Alex Ferguson
A winner of the Scotiabank Giller Prize for his previous novel, 419, Will Ferguson is also a three-time winner of the Leacock Medal for Humour and a two-time nominee for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. His travel books include Beyond Belfast: A 560-Mile Walk Across Northern Ireland on Sore Feet and Beauty Tips from Moose Jaw: Travels in Search of Canada. Ferguson, who lives in Calgary, recently published Road Trip Rwanda: A Journey into the New Heart of Africa.
Why did you write your new book?
The summer before last, I travelled along the Congo-Nile Divide of central Africa with Jean-Claude Munyezamu, who had escaped from Rwanda 20 years earlier – before the killings began. I'd long been beguiled by Dian Fossey's account of the endangered mountain gorillas of Rwanda's Virunga rainforests, but had only vague notions about the genocide against the Tutsis that had ravaged the rest of the country. Our trip put this into focus. Jean-Claude and I discovered a country reborn, one still struggling with its horrific past, yet determined to overcome. It was inspiring. Plus, we got to see gorillas.
Which fictional character do you wish you'd created?
Jack Kerouac. Now, I realize that Jack Kerouac the author is a real person, but "Jack Kerouac" the literary creation is far more compelling. No bookish momma's boy, this Jack. Instead, he is a restless, recklessly promiscuous, drug-addled beat traveller completely committed to living life in the present. Much like Bruce Chatwin's self-perpetuating image as a modern nomad or Hunter S. Thompson's over-the-top gonzo persona, "Jack Kerouac" is an authorial alter ego that's been allowed to run rampant across the page. I would have loved to have come up with that character.
Would you rather have the ability to be invisible or time-travel, and why?
Time travel – if only because it would make research for historical novels so much easier. Imagine being able to whisk yourself back to the dance halls of the Dirty Thirties, to eavesdrop on con men and call girls, to breathe in the atmosphere, to taste the despair and the desperation first hand. I've only ever written one historical novel and I found the process exhausting. A time machine would have come in awfully handy, if only to be able to trump any objections my editor might have raised. "Did they really have Wonder Bread in the 1930s? Well, let me check."
Which book do you think is under-appreciated?
Red Sky at Morning by Richard Bradford: a funny, sad, poignant story about a young man from a wealthy Southern family coming of age in a backroads village of New Mexico during the Second World War. I've been a proselytizer for this book for years. But here's the weird part: Bradford only ever wrote two books, and I've never read the second one. I own it, but I've never read it. I have a mental block because I'm worried that it won't be as good as Red Sky at Morning, or – even more devastating – that it will be better.
Which books have you re-read most in your life?
The novel I've re-read more than any other is Deep River by Shusaku Endo. This is a subtle but powerful story about a group of Japanese tourists who meet on the banks of the River Ganges. The Shiva-like character of Mitsuko is one of the finest I've ever read, and the final sentence of the novel, and the implications of what it suggests and of what will follow it, is like a literary implosion. I've read Deep River again and again, trying to figure out how Endo pulls it off – and I haven't succeeded. It's like watching a magic trick that I can't quite figure out.