Interviews
On Thursday, July 10, barnesandnoble.com welcomed Joseph Kanon, author of LOS ALAMOS.
OnlineHost: Joseph Kanon, the former head of trade publishing at Houghton Mifflin, has made a smashing debut as a novelist with LOS ALAMOS, an intricate tale set on the remote hilltop near Santa Fe, New Mexico, where scientists of the Manhattan Project developed the atom bomb during the closing months of World War II. LOS ALAMOS is a powerful novel of historical intrigue.
JainBN: Welcome Mr. Kanon and thank you for joining us this afternoon.
Joseph Kanon: Glad to be here.
JainBN: I'm going to turn the mike over to our audience.
Joseph Kanon:
Question: What were some of your early jobs in publishing? How did you come into the industry?
Joseph Kanon: I began as a manuscript reader for The Atlantic magazine while I was still an undergraduate. One thing led to another. Eventually, I ended up as head of the Trade Division of Houghton Mifflin.
Question: Do you identify on a personal level with Michael Connolly, or any other of your
Joseph Kanon: Only up to a point. In one sense, all writing is autobiographical, but in no way is his story similar to mine. I did empathize with Oppenheimer's bureaucratic duties, having had similar ones myself. Otherwise, the people are themselves.
Question: Has your perspective on the writer's life changed since undertaking the task of writing novel? Have you been disillusioned at all, or pleasantly surprised?
Joseph Kanon: I didn't know I would like the process so much. I had imagined it to be solitary and frustrating, so it was a surprise to discover how pleasurable it could be to live in one's imagination. As for the publishing process, it's obviously different on the other side of the desk, but I was lucky in my publishers, so it's been a wonderful experience.
Question: Will you be writing more fiction in the future? Are you working on anything right now?
Joseph Kanon: Yes. I'm about halfway through my next book --- similar format historical intrigue. It's a genre that works for me.
Question: What kind of man was Oppenheimer? Did you feel as though you came to know him?
Joseph Kanon: Yes and no. Of course, in one sense everyone is unknowable, but I found him a fascinating character, so much so that my original plan for him in the book --- one speaking scene --- changed dramatically in the writing. I realize that a lot of my fascination with the Manhattan Project itself was really a fascination with him. I don't know how close my character is to the 'real' Oppenheimer, but I would love to think that I got him at least partly right. I have mixed feelings about using real characters in fiction --- I think we have an obligation to follow the historical record as closely as we can --- the rest is up to imagination and luck.
Question: What would you say to any younger person that wants to be a publisher ?
Joseph Kanon: It's a wonderful business but very slow in the starting, so you have to stick with it, especially when all your classmates are pulling down hefty starting salaries and you seem to have no money at all. In this sense, the business hasn't changed very much, alas.
Question: When did you begin writing the manuscript and about how long did it take you to write it?
Joseph Kanon: It was surprisingly --- and, I think, uncharacteristically --- quick. The first draft took about 6 months. Then a few more months rewriting and polishing, etc. The new book is taking longer, so I suspect most of the speed with Los Alamos was because it was so subject-driven I was fascinated by the Manhattan Project and what the place itself was like.
Question: What effect will the Internet and CD-ROMS have on Publishing? Is "paper" publishing endangered?
Joseph Kanon: I wish I knew (and so does everyone else in publishing). I suspect that for at least the foreseeable future, however, paper will be very much with us. It's cheap, it's portable, it's personal, and everyone's used to it. Still, who knows?
Question: Have there been any recent investigations into the penetration of Soviet Spies into the Manhattan Project?
Joseph Kanon: Not to my knowledge. One of the things that motivated my writing this story, however, was the release, in the summer of '95, of the Venona Decrypts --- these were decoded Soviet communiqués intercepted during the last years of the war. What they revealed was a Soviet attempt to penetrate the Project that was much wider than I had ever suspected. The New York Times, covering the release, claimed that as many as 200 agents may have been assigned to the Project. Now, for all we know, most of them were bag couriers in Washington. But it was a liberating moment for a writer. We don't know who all of them were --- so perhaps one Might have been at Los Alamos itself. This was important to me, because I didn't want to write a roman a clef about Klaus Fuchs and the spies whose stories we already knew.
Question: Did you come across anything in your research on the Manhattan Project that you had not anticipated? Was there anything especially surprising?
