Alan Hruska is the author of the new novel Pardon the Ravens. He also has written the novels Wrong Man Running and Borrowed Time, and several plays. He is the screenwriter and director of four films, is chairman of the book publishing company Soho Press, and is a former trial lawyer.
Q: How did you come up with your character Alec Brno, and
why did you decide to set the novel in the 1960s?
A: I was a young lawyer in the 1960s. Imagining another one
wasn’t that difficult. But re-entering that era – which was richly atmospheric and
has almost entirely disappeared – was, I believe, something more than an
indulgence in nostalgia.
Profound social changes, decade by decade, are like layers
of one’s life. Cosmologists now increasingly believe we live in a pointless
universe. They may well be right, but not about life itself. By revisiting any
past era, feeling its differences from today, one realizes that the details do
matter and how full and meaningful life really is.
Q: How was the book’s title chosen?
A: I remembered the quote: “Pardon the ravens and censure
the doves.” Always liked it; thought the first part fit.
Q: You’ve
worked as a trial lawyer, written and directed plays and films, and been a book
publisher, in addition to writing novels. How do all these different activities
complement one another for you?
A: Writing plays, films and books are complimentary for
obvious reasons. They are, of course, each expressions of imagination, and
developing skills at one form will usually pay off in others. For example,
plot, characterization and dialogue are generally key to any form of fiction.
Although the dialogue written for a play or novel might
differ from a movie script, the three types of dialogue have less differences
from each other than they have in common. And the more one writes anything, the
better one gets at it.
As for book publishing: I think the better the writer, the
better the publisher – and, living through the realities of the publishing
world certainly contributes to the education of an author.
As for work as a trial lawyer: the art of persuasion is strongly
related to communicating ideas in books, films or plays, or to directing the
latter. (Of course, I always hope my
actors will remember their lines better than my witnesses.)
And the flow in the other direction is equally clear. I
would always say to young lawyers (and to myself), Tell a story! Whether you’re
writing a brief, making an argument on appeal or addressing a jury, if you’re
not telling a story, you will put them to sleep.
Q: Which writers have influenced you?
A: The writer most influential for me was Laurie Colwin. She
was also a very dear and close personal friend. Apart from Laurie, there are others
too many to list (but among near contemporaries: John Casey, Russell Hoban,
Lorrie Moore, and Lee Child).
Q: What are you working on now?
A: My current projects are: three different plays at
different stages of development and production; a movie (which a group in
London is about to begin producing); a comedy/mystery novel (the first draft of
which is now with an editor); a sequel to Pardon the Ravens (about one-third
finished); and whatever issues my daughter [Soho Press publisher Bronwen Hruska] chooses to bring to me involving
Soho Press.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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