Mitchell James Kaplan
Author Interview - Mitchell James Kaplan
Author of Into the Unbounded Night.
“INTO THE UNBOUNDED NIGHT follows the lives of five troubled individuals as they struggle for survival and purpose in the first-century Roman empire.”
Author Interview - Mitchell James Kaplan
Author I draw inspiration from: So many… but can I say two are tied for first place? William Blake, who provided the title of Into the Unbounded Night (from his poem Jerusalem). I love his visionary, lyrical courage, depth of caring, and sensitivity. And Marcel Proust, also for his courage, lyricism, and intelligence. Among contemporaries, Haruki Murakami, although I feel he’s uneven (but who isn’t?)
Author Interview - Mitchell James Kaplan
Favorite place to read a book: In bed, until my eyelids close by themselves, before I have time to blow out the candle on my nightstand.
Book character I’d like to be stuck in an elevator with: Who doesn’t admire the natural nobility of a David Copperfield, or Shakespeare’s Brutus; or the passion of Shakespeare’s Romeo and/or Juliette; or the wisdom and compassion of a Gandalf; or the spunk of a Huck Finn? But I’m not sure I’d want to be stuck in an elevator with any of them—or with anyone else, for that matter. Once, by the way, I actually was stuck in an elevator with a famous movie star, or should I say starlet. It was disappointing, as you might expect.
Author Interview - Mitchell James Kaplan
The moment I knew I wanted to become an author: It grew over time. As a little boy, I used to tell myself, “I am a witness. That is my purpose.” But I wasn’t sure what that meant. When I was in college, I wanted to be a composer, then a poet. Then I devised a plan to write a novel in verse, which sounded so clever at the time. I had always consumed novels as well as poetry, but my love for character and story matured over time, while I fell in love with words at a young age.
Hardback, paperback, ebook or audiobook: My favorite used to be the soft leather paperback-sized books of the Bibliotheque de la Pléiade, which I read when I lived in France. I loved the size, the paper, the font, everything. In general, I always preferred paperback to hardcover (more comfortable, less cumbersome), but lately I’ve been reading everything on my tablet, when possible.
The last book I read: Therese Anne Fowler’s A Good Neighborhood.
Author Interview - Mitchell James Kaplan
Pen & paper or computer: All of the above. When I feel like exploring or sketching out scenes, I lie on my bed and write longhand. Other times, I write or rewrite on my laptop, sitting in my recliner.
Book character I think I’d be best friends with: I find tortured characters like Raskolnikov and Hesse’s Steppenwolf fascinating, but rather doubt we could be best friends. I quite like the narrator of Proust’s A la recherche du temps perdu, and maybe we could be friends, but I’m not certain of that, either. (He’s rather self-absorbed and very class conscious.) Maybe King David—so human, so flawed, so ambitious, so poetic.
Author Interview - Mitchell James Kaplan
If I weren’t an author, I’d be a: Physicist? Mathematician? Fascinated with chaos theory, where what we can know intersects with what we cannot know; and fractals, where simplicity evolves into complexity—as in the music of J.S. Bach.
Favorite decade in fashion history: The 1960s—vibrant colors, youth, a doomed dreamscape. Also, ancient Egypt, though I’m not sure which decade.
Place I’d most like to travel: In my day job, I travel everywhere, but I haven’t yet been to the coast of Croatia.
My signature drink: I love the Peruvian Pisco Sour, its frothy lightness and citrus seriousness. (Haven’t yet tasted the Chilean version.)
Favorite artist: Brueghel. He brings to life an entire world. And of course, DaVinci.
Number one on my bucket list: I would like to sit in on the Beatles recording Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, but I’m afraid that’s not likely to happen, much to my eternal regret.
Anything else you'd like to add: I think I look too serious in this photograph, but I like the background.
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Author Bio: Mitchell James Kaplan's 2010 novel, By Fire, By Water, won numerous literary awards both domestically and abroad. Mitchell received his BA, with Honors in English Literature, from Yale University, where author William Styron encouraged him to become a novelist, and where he won the prestigious Paine Memorial Prize. A licensed private pilot, Mitchell plays classical and jazz fluteand lives with his family and their catsin the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.
