Author David Rothman is chatting with me today about his new magic realism novel, Lelya Dorche and the Coney Island Cure.
Bio:
David Rothman teaches writing for the City University of New York. A novella, The Lower East Side Tenement Reclamation Association, won the Omnidawn 2018 fabulist fiction prize and was published in 2020. A short story, “Guided by Voices” won a fiction prize with Glimmer Train. Other short stories were published in such journals as Hybrido, The Prague Review, Newtown Literary, The Piltdown Review, among others. He is the drummer for the NYC-based band, The Edukators, and is a proud resident of Jackson Heights, Queens.
Welcome, David. Please tell us about your current release.
Lelya Dorche and the Coney Island Cure is a work of magical realism about the early days of the pandemic in NYC.
In April 2020, at the height of the pandemic, Andrew, the assistant director of a funeral home one mile from Elmhurst Hospital, the “epicenter of the epicenter,” meets a legendary Coney Island witch doctor (Lelya Dorche), who makes him an offer that could better his chances of keeping his COVID-positive elderly parents and his severely asthmatic 13-year-old son, Miro, off the ever-expanding list of virus mortalities. To keep up his end of the bargain, Andrew will have to find his way to Bulgaria (no small task considering that there’s a ban on passenger flights to Europe) to secure 10 liters of a rare Macedonian pine sap, a key ingredient of Lelya Dorche’s proven remedy.
Speaking in terms of themes, the book is about family preservation. It’s about negotiating with one’s past to survive the present. It’s about a lost world of fantasy and magic way out in Coney Island. And finally, it’s about brute determination in the face of chaos.
What inspired you to write this book?
In late March of 2020, as the first wave of the pandemic descended on New York City, I crept cautiously back into my apartment building from the local grocery store and as I approached the stairwell, I caught the stare of a neighbor, hiding behind the mailbox wall. She had a look of terror in her eyes. She stared at my hands as if they held seven bloody claws. I knew her well enough to know that her young daughter had a respiratory issue, an underlying condition, that is. And here I was, bringing deadly germs back from the public market. As I hurried away, up the lonely staircase, all I could think was, we could use a little magic in our world, right about now. And so, I started composing Lelya Dorche and the Coney Island Cure.
What exciting project are you working on next?
Well, I’ve experimented with the genre of magical realism for this novel, and with a novella that came out in 2020 (The Lower East Side Tenement Reclamation Association). I would now like to turn my attention to the migrant housing crisis that is going down in NYC just now. Over 100,000 migrants who came up through the US Southern border have arrived in the city this year. No one knows quite how to handle the situation.
When did you first consider yourself a writer?
Oh, I haven’t a clue! As a child, I always enjoyed the opportunity to share my voice in written form. As a young adult, I wrote an awful lot of bad poetry. When I turned to the short story format and got published, I started calling myself a writer.
Do you write full-time? If so, what’s your workday like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?
I am a full-time faculty member in the English Department at Queensborough Community College (CUNY). I mostly teach academic writing, so during the semester after reviewing a zillion essays, I find it pretty challenging to sit down and work on my own stuff. But you have to right? While I get some decent writing mileage during the summer recess, I simply cannot take nine months off while classes are on. I mostly write on Thursday afternoons after my teaching week is done, and Fridays, oh glorious Fridays, where I can step fully into my writing space!
What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
I sometimes start writing sessions on a bench in a deserted park, where I interview myself out loud about the piece I am working on.
As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
I suppose I wanted to be someone who performs for others. An entertainer of one kind or another, who had the power to make people smile.
Anything additional you want to share with the readers?
I hope you enjoy the novel. It’s quite a ride!