Beneath the Lion`s Gaze – A Novel by Maaza Mengiste – 2/2
I would like people to remember most that this is a story about family, about the strength of a group of people who come together in the name of love.
Maaza Mengiste was named "New Literary Idol" by New York Magazine.
Part Two of the interview
Q: You reveal and uncover the untold story, a secret truth, was your aim to guide the reader to the conciseness of the people?
Maaza: I hope I’ve evoked a level of compassion and empathy about that period, and in a broader sense, gratitude for the strength of community and family.
Q: Truth is transformed into power when you disperse all prejudice and make yourself receptive to the world as it really is. This power can be a remarkable force indeed - yet is rarer than generally imagined. It can be maintained only by cultivating a genuine openness to things as they are - a willingness to see, rather than merely look… would you like to comment?
Maaza: You’re right! I do think that when we open ourselves to a receptiveness that is free of past assumptions and fears, we can learn the difference between mere looking and actually seeing what’s before us. But this type of receptivity requires a willingness to have our very definitions of the world re-shaped and not only does it require courage but also a continual dedication to eliminate those falsehoods we find so comforting.
Q: When overtaken by crisis, the wise search their hearts for inner strengths, in order to face the world with courage. Courage often means daring to take the unexpected path - to bounce back quickly and self-confidently after failure, to have faith in the eternal when confronted with death. How was it with you and your family?
Maaza: I think for my family and other Ethiopian families, the real courage came in surviving. I realized while writing this book that bravery isn’t always measured in acts of resistance but in those promises we make to ourselves to continue to live, to love, to try to create a better world for our children.
Q: What were responses from your native Ethiopia?
Maaza: I’ve been incredibly thankful for the warm reception it has received from Ethiopians and the larger literary community.
Q: When will be your novel available in Ethiopia?
Maaza: I’m not sure, but I hope soon.
Q: Your calendar is already full with reading events. Would you like to share a moment during such events, or a moment that has touched you?
Maaza: I’ve been very touched and humbled by Ethiopians I’ve met who have shared their stories with me. They speak of experiences that take incredible courage and strength to endure. I have become more convinced, as I hear their stories, that even if a country is crippled by violence and unspeakable cruelty, there are many who will fight to maintain their humanity and they will do what they can to help those around them.
Q: You live and work in NY, but the country of your birth – Ethiopia - is never far from your thoughts. Allow a glimpse into your daily life, family, friends, some of your favorite books, music, sayings, writers that inspired you…?
Maaza: In general I lead a very quiet life. I teach at a university as my occupation, and when I’m not teaching, I spend my time researching, reading and writing. I enjoy spending time with my friends and family and when I want to be alone and I don’t feel like writing, I enjoy photography.
I love to read and though I can’t name a favorite book (I like many books for different reasons). I’ve always gravitated towards stories and narratives that examine how a character’s internal conflicts impact the world around them and how they internalize the tensions in their world. I’ve found myself looking to literature from many different countries, and I’ve been influenced by how writers manage to convey our interconnectedness even as they tell of places and people I may not be familiar with.
Abraham Verghese, Hisham Matar, Nega Mezlekia, Laila Lalami, E.L. Doctorow, Anchee Min, Edwidge Danticat, these are just a few of the writers. I listen to music from around the world as well, and when I’m writing, I often have music in the background to help inspire whatever mood I’m trying to create.
One of my favorite quotes comes from writer and art critic John Berger, who said, "Never again will a single story be told as if it’s the only one." It is a complex line with many different layers, I think. What I find so important about it is that John Berger reminds us that if we tell our stories - even those stories we feel are unique to us - we’ll find that we are not alone. There are others who share our experiences.
If we dare to speak up, we’ll find that words can bring us together and remind us that we do not exist in isolation.
Q: Any exciting projects you wish to share?
Maaza: I am busy working on my next book, a novel that will once again involve Ethiopia and Ethiopians. I’m quite excited about it.
Maaza Mengiste thank you.
BOOK REFERENCE
Beneath the Lion`s Gaze
By Maaza Mengiste
ISBN-13: 9780393071764
Published: W. W. Norton & Company, 01/01/2010
Excerpt
The human heart, Hailu knew, can stop for many reasons. It is a fragile, hollow muscle the size of a fist, shaped like a cone, divided into four chambers that are separated by a wall. Each chamber has a valve, each valve has a set of flaps as delicate and frail as wings. They open and close, open and close, steady and organized, fluttering against currents of blood. The heart is merely a hand that has closed around empty space, contracting and expanding. What keeps a heart going is the constant, unending act of being pushed, and the relentless, anticipated response of pushing back. Pressure is the life force.
Hailu understood that a change in the heart can stall a beat, it can flood arteries with too much blood and violently throw its owner into pain. A sudden jerk can shift and topple one beat onto another. The heart can attack, it can pound relentlessly on the walls of the sternum, swell and squeeze roughly against lungs until it cripples its owner. He was aware of the power and frailty of this thing he felt thumping now against his chest, loud and fast in his empty living room. A beat, the first push and nudge of pressure in a heart, he knew, was generated by an electrical impulse in a small bundle of cells tucked into one side of the organ. But the pace of the syncopated beats is affected by feeling, and no one, least of all he, could comprehend the impulsive, sudden, lingering control that emotions played on the heart. He had once seen a young patient die from what his mother insisted was a crumbling heart that had finally collapsed on itself. A missing beat can fell a man. A healthy heart can be stilled by nearly anything: hope, anguish, fear, love. A woman’s heart is smaller, even more fragile, than a man’s.
It wouldn’t be so surprising then, that the girl had died. Hailu would simply point to her heart. It’d be enough to explain everything.
FROM REVIEWS:
With words that make ‘a faint, tender bruise’ on the page, and a compassionate imagination that transforms everything it touches on, Maaza Mengiste delivers an important story from a part of Africa too long silent in the World Republic of Letters. - Chris Abani, author of GraceLand and The Virgin of Flames
What a beautiful book! After a few chapters I felt I was a member of this family, a citizen of Ethiopia. Maaza Mengiste is talented and bold and fresh. Already, I’m looking forward to her next book.
- Uwem Akpan, author of Say You’re One of Them (Oprah’s Book Club).
VOGUE magazine Beneath the Lion’s Gaze makes VOGUE magazine’s Top 10 Books to read in 2010. Revolutionary Ethiopia in the seventies is the searing backdrop for Maaza Mengiste’s incandescent debut, Beneath the Lion’s Gaze (Norton), the acutely observed story of a family—a prominent doctor and his sons, one moderate, one mutinous—undone by war.
Library Journal "This book is stunning...graphic descriptions and masterly prose."
Kirkus Reviews "An arresting, powerful novel that works on both personal and political levels.
IMAGE: Bestselling author Maaza Mengiste
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