Interview with Gary Bolick, Author of River Talk

What’s the story behind the story? What inspired you to write River Talk?

Man’s alienation and isolation on his home planet. As a species, we are brand new, barely out of infancy. Yet, we have done our level best to destroy this incredibly fertile and life-sustaining orb. So, I wondered if there was ever a time that the human species was connected as intimately to the planet as all the other inhabitants. Of course, we were. So, I looked back to when the human mind began to consciously record its thoughts or paint its internal images and thoughts onto a surface. I ended up with ancient mythology and cave paintings, and imagined a tribe of Indians who maintained that perfect balance of a waking conscious mind that was still intimately connected to the planet.

To create the conflict and tension needed to tell the story, I have two modern “exiles,” if you will. A sort of Adam and Eve who are completely out of place in modern society but profoundly connected to the rhythms and movement of the earth. The lone tribe that has survived is actually drawn out to search for them because the water, the earth’s blood, has begun to whisper. I try to make it easier to slide into the story by incorporating myths from Western literature. If you will, I set out to write a new mythology using the same tools as the ancients: my unconscious. Carl Jung postulated that all of the collective unconscious of Man can be found in mythology.

If you had to pick theme songs for the main characters of River Talk, what would they be?

– For Marchon Baptiste: Beethoven’s 6^th: The Pastoral Symphony.
– For Debbie Dorchester, aka The Lady in the Lake: Prelude to The Afternoon of the Faun by Debussy.
– For Mendenhall and Kudlow, the two Memphis doctors: Voodoo Child by Jimi Hendrix.

What’s your favorite genre to read? Is it the same as your favorite genre to write?

Literary fiction: William Faulkner, Marcel Proust, Franz Kafka, Günter Grass, Albert Camus. Yes, I would say that even when I write visionary or science fiction, it still finds its heart and soul rooted in literary fiction.

What books are on your TBR pile right now?

The Nickel Boys and The Overstory: a novel.

What scene in your book was your favorite to write?

In the chapter “Lady in the Lake,” when Marchon sees Debbie standing by the shore nude. She waves and smiles and proclaims, “Not too bad for an old girl, why don’t you join me!” She then dives into the lake. Soon after, Marchon has peeled his clothes off and is swimming in her wake. It is during this interlude that Marchon and Debbie seal their bond through the water. Without touching, their minds, bodies, and spirits become a single entity through the whispering, caressing water. It is the first time that the reader experiences the earth through the water‒speaking.

Do you have any quirky writing habits? (lucky mugs, cats on laps, etc.)

No. Very old school. I sit down at my laptop and start pounding away.

Do you have a motto, quote, or philosophy you live by?

Yes, it comes from writing an earlier novel: A Walking Shadow. Whether we like it or not, our lives, thoughts, actions, and selves are all in constant motion, expanding outward along with the universe. We attempt to create symmetry, coherence, and truth that will envelop and inform our lives. The trouble is, it all starts over and over again in each moment we are alive. So, the best one can do is to thread him/herself into that ever-changing movement. By doing so, it renders you profoundly humble and questioning. Looking at the person next to you, your family, loved ones and the rest of humanity, you realize that not a single one of us is the same person‒ever‒as we stumble through our brief existence. Or as Sisyphus once concluded as he watched the stone roll off the edge of the cliff, “Sentenced to push this rock, I have liberated myself.”

If you could choose one thing for readers to remember after reading your book, what would it be?

That human consciousness is the long and short of our existence. That, as microscopic specks in the universe, a human consciousness can actually reach out and fold itself into the light and expanse of a universe so profoundly immense that it is impossible to comprehend, yet we can participate and evolve into it if we simply surrender to what is here, all around us. The human consciousness is the thin thread that ties our existence to something much larger and more profound than the individual who is thinking or dreaming. Don’t wait for a payoff. Don’t wish for an afterlife, or dream of a utopia‒jump in! Take a long walk in the woods, pull in several long, deep breaths, then surrender, let go.

Gary Bolick is the author of the new book River Talk

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