THE BOOK MARK | A dialogue with author Michael Christie

There are so many worthy works on the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Awards’ (PNBA) 2016 Shortlist, but I am extra delighted to highlight one in particular.

I had the pleasure of speaking with Michael Christie about his acclaimed novel, “If I Fall, If I Die” (starred Kirkus Review, Publishers Weekly, New York Times Book Review, Irish Times and many more).

First, a little about the book.

“If I Fall, If I Die”

By Michael Christie

PNBA Awards 2016 — Shortlist

Masterful imagery and a unique storyline immediately draw you into Michael Christie’s “If I Fall, If I Die.”

Will Cardiel, the 11-year-old son of an agoraphobic woman, has never been outside of his house. His mother created a warm, stimulating, imaginative environment for her son, and he thrived in many ways. But one day, against every fiber of his being, he goes outside to investigate a suspicious noise and unwittingly sets in motion a chain of events that reshapes their hermetically sealed world.

Soon after that, his reluctant mother allows an insistent Will to start attending the local middle school, an event that exacerbates her condition and forces her to deal with the depths of her disease.

At his new school, Will becomes friends with Jonah and Angela, his touchstones as they all try to find their way in a world filled with friends and foes, delights and dangers, comedy and tragedy. A dark undercurrent is added to the story when the group becomes involved in the search for a missing boy.

This is a story about the joys and fears of growing up. Christie is an excellent writer, and his plot has a brilliant universal quality to it, as great books — and mythology — often do: We all leave our inside worlds with different levels of readiness for the outside world, and everyone must reach within themselves to find the stuff that allows them to cope with whatever comes their way.

Joann Moreno: You’ve had amazing feedback from reviewers — Kirkus starred review, PNBA Award Shortlist 2016, the list goes on. Congratulations!

Michael Christie: Thank you! Yes, it’s been wonderful.

JM: They call this your debut novel, but you’ve published a collection of short stories.

MC: Well, that collection of short stories was only published in Canada, so this is my first novel with widespread distribution, published in the United States and beyond.

JM: Is this at all biographical?

MC: The book is rooted in my own experience (see editorial piece in The New York Times called “All Parents are Cowards). My own mother was agoraphobic, so where personal experience ends and the story begins is hard to say.

JM: Your imagery is amazing — it just grabbed me…immediately. 

MC: I wrote from an emotional place. I mean, the imagery, with Will, I just kind of had fun with it.

It comes from Will’s naïve world. He’s like a little poet who sees the world fresh every time: A tree is an amazing, strange creature; everything is interesting, strange, surreal. The everyday-ness of the world is stripped away, and in some ways, it’s my job to re-describe the world to people.

My childhood was a rich and confusing time, as it was for everyone, and I really tried to get back to that. 

JM: Emotional intelligence in boys, in real, gritty boys — I like it! I think this book would work. Very mature teen boys would also love this book.

MC: Yes, there is adventure and pure boyhood in here. But in addition, boys are crazy and weird, kind of sweet and vulnerable; they’re a bit tyrannical. And I wanted to get all of that into Will and Jonah’s characters and do boyhood justice in a way I don’t often see it done.

I also wanted them to connect with art, and I made that a part of their world, as well — also rarely portrayed.

JM: You touch on poverty, racism, mental illness, discrimination, and you really managed not to make it an “issues book.” It is a very balanced story in that way. Intentional?

MC: I worked at an emergency homeless shelter for over 10 years, and it does inform my writing, but I did not want to make it an issues book. I wanted to include these characters for what they are: part of the fabric of society, with stories not that different from the mainstream — the universal aspect of things. 

JM: Where did you write this?

MC: I grew up in Thunder Bay (Ontario, Canada) and wanted the place, Thunder Bay, to be a “character,” as well, and portray the fallen grace of this place, the dangerous situations that are in the world.  I wrote it while I was teaching there.

JM: By the way, I loved the Jonah character.

MC: Yeah, he’s based on a friend of mine, who did read the early manuscripts and made sure I didn’t fall into stereotypes. He kept me in line.

JOANN MORENO is a community bookseller. To comment on this column, write to MPTimes@nwlink.com.