`We Are Still the Mountain’: An Interview with Chris Bohjalian
Posted by Tom Vartabedianon
July 5, 2012 in
Interviews ,
Chris Bohjalian is the kind of author who grabs you by the heart and
refuses to let go. How he can manipulate several plots simultaneously,
travel cross country promoting his work, raise a family, and enjoy a
private life calls for a supreme juggling act.
[image: MG 2873 2 200×300 `We Are Still the Mountain’: An Interview with
Chris Bohjalian]
Chris Bohjalian (Photo by Tom Vartabedian)
Of the 15 books he has written, his latest – The Sandcastle Girls – could
very well be his best. If not the ultimate, at least the most ambitious and
personal novel in a career that’s spanned over 25 years.
The novel is a sweeping saga set in the cauldron of the First World War, a
tale of love and loss, and a family secret that’s been buried for
generations.
The book enhances Bohjalian’s stature in the world of American literature
and makes it a `must read’ for anyone in search of adventure.
One of his first novels, Midwives, was a Number 1 New York Times best
seller. Bohjalian’s work has been translated into more than 25 languages
and 3 have been made into movies. He lives in Vermont with his wife and
daughter.
The Sandcastle Girls is dedicated to the memory of his mother-in-law
Sondra Blewer (1931-2011) and his father Aram Bohjalian (1928-2011).
`Sondra urged me to write this novel and my father helped to inspire it,’
he notes.
A question-and-answer session with the author follows.
Tom Vartabedian: What prompted you to write The Sandcastle Girls?
Chris Bohjalian: I’ve been contemplating a novel about the genocide for
most of my adult life. I tried writing one in the early 1990’s between Water
Witches and Midwives. But it was a train wreck of a book. If I’m going
to be kind, I might simply call it `apprentice’ work. But `amateurish’
would be fitting, too. (Scholars and masochists can read the manuscript in
my alma mater’s archives.)
A few years ago, my Armenian father grew ill. And as we visited, we poured
over family photos together and I pressed him for details about his
parents, who were survivors from Western Turkey. I also asked him for
stories from his childhood. After all, he was the son of immigrants who
spoke a language that can only be called exotic in Westchester County
during the 1930s.
Finally, a good friend of mine who is a journalist and genocide scholar
urged me to try once again to write a novel about what is, clearly, the
most important part of my family’s history. So I did. And this time, it all
came together.
TV: How long did it take you to write?
CB: I started the novel in the summer of 2010 and finished it in the fall
of 2011.
TV: Was the story factual or fictional – or a cross between the two?
CB: Oh, it’s a novel. Absolutely. Nevertheless, my narrator Laura
Petrosian is a fictional version of me. Her grandparents’ house was my
grandparents’ house. But Elizabeth Endicott and Armen Petrosian were not
my
grandparents. I hope the history is authentic. I did my homework. I hope my
characters’ stories are grounded in the particular ring of Dante’s Inferno
that was the Armenian Genocide. I hope I have accurately rendered that
moment in time.
TV: Any Turkish resistance to the book?
CB: Not yet.
TV: Any chance of this being promoted to television or Hollywood?
CB: One can always hope. If you know any producers, let me know.
TV: How has it been received by the Armenian reading public?
CB: Early reactions have been very encouraging. And here, I think, is the
reason why.
A few years ago, I heard the incredibly inspiring Gerda Weissmann Klein
speak at the University of Texas Hillel. Gerda is a Holocaust survivor and
author of (among other books) All But My Life. Someone asked her, `What
do you say to people who deny the Holocaust?’
She shrugged and said simply, `I tell them to ask Germany what happened.
Germany doesn’t deny it.’
As Armenians, we have a genocide in which 1.5 million people were
killed – fully three-quarters of the Armenians living in the Ottoman
Empire – and yet it remains (to quote my narrator in The Sandcastle Girls)
`the slaughter you know nothing about.’ It is largely unrecognized.
And so when Armenians have read advance copies of the novel, they have been
deeply appreciative of the story and the way it tells our people’s history.
