Q&A with Justin Courter

 

 

 

Justin Courter is the author of the new novel Cadenza. His other books include The Heart of It All. He lives in Queens, New York.

 

Q: What inspired you to write Cadenza, and how did you create your character Jennifer?

 

A: I wanted to write a novel about someone who was ugly and capable of creating things of great beauty. So, the ugliness was severe facial disfigurement due to burns that Jennifer sustained in childhood, and the beauty was classical music.

 

A few years before I started Cadenza, I worked as a proofreader for Little, Brown & Co., which at the time had a medical division. Some of the medical books I proofread were about reconstructive surgery for burn victims. Just looking at some of the photographs was enough to make you want to cry.

 

In Jennifer’s case, it’s as if the fire that burned her is still burning in her. She is angry, determined, and wants to set the world on fire with her music.

 

I did some research on the lives of burn victims, pianists, and composers. I was living in Seattle at the time, and I visited Shriners Burns Institute in Boston and Juilliard in New York. (Most of the novel’s scenes take place in those three cities.)

 

I gradually developed an idea for the life trajectory that might take shape as a child becomes a virtuoso classical concert pianist, grows up, and gets fed up with touring as she turns her attention more and more to composing.

 

It would probably be pretty obvious to anyone who knows a little about the life of Glenn Gould that there is some of his personality in Jennifer; she has similar frustrations related to traveling, concerts, and audiences.

 

There are other aspects of Jennifer’s story and her character that were inspired by writers I admire. Her voice is similar to that of Peggy Cort, the misanthropic narrator of Elizabeth McCracken’s The Giant’s House. (Jennifer’s voice is also, literally, rough because her vocal cords were damaged by the fire.)

 

And like Ginny Smith in Jane Smiley’s A Thousand Acres, Jennifer has a traumatic childhood that is revealed gradually as the novel progresses.

Q: Why did you decide to focus on music in the novel?

 

A: It was primarily a way to write, at a remove, about my own aesthetic and thoughts related to fiction writing. Jennifer talks a lot about the need for self-discipline and constant practice. She’s at her keyboard all day. So am I. It’s just a different kind of keyboard.

 

Jennifer talks about her development as a composer: how awkward it is at first, other composers’ influences on her work, and how she tries to incorporate others’ techniques and styles and make them part of her own. By the time of the novel’s present, which is the late ‘90s, Jennifer has been making music long enough to see her own evolution as an artist.

 

Jennifer also talks about the need for structure in a composition, the need for solitude to create, and the ecstasy of creating. These were all things I was thinking about a lot when I was writing Cadenza.

 

And there’s taste. I like a good yarn as much as anyone, and for me there has to be some form of suspense, which can be achieved in different ways; it could be a subtle sense of anticipation, or a process of revelation, or a verse-chorus-verse rhythm.

 

But the kind of fiction I like the best is the kind that provokes an emotional response. And I think that like, say, a symphony, a novel that people can connect with emotionally is one that can have a long life.

 

Q: The writer Lauren Acampora said of the book, “Cadenza is symphonic. it succeeds not only as an absorbing, psychologically nuanced novel but also as a tragic tale of ambition and virtuosity.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: It’s extremely flattering. If you asked me what I not-so-humbly hoped someone would say after reading Cadenza, that would be it.

 

And it means so much coming from Lauren, who I think is on a level with John Cheever. I highly recommend her work. Her short stories and novels are wild, vivid, and on every page you have to just stop and marvel at beautifully inventive turns of phrase.

 

I guess one thing I would add to her description of Cadenza is that though the novel is tragic there’s some fun along the way. Dear reader, please rest assured that I put some jokes and some funny characters in there.

 

Q: What do you hope readers take away from the book?

 

A: If a reader took away an experience they found enjoyable, maybe on more than one level, I would be delighted. I hope it’s the kind of book that while you’re reading it, you think of one of the main characters, “I know this guy… and he just did something crazy but I see exactly why!” I hope readers find that Jennifer’s thoughts and experiences chime with their own in some way.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: Like most novelists these days, I’m working on a dystopian adventure story. It’s about a group of people a few decades from now fleeing north from environmental catastrophes in the southern U.S.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: Yes! You can read the first chapter of Cadenza for free at www.justincourter.com. And you can order a copy on Owl Canyon Press’s website. Cadenza was published on July 16 and is available wherever good books are sold!

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb