An Interview for Uriel Through eleanor virtual book tour

June 16, 2024

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 Uriel Through Eleanor, my latest poetry project, and my writing process. Enjoy!

What inspired you to write this book?
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.