ALUMNI BOOKS Two Guys and a Novel War of the Encyclopaedists a victorious collaboration for BU alum and friend | !" #$%&' #()*+%,'

For a decade, Christopher Robinson and Gavin Kovite have been partners in crimes comedic and literary, ri! ng o" each other as they cooked up o" beat stories, sketches, and ultimately, the novel War of the Encylopaedists, published this spring by Scribner to wide- spread critical praise. New York Times critic Michiko Kakutani says the coauthors have created a “captivating coming-of-age novel that is, by turns, funny and sad and elegiac—a novel” o" ering “some telling por- traits of a couple of millen- nials trying to grope their way toward adulthood.” With an epigraph by Pliny the Elder, “the original encyclo- paedist,” the novel tracks the diverging paths of Seattle-bred Halifax Corderoy and Mickey Montauk. If, as Robinson (GRS’07) and Kovite insist, the characters are not exactly dop- pelgängers for themselves, they are at the very least fl eshed out In reviewing War of the Encylopaedists, critics have indulged in a kind of parlor game, trying to identify from the bones of the writers’ which author wrote what. The exercise is pointless, say Christopher Robinson (GRS’07) (left) and Gavin origins and histories. After the Kovite. While their real-life experiences inform their characters’ travails, they say, the writing was truly a collaborative effort. novel introduces us to a cast of young, lost, but acerbically clever souls, the freewheeling, surreal death and mayhem, the early 2000s blossoming together in New York City, joined-at-the-hip buds depart and senseless, surreal “post- of internet culture. This touch where Robinson taught creative for di" erent worlds: Corderoy structural” academic pretense. and others, including a series writing at Hunter College and to graduate school at Although their far-fl ung exis- of darkly comic transcripts Kovite earned a law degree at University, and Montauk, a tences are linked by Montauk’s of military interviews with po- New York University. lieutenant in the Army Reserve, spontaneous marriage of con- tential witnesses in the murder In reviewing War of the En- to war-fogged Baghdad. venience to Corderoy’s ex- of an Iraqi translator, prompt- cylopaedists, critics have in- The story follows these “glo- girlfriend, her appearance ed Kirkus Reviews to call the dulged in a kind of parlor game, rious fools born into a vacuum in Boston, and Corderoy’s novel “Shandy-esque.” It’s a trying to identify which author of need,” without a clue as to Boston roommate popping wild ride, but one that takes its wrote what. The exercise is who they really are, as they up in Iraq (read the book), the time plotwise and ends without pointless, they say. While their leave their life as wry hipsters pair communicate with each any tidy resolution. real-life experiences inform the (the Encylopaedists) and the other only through edits to a The authors met in 2005 characters’ travails in both grad shabby comforts of the “Ency- Wikipedia entry that began as in an undergraduate poetry school and Iraq, the writing was

lopad” to witness senseless, a whimsical meta statement on program in Rome and roomed truly a collaborative e" ort, says ERIN POLLOCK