Joseph Kanon: Oddly enough, the thing that surprised me most (and perhaps it shouldn't have) was how young everyone was. The average age at L.A. was 27. Oppenheimer himself was only in his mid-thirties at the time. It was a young man's town (and young woman's), complete with all the energy and idealism (and baby boom) one associates with the age.
Question: What kind of editorial criticism did you receive for Los Alamos? Did you follow it?
Joseph Kanon: Yes. Having been an editor myself, I take editing seriously. If your editor says a line sounds off, then it IS off, at least to him, and one better look at it. And, of course, in this particular case, when historical accuracy is involved, you're grateful for a sharp editorial eye. You want things to be accurate. I asked my English editor to pay particular attention to Emma's dialogue (an English woman). She said, but it was 50 years ago, people talked differently. Well, imagine your mother talking, then, I said.
Question: Did you visit Los Alamos and Sante Fe to do research?
Joseph Kanon: Yes, but not specifically to do the research. I'd been to Los Alamos before, as an interested tourist, and found myself there again in the summer of '95, which is when the idea for the book came to me. The city now is completely modern --- nothing of Los Alamos 1945 remains (except for one building, now the historical museum) --- so you have to imagine it. When I was on tour for the book, I went to Santa Fe and spoke to an audience almost all of whom were from Los Alamos --- something I'd been dreading, because I was sure they were going to tell me I had the streets going in the wrong direction and such, but they were generous and very kind about the book.
Comment: Excellent book. When will the movie be out?
Joseph Kanon: Thanks. Well, many are optioned, but few are made. If all goes without a hitch, it could be Fall 98, but between now and then are the usual million things that could go wrong. I'd love to see a film version, however, so here's hoping.
Question: Can you offer any useful advice from your time spent inside the publishing world --- about what it takes to make a bestseller?
Joseph Kanon: I suppose the most difficult thing is simply getting people's attention --- there are so many demands from so many different sources. And the fact is, nobody really knows what makes a book sell --- we all know in hindsight, or think we do, but one is never a preparation for the next. It's always been my opinion, however, that hype is ephemeral and what really matters is word of mouth. Unfortunately for publishers, but luckily for readers, this can't be manufactured. The audience still controls the process.
Question: Do you think the face of fiction has changed since the dissolution of the Cold War?
Joseph Kanon: No. Certain genre writers lost an immediate 'enemy' and certainly the world doesn't divide itself as neatly into good guys v. bad guys, but that's always been true. It has had one unexpected effect, however, which is to make one wonder what all the chest-beating was about. In some odd way, it diminishes our recent history, or perhaps I should say our fictional treatment of it.
Question: Why did you decide to write a partially fictionalized, rather than wholly factual account of the Manhattan Project?
Joseph Kanon: I'm not an historian --- I had always intended to write a novel. And in this particular case, a definitive book already exists Richard Rhodes' The Making of the Atomic Bomb. No one, I think, will ever top that. But it never occurred to me to try. I was much more interested in what it was like there in 1945, what the scientists thought about what they were doing, how people lived day to day. I read many scientific memoirs, but what I really wanted to know was how did you do laundry? What was the rent? How did people spend their days? And, of course, most importantly, how did they sort through the conflicted feelings --- the excitement of discovery on the one hand, and the appalling legacy that was created on the other.
JainBN: This will be our last question for Mr. Kanon . . .
Joseph Kanon:
Question: How is your publishing career reflected in your fiction, or in the writing of your fiction? Did you have a particular audience in mind while you were writing?
Joseph Kanon: No. I can't speak for all writers, but my strong hunch is that essentially you write for yourself and hope that someone else likes what you do. I began the book as a conventional 'thriller,' partly because I like to read them myself, partly because they give a beginning writer a good story architecture, and partly because the subject lent itself to the form. But it soon became --- I hope --- something else. What I wanted to do was write a story with the entertainment value of a 40s movie, but which would also be "about" something; ask some questions, etc. I suppose if there were a model for this it would be close to what Graham Greene used to do --- a story that had the underpinnings of moral issues. Anyway, that's what I hope people will take from it.
Comment: I had read Rhodes book, looked forward to yours, and loved it. Congratulations!
Joseph Kanon:
JainBN: We couldn't agree with that reader more. Thank you for joining us, Mr. Kanon.
Joseph Kanon: Thank you --- the best sort of compliment.
JainBN: And please come again, upon the publication of you next book. Thank you!
Joseph Kanon: Wow.