My point? We are hungry for novels that tell our story, that tell the world
what our ancestors endured a century ago.
TV: How has the book benefitted you in terms of promoting your own
heritage and culture?
CB: It has helped me to understand more about who I am – the geography of
my own soul.
[image: sandcastle girls 197×300 `We Are Still the Mountain’: An Interview
with Chris Bohjalian]
`The Sandcastle Girls’ will be released July 17.
TV: How does this relate to your other works?
CB: Pure and simple, the best book I will ever write – and the most
important. I know this in my heart.
TV: During its conception, was there any connection made with notable
Armenian historians and writers like Peter Balakian?
CB: The epigraph is from one of my favorite Balakian poems. And Khatchig
Mouradian (The Armenian Weekly editor and genocide scholar) was more
generous with his time than you can imagine. I learned so much from him.
And I still do, even though the novel is finished.
TV: Who might your favorite Armenian writer be?
CB: I am deeply appreciative of the work rendered by Nancy Kricorian,
Mark Mustian, Carol Edgarian, Peter Balakian, Micheline Aharonian, William
Saroyan, and Eric Bogosian. Pick one? Not a chance!
TV: Whatever happened to the first genocide book you wrote 20 years ago?
CB: It exists only as a rough draft in the underground archives of my
alma mater. It will never be published, even after my death. I spent over
two years struggling mightily to complete a draft and I never shared it
with my editor. The manuscript should either be buried or burned. I
couldn’t bring myself to do either. But neither did I ever want the pages
to see the light of day.
TV: Collectively, as a diaspora, what can be done to observe the 100th
anniversary of the Armenian Genocide in 2015?
CB: Well, recognition by the Turkish government would certainly be nice.
It would also be encouraging to see a sitting American president
acknowledge what happened and use that dreaded `G-word.’ Seriously, what
does `realpolitik’ get us with this issue? Regardless, I expect poignant
and powerful observances around the world.
TV: Living in rural Vermont, do you feel isolated from the Armenian
community? How has it impacted your heritage and that of your family?
CB: I love Vermont, I really do. But I think the fact I live in Vermont
was one of the reasons why my visit to Beirut’s Armenian quarter and
Yerevan was so meaningful this spring.
I try to remind myself of something I saw written as part of a Musa Dagh
mural on a column in Anjar, Lebanon, where the survivors of Musa Dagh were
resettled: `Let them come again. We are still the mountain.’
The reality of the Armenian Diaspora is that 70 percent of Armenians don’t
live in our homeland. And yet, somehow, we have retained a national
identity.
I think that whoever wrote, `We are still the mountain,’ wanted the
sentence to be interpreted two ways. Certainly, he meant Musa Dagh: Attack
again if you want, we are still those warriors. But he also meant Ararat.
Even here in Lebanon, we are still Armenians.
And so for me, even though I am in Vermont, I am still a part of that
mountain.
TV: What are your impressions of Armenia?
CB: I was so happy there this spring. My hotel was on Abovyan Street and
it intersected with Aram Street two blocks away. Well, Abovyan was the
first modern Armenian novelist and Aram was my father’s name. He passed
away last year and his death made my journey to Armenia all the more
important to me. To see his name intersecting with a great Armenian
novelist was a wondrous and unexpected blessing – a gift!
Obviously, like many post-Soviet nations, Armenia has a lot of monumental
economic hurdles. And those hurdles are exacerbated by its place in the
Caucasus region. But, my Lord, is it beautiful! I have never been better
cared for and felt less like a stranger in a strange land.
TV: Will there be a sequel to The Sandcastle Girls or another work
related to Armenian literature?
CB: I don’t know if there will be a sequel. I have never written a
sequel. But there will be more Armenian or Armenian American-set fiction.
That’s very, very likely.
Pre-order The Sandcastle Girls
here.
Follow Chris Bohjalian on
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http://www.armenianweekly.com/2012/07/05/we-are-still-the-mountain-an-interview-with-chris-bohjalian/