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54-57_Bostonia_Fa15_r1.indd 54 10/6/15 10:40 AM Robinson, who has an MFA from We got to the point where that. It wears off after a thing where we wanted to Hunter College and was a Yale we could fluidly write a while, though. Some ran- explore the subjectivity Younger Poets Prize fi nalist. paragraph as one writer. dom person on Goodreads of knowledge, how that (Kovite recently completed his doesn’t like the book, and functions for a generation, post as a JAG lawyer.) What sorts of things did you that makes me sad. and how the idea of Bostonia spoke with the au- argue about? authority shifts from a thors from Detroit, where they '"($)*: The main tension One reviewer described Halifax central figure to a crowd- are researching a new novel. was, I was in law school and as part Holden Caulfi eld. Is his sourced knowledge base. writing wasn’t my main name some kind of encryption? With the rise of social media, !"#$"%&': Tell us how you came thing. Chris was more of a And where did the name Mickey everyone is now authoring to collaborate on the book. professional writer; he got Montauk come from? their own content. Gavin !"#$%&"%: Gavin and I more parts of the book done. !"#$%&"%: Those names are and I both had blogged, and began our collaboration salvaged from two minor suddenly all our friends about 10 years ago, after !"#$%&"%: When Gavin characters in the first novel, were making content for us we met at a study abroad says I was a professional which had two balloonists to read. It was a new thing. program in Rome and were writer, he means I was a from the Union Army It puts the emphasis on self- reading Keats. We became homeless vagabond living balloon corps, who would definition. quick friends and developed in writers’ colonies, doing observe battlefields from One of the a tendency to make up everything I could to not above. The characters, who biggest chal- sketch comedy routines. have a job, which was defected and went to Egypt, lenges for Somehow, when we got back psychologically destructive. were named Cyrus Corjery millennials is to Seattle, it turned into us My relationships fell apart, and Sirus Montauk, loose figuring out writing a mystery novel. We I suffered from depression, ciphers of us. what they spent about four and a half but the plus side was I had a want to do, years writing that novel, ton of time to write. The Iraq chapters are reminis- because their set in 1800s Egypt, a side cent of powerful war writing, narratives project while I was at BU How long did it take? like Philip Caputo’s A Rumor of didn’t pan and Gavin was in law school. !"#$%&"%: We began in War and Ron Kovic’s Born on the out. It began in that sense, Eventually, after failing to March 2009 and we sold the Fourth of July. What makes writ- but as we wrote the book sell it, we just shoved it into book in October 2013. That ing about war really resonate, we realized that it was a a drawer and decided to was followed by a whole year and how does the careful use of way for the characters to write something closer to of revisions and editing. humor enrich it? communicate with each our experience. '"($)*: I enjoy writing other. They could share their New York Times critic Michiko humor and I think military deep emotional thoughts How does the process work? Kakutani, a famously tough cus- life is funny: young guys in as long as it was veiled in !"#$%&"%: Basically we sit tomer, wrote a favorable review. similar outfits. I guess the academic language. down together, hang out, How did that feel? author who influenced me drink beers, or go on bike '"($)*: I was on active most is Thomas Pynchon, Were these the readers you had rides kicking ideas around, duty at the time, so I didn’t who wrote really funny in mind? come up with characters and know until many hours scenes with weird little '"($)*: We first wrote it plot, then hash out most of later because I was in this details, which is kind of the with a reader in mind who our differences. It doesn’t war game exercise. A friend way I think. I tried not to was somewhat like us, but progress unless we’re both called and was freaking out. go too far and Chris reins later we tried to make it a excited, with a shared vision. me in. And some of the par- little more universal, with a Then I’d codify the plot on !"#$%&"%: Scribner told ticularly funny stuff came little less navel gazing. I do a spreadsheet and divvy me a week before that it from people I knew there. think that the people who up chapters. Gavin wrote was a possibility the Times have heard this is the best the Baghdad drafts and I would review the book, but Tell us about the use of book ever tend to be our age. wrote the Boston ones, then they didn’t know what day. the Wikipedia entries as a we’d swap and revise, then I actually really appreciate plot device. !"#$%&"%: My mom and my swap and revise again, and that we didn’t have that !"#$%&"%: From the aunt said they liked the book sometimes we wrote scenes information. I would’ve very first document, the but didn’t like the ending. together hunched over the obsessed and been sleepless Wikipedia concept was They wanted something same laptop. We rewrote the night before. I was in there. It began as a that wrapped up a little the end five different times. floating for a week after conceptually motivated more, that didn’t end on a

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54-57_Bostonia_Fa15_r1.indd 55 10/6/15 10:41 AM Alumni Books REVIEWS

