Writer Clifford Garstang joins me today to chat about his new literary fiction, The Last Bird of Paradise.
Bio:
Clifford Garstang is the author of three novels, The Last Bird of Paradise, Oliver’s Travels, and The Shaman of Turtle Valley, as well as three short fiction collections, House of the Ancients and Other Stories, What the Zhang Boys Know, which won the Library of Virginia Literary Award for Fiction, and In an Uncharted Country. He is also the editor of the prize-winning anthology series, Everywhere Stories: Short Fiction from a Small Planet. A former international lawyer, he lives in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.
Welcome, Clifford. Please tell us about your current release.
The Last Bird of Paradise is a blend of contemporary and historical narratives set in Singapore. A young English painter is sent to the distant colony in 1914 because of both a scandal at home and the threat of war in Europe. In 2002, a lawyer in New York reluctantly abandons her career when her banker husband accepts a transfer to Singapore in order to flee the post-9/11 atmosphere of the city. The women are linked by mysterious paintings by the English artist that the modern lawyer buys when she moves to Singapore. The novel is part history, part romance, and part intrigue, and both women find they can’t escape the dangers they thought they’d left behind.
What inspired you to write this book?
I lived and worked as a lawyer for many years in Singapore. At one point, I acquired three paintings by an English artist in Singapore that were done during World War I. I’ve always been curious about the artist and what life in the colony must have been like at that time. That led me to do a lot of research about the period, but also to let my imagination invent the characters and their lives. Beyond that, I’ve always been concerned about unequal power dynamics in a variety of settings, and the inevitable conflicts they create.
Excerpt from The Last Bird of Paradise:
Aislinn stood before the paintings again. There were three of them, each alive in its own way. At the center of the largest of the three, the temple scene, was a woman who was looking right at her, or at the artist, as if daring her to come closer. As she watched, smoke rose from a cauldron next to the woman and the scent of sandalwood drifted toward her. A trio of children danced across the temple courtyard. They laughed and pointed at her, shouting words she didn’t understand…. The painting’s movement ceased. She shook her head as if to erase what she’d imagined.
What exciting project are you working on next?
I’ve spent my entire adult life working in or traveling to Asia, so much of my fiction deals with that part of the world. For the last several years, though, I’ve been looking to Europe for inspiration, and I’ve been studying the art, music, and politics of the continent. It’s too soon to say to much about the new project, but it’s definitely going to be a departure for me.
When did you first consider yourself a writer?
I’d wanted to be a writer since high school, but didn’t start actually writing until I was in my 40s. Even then, because I was still practicing law, I thought of myself as a lawyer, not a writer. Getting my MFA didn’t really change that, nor did publishing short stories in literary magazines. It was only when my first book came out, a collection of stories, that I could finally say to myself, OK, I’m 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 do write full time. In theory, I arrive at my desk in my home studio pretty early and get to work, usually wrapping up the creative work by lunchtime. I say in theory, because there is so much more to being a writer than writing, and distractions are an occupational hazard. In any case, in the afternoons I usually do related work—writing reviews, pitching interview ideas, planning events, and so on. All that is still part of being a writer, just not nearly as fun.
What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
I’m not sure this is either interesting or a quirk, but in very early drafts of a project, before I know my characters well, I use the same names for them each time. I’ve got one female name and one male name that I start with. As I get to know them, I have a better sense of who they are and what their names should be. One way I get to know them, apart from clipping pictures from the internet of people I decide look like the characters, is to have them write letters to me, explaining who they are, what they like and dislike. The letter goes beyond the standard inventory of character traits that I also use, and it also allows me to experiment with their voice.
As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
We lived in Indianapolis when I was very young, and my parents were Indy 500 fans, so possibly I wanted to be a race car driver. Later, I claimed to my high school friends, and some of them took me seriously, that I wanted to be President of the United States. I took no steps toward either ambition. In reality, I knew in high school that I wanted to be a writer.
Anything additional you want to share with the readers?
Obviously, readers are crucial to the fictional experiment. Each brings her own experience and prejudices when entering the world of the novel, and I know as a writer I need to keep that in mind. I know, for example, that most American readers don’t know much about Singapore (other than the book and movie Crazy Rich Asians), and so in this book I was determined to deliver enough information—but not too much—to make the story both understandable and satisfying. Likewise, some aspect of any story is going to offend someone, and I’ve learned not to take that personally. A novel may be dealing with some universal themes, but it’s also telling a specific story about specific characters. In this book, the two main characters, Aislinn and Elizabeth, are individuals who make choices. The reader may want them to make different choices, but if they did, it would be a different story. Most of all, I’m so grateful to readers for diving into the story. Thank you!
I read LAST BIRD OF PARADISE last summer and found it a fascinating, well-written book, accurately set in history and geography, with engaging complex characters. A fun read. I was curious from beginning to end how the financial-, ego-, and sex-driven characters would resolve the messes they created.