An interview with David Chariandy
On Sept. 25 the Gryphons Read program invited author David Chariandy to the U of G campus to talk about his novel Brother. After reading an excerpt from Brother, Chariandy sat down with U of G professor and fellow author Lawrence Hill to answer questions about the process of writing Brother, a potential Brother film adaption, and his latest book, I’ve Been Meaning To Tell You: A Letter to My Daughter. After this, Chariandy took questions from the audience, and then signed copies of his novel. Chariandy was warm, funny, and spoke eloquently and carefully about his writing, and his future endeavours. Earlier in the day, Karen K. Tran and I met with Chariandy to ask him a few questions about his work.
Kiera Halfyard: There was a 10-year gap between your first book and Brother. Did you spend those years working on perfecting the novel?
David Chariandy: I was certainly working hard during those 10 years. I think I’m a slow writer, and I think I’m also a careful writer. The novel itself presented subject matter that I considered quite challenging, and also important. I think I needed 10 years in order to write the best novel I was able to write.
KH: There are many intersections in this novel — race, class, sexuality, gender. With one of the main characters, Francis, being a part of a visual minority and most of the novel having focused on that, did you also intend for him to have a romantic relationship with the character Jelly, making him a part of a sexual minority as well?
DC: I don’t think I intend characters to be one way or the other. Somehow, they develop out of the story I’m writing. Sometimes they’re based upon real-life people that I know, and the fact that there are gay people in the black community is a simple but very important fact to recognize. It encouraged me, in a very humble way, to represent that fact.
KH: How do you feel about Brother being selected for the Gryphons Read program?
DC: I’m really honoured and surprised. It’s truly a special honour knowing that so many people attending Guelph and who belong to the Guelph community are reading this book.
Karen K. Tran: Your recent book, I’ve Been Meaning To Tell You: Letters To My Daughter, is a non-fiction one. Did you find that writing those personal essays was a very different experience than writing fiction?
DC: Yes. In fiction there’s a certain licence, but in writing non-fiction, I actually felt a lot more nervous, most of all because I was writing about someone who is a real-life individual, and of course someone who I care deeply about — my daughter.
KT: Did you plan for these essays to become a book?
DC: I honestly just wanted it to be a casual letter at first, and then when my editor asked me what I was working on, and I said this project, she pushed me to consider writing it as a book.
KT: Did you find that writing it down was easier than telling her in person?
DC: Yes, most definitely. I personally believe that in the act of writing, you’re actually thinking. At least for me, I think writing is an act of clarifying, and even finding, what you think. I’m not sure if I have thoughts outside the practice of writing. Even now, I’m very nervous in this interview because I honestly don’t trust what I say verbally. I trust more what I write. So even with my daughter, when I wanted to communicate something important to her, I wanted to write it down, and then allow her to either read it or throw it out, if she wanted to.
KH: What’s next for you?
DC: I have an idea for a novel. In fact, I have two ideas for a novel, and I’m trying to decide between the two. One is perhaps a father-son relationship, and both of them needing each other to survive; both of them facing challenges just moving through the world. I like the intimacy and tenderness that can be explored in that father-son relationship. The other story I’m thinking about writing is a love story between people of different backgrounds. I identify as black, but my mother is black and my father is South Asian. I like the idea of the love that they found for each other across racial boundaries, and how they were able to have a dialogue and live a beautiful life together. I’d like to explore that sort of a relationship in different time periods, and somehow have a novel that connects these three different spaces and time periods, all focusing on this type of interracial love.
KH: Is there anything else you would like to add?
DC: I’m really incredibly honoured to be a part of this program, and I’m honoured that you took the time to interview me, so thank you for that. My first published piece of writing was for a university newspaper — the newspaper was called The Charlatan — and it was a short story entitled “Soucouyant.” Many years later that became the title for my first book. I know how important student newspapers are for writers and for journalists.
Photo by Karen K. Tran/The Ontarion
Article by Kiera Halfyard and Karen K. Tran