note of uncertainly. It was important for us to not have anything tied up in a Fiction and Poetry three questions: “First, can a poet neat little bow. But a lot of the work we measure meaning? Second, can that did to broaden the book’s appeal was A Long High Whistle: Selected Columns measurement influence thought? And removing things. on Poetry finally, if a poet can measure meaning,” David Biespiel (CAS’86) can a poet, as Herbert strives to do in Such as? Antilever Press, 2015 his poem reflecting, as Biespiel puts it, -"./+0"+: We took out a masturba- !"# $%"$&% #%&'()*+) )" ," “one man’s resilient humanity” against tion scene. the intellectual heavy lifting they authoritarianism’s dogma, “describe believe poetry demands, the only even the ‘simplest emotion’ from the Do readers often assume you each wrote thing more inaccessible than the intimate to the political in the service “The fear of cowardice hasalternate led to wars chapters? and all form itself is what’s written about of humanity?” sorts-"./+0"+ of violence: We —the do get asked about that poetry. But both the novice and the The question may not have a feara lot. of beingSome [cowardly] people will say the seams aficionado will delight in Biespiel’s simple answer. But as in all of or the fear of being brandedreally show,it,” says that Walsh. you can tell that one A Long High Whistle. As engaging as Biespiel’s charming meditations, guy wrote this part and the other guy they are enlightening, these short it whets the appetite for poetry of wrote the other part, and they are often essays come from the acclaimed poet’s all kinds, and reminds us that poetry wrong. One reviewer was certain Gavin (Charming Gardeners, The Book of matters.—3'0*+ 3%&/40"+ wrote a section, but I wrote it. People Men and Women) popular monthly have preconceptions about what a column for . Quality Snacks coauthored book is like. But we spend Among the Andy Mozina (GRS’90) so much time together, we’ve been 100 or so poets Wayne State University Press, 2014 writing together for so many years, Biespiel considers 5"6/+*’0 &*)%0) ("&&%()/"+ that we learned what the narrator of are John Keats, delivers what its title promises: an the book sounds like and we can do an Emily Dickinson, array of palatable stories, each with a impersonation of that narrator. It’s our Pablo Neruda, and distinct, satisfying flavor. He spins 15 joint voice, which is different than our Seamus Heaney. fabulistic tales, most set in and around solo voices. None longer than Milwaukee and Chicago (it doesn’t get four pages, the more delightfully Midwestern than Chris, who were your mentors at BU? essays range all over this story opening: “Two grown men The person I spent the most time the literary landscape, from Ovid to at the Dairy Queen…”). with was Pulitzer Prize–winning Alexander Pope to Elizabeth Bishop, Mozina is at home with this form, poet Louise Glück, a former visiting from ancient China to contemporary combining both variety—the smor- professor in BU’s Creative Writing Greece. Read as a whole, the collection gasbord of stories ranges from a man’s Program and former US poet laureate. is akin to a poetry course taught by a account of his “nonsexual affair” to Ever since leaving BU I go back and witty, passionate professor who is the a tale that has Santa Claus playing visit Louise whenever I can, and I very definition of well versed. Major League Baseball—and cohesion show her some poems, which is really In “To See the Invisible,” draw- in the collection. Many of these generous of her. The other person was ing largely from Donald Justice’s stories involve impossibly broken John Paul Riquelme, a College of Arts lovely, spare “Memory of a Porch: relationships. The best of the collection & Sciences professor of English, who Miami, 1942,” Biespiel writes about feature narcissistic male protagonists. taught a Joyce class, my favorite. He’s poets’ attentiveness to “invisible Take “A Talented Indivi dual.” a brilliant guy and some of the stuff I geographies,” to “see what exists, into Mozina’s wry prose shines in this wrote for him made it into the book, what exists, nearly what exists, and tale of a condescending businessman including Corderoy’s essay. beyond what exists.” His amusing approaching middle age who has been essay “Continuous Music” hits a passed over for a promotion. He’s Whose work do you love to read? common chord with its discussion driven to reassess his life and while he 1"2/)%: I probably read more nonfic- of the haughty dismissal (“It happens mopes around during a vacation with tion than fiction, great storytellers more than I care to admit”) of poems his wife and children, he ruminates like Barbara Tuchman and William that rhyme. “The worst offenders,” on how everything that once seemed Manchester. But he writes, “are aspiring poets.” bright and shiny is no longer: his MBA is my favorite hands down. Biespiel’s warmth and respect from Northwestern hasn’t snagged him for his readers is reflected in prose a higher-paying position, and to his -"./+0"+: I read a lot of short fiction that, like William Zinsser’s classic On dismay, his “smart and physically fit” and poetry. I love George Saunders; Writing Well, makes us care about, and wife has parlayed her attributes into he’s probably my top short-fiction be alert to, the wonders of metaphor, becoming more successful than he writer, and I love Louise Glück and simile, and inspired restraint. Biespiel ever imagined. It’s clear from the start Terrance Hayes. reminds us that every poem poses that he’s edging closer and closer to a

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