Q&A with Steven M. Rubin

  

 

 

Steven M. Rubin is the author of the new novel The Unraveling of Michael Galler. He lives in Weston, Connecticut. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write The Unraveling of Michael Galler, and how did you create your character Michael?

A: I had already decided I wanted to write a novel, but the ideas I was contemplated just didn’t resonate with me.

 

We often use the expression that something can “spread like a cancer.” One day I had that same thought about something specific that was continuing to frustrate me, which was then immediately followed by, “What if that thing really WAS cancer, just in another form other than the malignant cellular growth we typically associate with cancer?”

 

The concept that cancer could be some type of malevolent force that could manifest itself within us in different forms, or “disguises,” was intriguing to me.

 

And as an antagonist, I think it’s fair to say that we all fear cancer could be unwittingly growing and spreading within any one of us. And once we discover it is there, it is typically too late to survive it. The concept of having our worst fear growing inside us without our knowledge was frightening to me.

But to build this idea into a story, I had to reverse-engineer a character who could come to believe that the thing I had flippantly identified as comparable to a cancer, actually was Cancer; as some type of clever, sinister form that had set out to destroy him and his family.

 

I took some unrelated events from my early childhood and wondered how someone else might have been shaped differently if he came to believe they actually were related. That person became my protagonist, Michael Galler.

 

Q: Did you know how the novel would end before you started writing it, or did you make many changes along the way?

 

A: I knew exactly how it would end and the whole plot is a straight line from Michael’s inciting incident to its fated conclusion.

 

I won’t say it wasn’t without its challenges. I had to carefully develop the antagonist in a way that kept the reader guessing as to if, and how, Cancer might reveal itself to Michael, particularly when Michael was acutely aware of its potential existence.

 

It took some time to find where to begin, but the end was never in doubt. I also knew many of the places I had to get to along the way, but I still had much to fill in as the story developed.

I additionally needed another character who would become meaningful much later in the story, but introducing him later risked seeming too contrived.

 

So, I introduced Tremont early and we follow his separate path while observing how his traits are forged. But for Tremont, I never knew what his next episode was until I sat down to write a new chapter about him. I hope Tremont’s unflinching history also propels readers’ interest forward as they contemplate how these two disparate worlds will eventually intersect.

 

Q: The writer Jacqueline Friedland called the book a “thoughtful and emotionally charged exploration of endurance, obsession, and the fragile line between control and collapse...” What do you think of that description?

 

A: I thank Jacqueline for reading the book and sharing her perspective, and I feel she got it exactly right. The story only works if there is emotional resonance among the characters, and then they have to navigate a challenging, yet delicate landscape.

 

When I read the words she surely chose carefully, I felt they very well described all the mechanics I worked so hard to inject into every scene, and her description is evidence she comprehended all the subtle themes that were moving in tandem to get to its inevitable conclusion.

 

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

A: First and foremost, I hope readers are entertained by it; that is why we read fiction after all. I also hope they find some emotional attachment to the characters and become vested in their stories.

 

But ultimately, what I am trying to convey is that each of us lives in our own mind, and in that very private place we can create and nurture thoughts and ideas that can grow into something unexpectedly both harmful or hopeful.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

A: I used to make up silly five-minute stories when I put my young daughter to bed. One night, I decided to create a story I would continue each night to keep her continually engaged in the same characters, and that went on for well over a month before I brought it to its conclusion.

 

When I was finished, I thought the ideas I had created might be worth fleshing out into a true novel. I’m working on bringing those characters and that tale to life. It should come as no surprise that it is a coming-of-age story centered around the relationship between a father and his daughter.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

A: Thank you for the opportunity to share my experiences with your audience.

 

One of the key plot lines is Michael training arduously to participate in the Boston Marathon as part of his obsession with strengthening his body to defend against Cancer. Having run three marathons myself, many years apart, they are filled with an overpowering anxiety of not knowing if you will finish.

 

If you’ve ever run a marathon, and you should, there is an overwhelming sense of unease of not knowing the outcome after investing so much time and effort to train, and I did my best to write that disquietude into that arc.

 

At the age of 50, for reasons I can’t explain, I had decided to run a third marathon and I had a heart attack at the halfway point. But I did not want to be defined as that person you inevitably read about who had a heart attack during a marathon; I wanted to be defined as the person who went back to finish.

 

Five years later (with approval from my doctor and wife), I started over with a one-mile run and after a year and a half, successfully completed what I had set out to do.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb