Reyna Marder Gentin is the author of the new novel Unreasonable Doubts. Her work has appeared in a variety of publications, including The Westchester Review. She worked as an attorney for many years, and she lives in Scarsdale, New York.
Q:
How did you come up with the idea for Unreasonable Doubts, and for your
character Liana?
A:
When the novel opens, Liana is a young attorney working in a public defender’s
office struggling to balance her idealism with the realities of the hardened
criminals she represents.
I
worked as a criminal defense attorney in New York City for almost 20 years, and
the legal aspects of the novel were inspired by cases that I handled. Liana’s
commitment to the work coupled with her profound questioning of her role was
emblematic of many of my colleagues and myself at some point in our careers.
Liana’s
personal conflict, which centers around her ultimate choice between love and
something more dangerous, is entirely a product of my imagination.
Q:
The book begins with a quote from Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kotzk: "There
is nothing so whole as a broken heart." Why did you choose to start with
this quote, and how does it relate to the novel?
A:
One aspect of Liana’s coming of age in the novel is her exploration of concepts
of justice and love with a traditional, if unconventional, rabbi. I was
interested in finding an epigraph that would set that tone. I have always loved
this quote.
To
me it means that to experience true joy and true love, and to really be
grateful for one’s blessings, on some level one also has to know the depths of
despair. In the novel, Liana is in danger of losing everything, and only then
does she realize all that she has.
Q:
Did you know how the book would end before you started writing it, or did you
make many changes along the way?
A:
I definitely had the contours of the ending in my mind before I started
writing, but also made many changes along the way.
One
big change came after several years of revising, when a fellow writer suggested
what seemed like a seismic change to me at the time. Where I had envisioned
Liana wanting to get married and her boyfriend Jakob being reluctant, my friend
suggested that those roles should be reversed. This was a game-changing moment
for me in writing the novel.
Q:
How was the novel's title chosen, and what does it signify to you?
A:
I chose Unreasonable Doubts because it captured both the legal standard of how
a jury determines a defendant’s guilt (beyond a reasonable doubt), and because
Liana is riddled with doubts throughout the novel – doubts about herself and
her professional choices, doubts about her boyfriend, and doubts about her
client’s guilt and his intentions toward her.
Some
of these doubts turn out to be reasonable and others unreasonable, and figuring
out which are which is critical to her development as a woman.
Q:
What are you working on now?
A:
I’m currently working on two projects. I have a completed first draft of a
middle grade novel entitled My Name is Layla which I am shopping to agents. And
I have just begun a new novel with a working title Jackie and Lou, which is a
love story of sorts about family and the ties that pull us in different
directions.
Q:
Anything else we should know?
A:
Embarking on a new career in my 50s is incredibly exciting and a bit terrifying
at the same time. I love writing, and I’m learning a tremendous amount about
the business of getting the word out. I appreciate this opportunity!
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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