Thursday, May 23, 2013

By Tony Omer
Published: July 9, 2009

"Exiles in the Garden," by Ward Just. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009, 279 pp, $25.

Ward Just's 16th novel, "Exiles in the Garden," continues the West Tisbury resident's explorations into the nature of man as political animal. The former Pulitzer Prize finalist (for "An Unfinished Season") has written a book of ideas, a book of atmosphere and mood that focuses on people in situations that we all might find ourselves experiencing. It is about the complexities of personal relationships and the inevitable influence of the realities of our social/political world, our own zeitgeist.

Click here to hear Mr. Just reading from his new book.

His tale incorporates the political ambiance of Washington during the Roosevelt years through the administration of John F. Kennedy. His knowledge of the time is fed by his experience as a reporter for Newsweek and The Washington Post, both in Washington and covering the Vietnam War.

It is a story about the road not taken as much as it is about the difficulty of finding a meaningful path through our lives. A senator's son, Alec Malone, chooses to become a photographer rather than following his father's path. The author begins with the overhearing of political exiles conversing in a multitude of languages, in a neighboring garden in Washington, D.C. By the end of the story it seems that we all may be the true exiles in our own gardens.

Ward Just, a prolific novelist, at rest in his West Tisbury home. Photo by Ralph Stewart

Ward Just is a compassionate man and a thoughtful writer. He has written a profoundly moving and thought-provoking book. The following is excerpted from an interview with Mr. Just about his new novel.

"The original title was "Still-Life" or "Still Life." Normally I am resistant to change, [but] "Exiles" was suggested and I realized everybody in the book is exiled in some way. I was also interested in someone who grows up in Washington and declines to participate in the culture. I always write about these dislocated people who can't quite find their niche.

"The kinds of facts in this book are the facts that are already in my memory, the atmosphere of the Roosevelt years, particularly the atmosphere of the Kennedy administration. I was in Washington for that. I have almost total recall of the way things looked and the way people talked to each other and the language that they used, the background of stuff. That I remember very well. It's about living with your past, living with your nation's past, your present and your nation's present. It's one of the things that's interesting and approaches fun, writing about Washington.

"I'll tell you how this book began. I was on a book tour for my last book, 'Forgetfulness,' in Washington, and I was staying with some friends, and they have a big garden in the back of their house. I went out there one morning after a late night, drinking coffee and the whole idea of the exiles next door and the two people listening to the conversation over the wall flew into my mind and I had the trajectory of the book.

"Once this idea happens and you have the setting for it and then you begin to write, it really takes on a life of its own. It's hard for me to explain. The setting almost determines what kind of characters you are going to have. I lived in Washington in a house with a garden very much like the one in this book. Then you begin to build a character with sort of, building blocks, height, weight, looks and more than anything profession, what is it that they do.

"Alec, a photographer, was there from the very beginning. The crux of things for him is when he simply declines to take the poison chalice, of Vietnam - that's a little bit of personal perversity there because I did go to Vietnam. I had a lot of fun with doing that, a kind of reversal. Those passages about the guys who came back and how they looked on it. That was fun for me to write. It was particularly fun to put yourself in a place where you say I'm not going to become complacent in that war. I'm the sort of person who makes beautiful photographs. If I make enough beautiful photographs people are going to find themselves attracted, not repelled by the carnage but attracted to it. Whether you go or you don't go there is a price to pay.

"If I could ever describe one of my books in a sentence I would, at long last, have a best seller. (He laughs.) These novels of mine are atmosphere and mood and a lot of moral choice, some of it misguided. What do they say at the beginning of the Daily Show? Some of these opinions are not fully thought through." (More laughter.)

Author's Talk 7:30 pm, Friday, July 10, Bunch of Grapes Bookstore, Vineyard Haven. Ward Just, "Exiles in the Garden." 508-693-2291.