The
Wonder Boys, The
Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay) has called him,
"one of the most important writers in American Literature." Newsday has hailed him as "a
contemporary American Balzac." And the LA Times has described him as
"absolutely unique among American writers."
Who
is he? He's Jerome Charyn, an incredibly prolific,
award-winning author who writes across genres and has published 30 novels,
three memoirs, eight graphic novels...so far.
His
latest undertaking is a novel of historical fiction, BACK TO
BATAAN, an eBook (re-issued by Tribute Books) for middle
grade readers (Grades 7-9): It's 1943 in New York City. Eleven year-old Jack
Dalton is depressed and restless following the death of his father at Bataan (in
the Philippines) during World War II. Jack's mother is trying to keep body and soul
together by working in a parachute factory and Jack, tossed aside by his
girlfriend and left to his own devices, wants to enlist in the army. When Jack finally runs away, he falls in with a gang
of criminals. This compact YA novel is filled with action, adventure and suspense.
To learn more, link HERE
Jerome Charyn was kind enough to chat about the book and share some of his ideas about the craft of writing.
Kathleen Gerard:
Thanks for joining us, Jerome. You write across a realm of
different genres, what excites you about connecting with different audiences?
Jerome
Charyn: I’m not so sure that these are different
audiences, I think we all love stories, whether we’re children or
great-grandfathers and when you move from genre to genre you are still telling
a story like Scheherazade and the king is always waiting for the next tale.
KG:
BACK
TO BATAAN is a reissue of a print book, now being offered for the first
time as an eBook. Being a published
author for nearly 50 years, what's your impression of digital books?
JC: I think that this is a kind of logical step as we move
from the internet into eBooks. Publishing is changing even as we speak. I think
there now will be a more complicated dance between the eBook and the printed
book, and as we’ve seen recently, successes in eBooks allow the author to move
into print.
KG:
How much of your own life is embroiled in BACK
TO BATAAN? Did you personally experience New York during World War II?
JC:
I think so much of the source
of my writing comes from my childhood, I grew up during the War - so many of
the terrors and the magic of certain films have remained with me. And all of this appears in the character of
Jack.
KG: In reading the story behind this book, I understand that your brother was a detective. Did your experiences with him influence the plot of
BACK TO BATAAN?
JC:
Not really, I think all writing
is crime writing. And Back to Bataan
is a crime novel with a very original twist.
KG: In the book, why did you decide to include a
fascination with famous people - Gary Cooper, Eleanor Roosevelt, etc. - as an
underurrent?
JC:
These people were heroes to me
as a child, particularly Eleanor Roosevelt, who was one of the most
extraordinary women who ever lived, and of course as a child I fell in love
with Gary Cooper’s face and with his very slow drawl, that seemed so exotic to
me.
KG: Jack, the main character of the novel, finds acclaim through his writing, yet he feels guilty for exploiting the
lives of other people on the page. How does a writer bridge this gap?
JC:
You’re always cannibalizing
other people and writers when you start to write, so it’s natural that Jack
should be a young cannibal.
KG: The New York Times plays a significant role in this novel. How
important is New York Times in your own life and is there any special reason why you decided to make
it a form of connection in the life of Jack, the main character?
JC:
As a child, I didn’t even know
that the Times existed – I grew up in a
neighborhood without newspapers and books, so that when I first fell upon the New York Times, I was very very greedy, and wanted to
include it in Jack’s middle-class life.
KG: Your writing is so precise, yet evocative - how do
you work at crafting your unique style of prose?
JC:
Everything begins and ends with
the word, with the music of the sentence and as Tolstoy once said, “I’m
always composing.”
KG: What are your thoughts on the recent explosion and
popularity of the YA genre?
JC: I think it might very well be that
it started with Harry Potter,
that young adult writers are trying to tell good stories and adults have moved into
that kind of dream.
KG:
What advice would you give to young people who
aspire to a literary career?
JC: It’s not worth the money – only write if you’re absolutely
in love with it.
Well,
there you have it, thoughts from Jerome
Charyn, an acclaimed, dedicated writer who has made significant contributions to the literary community. Reading
Between the Lines thanks him for visiting and wishes him much continued success!
Back to Bataan by Jerome Charyn
Tribute Books, $2.99, eBook, ASIN #B008DYK6C2, 101 pp
Publication Date: June 21, 2012
To order this book via AMAZON link HERE
Two cats living in modern-day Beijing narrate Pallavi Aiyar's imaginative novel Chinese Whiskers. Soyabean is a male kitten living in a multi-generational middle-class household, while Tofu, a female kitten, roams the streets, roughing it. How the two cats come to live together is only part of the story, a suspenseful morality tale about the values of "Old China" versus "New China."
