One book engineered to succeed

Jenny Shank, Special to the Rocky

Friday, November 9, 2007

The first time many Coloradans became aware of author Nick Arvin was when his book, Articles of War, was named the focus of this year's One Book, One Denver reading program. But that doesn't mean the writer hasn't quietly been making his mark.

Critics have compared the author's writing to that of Ernest Hemingway and Stephen Crane. His short story Along the Highways appeared in The New Yorker - a coup for any emerging writer. And he's picked up many awards for Articles of War, including the Colorado Book Award and honors from the American Academy of Arts and the American Library Association.

The first local author to have his work featured in the program, Arvin lives in Denver with his wife and young son, and works part time as an engineer. As this year's One Book, One Denver comes to its culmination next week, the author spoke to the Rocky about the process of writing Articles of War - a carefully crafted, literary look at a man fighting his fears on the battlefields of Normandy.

I read that you did a lot of your research for Articles of War at the Denver Public Library.

Yeah, almost all the research I did was from books. For someone working on a novel, the stuff that was most useful to me was the memoirs and oral histories. I also looked at some coffee-table books that had a lot of pictures. I found those really useful to glean details.

Did you feel intimidated to write about this material, since you haven't had military experience?

I did. What got me started in writing the book was reading Eddie Slovik's story. (Slovik was a WWII infantryman and the only American soldier to be executed for desertion since the Civil War.) I came across it at a time when I was looking for something to write about. But I put it aside in part because of that (intimidation). Before I got going, I didn't have much knowledge about World War II, so there was a lot of research to be done. Not being a veteran added another layer of intimidation for me.

But I found myself getting obsessed with Eddie Slovik's story, and I figured other people have done it - Stephen Crane did it, not that I'm any Stephen Crane. But knowing that other writers have approached that kind of experience without having been veterans themselves showed me a sort of path.

When you were writing the battle scenes, did you visualize it before you wrote? Or did your envisioning of the scenes come through the act of writing?

During some of the more vivid stuff . . . where as a writer I was trying to draw out as much of the feeling and the emotion of that moment as possible - like that first scene where (the protagonist) is caught under artillery barrage- one of the things I realized is that, first of all, you work at putting yourself into a quiet place and trying to mentally put yourself as deeply into that situation as possible.

But the other thing I realized is that you don't need to have a sense of that entire experience all at once - just enough of it to get another word down. . . . I sometimes found myself moving through the different senses: What's it feel like? What's it smell like? What's it taste like? By breaking it down and making the problem smaller, it's less overwhelming than approaching it as if you need to engage with that entire experience all at once.

Did you question how you would react to being thrown into a war as you wrote the book?

Certainly, that's something I couldn't not think about when I was working on it, but there's no way to know the answer until you find yourself in that situation. I think that's part of what drew me to the story in the first place. Boys spend so much time running around, shooting at each other with fake guns that you inevitably think about the question of how would you react if you found yourself in a war. And there's just no way to know.

Articles of War has received so many accolades and prizes. Which of those honors has been the most meaningful to you?

Maybe it's just because it's the most vivid to me right now, but One Book, One Denver has really been great. I think the thing that's the most exciting about it is that One Book, One Denver isn't an award per se, but an attempt to get the book to readers. And as a writer, that's really what I want all along .

I interviewed T.C. Boyle recently, and he said that he loves participating in community reading programs because people don't usually have a book in common to discuss - the only thing people tend to have in common are TV shows.

Yeah, and hopefully any work of literature gives you a little more depth to work with when you're talking to your friends and neighbors, versus the kind of pop-cultural stuff that we usually have in common. The thing that I hope a book can bring to that kind of discussion is... some of the themes of love and death and how we deal with those things.

What was it like to have your short story published in The New Yorker?

It was great. I think the most flabbergasted I've ever been was when I got news about the publication. I had sent this story to my agent and enough time had passed that I had sort of forgotten it was out there. Then one day he called me and said, "The New Yorker wants to publish it." And I said, "Eric, if you're making this up, I'm going to fly up to New York and kill you." He said, "Wow, that's the most dramatic response I've ever gotten from you." So that was definitely a highlight of my little career so far.

Do writing and engineering use different parts of your brain, or are there ways in which they are similar?

I think it's more similar than most people would think. A lot of engineering requires creativity, and a lot of writing requires some of the analytical stuff that you use in engineering - being detail-oriented, checking things again and again. But most engineers are really bad writers, and I'm not sure why that is. The engineers who are not good writers tend to be people who aren't readers. On the other hand, there are a lot of engineers who surprise you and are good readers and writers.

What are you working on now?

I'm working on another novel, and I've been trying to avoid talking about it too much.

Does having had such success with your first novel make it easier or harder to approach the second?

It makes it easier in the sense that I feel like I've had some success as a writer. I think one of the problems anyone who writes fiction struggles with is the sense that they may be entirely wasting their time. Not only does fiction not pay well, but if you haven't had some publication success, it's hard to know if you even have any talent at it.

So success gives you permission to keep going.

It gives me some validation. So in that way, it makes it a lot easier. People sometimes ask me if I feel intimidated about writing the next novel, and I haven't felt that. Maybe I will once it's heading into publication - if it ever does.

I try to write every day. I had a teacher who emphasized the idea that you need to focus on the process of writing, on what you're doing day to day, and not worry about the product. If you focus on that, you'll at least in theory end up with a good product. I try to cling to that.

Nick Arvin

• What: Arvin reads from and discusses his work

• When: 7 p.m. Wednesday

• Where: Manual High School, 1700 E. 28th Ave.

• Cost: Free

• Information: denvergov.org

'War' and other pieces

While writing Articles of War, Nick Arvin notes that he was influenced by books such as A Farewell to Arms, Cold Mountain, The Red Badge of Courage, Foot Soldier (by Roscoe C. Blunt Jr.) and The Execution of Private Eddie Slovik.

Haven't read the book yet? Here's a plot summary:

Articles of War is a novel about George Tilson, a small-town boy drafted into the Army in 1944 and nicknamed "Heck" because he refuses to swear. He winds up in Normandy after D-Day, where his life will intersect with that of a character based on Eddie Slovik, an actual soldier who was executed during World War II for desertion. In addition, Heck meets a seductive young girl who both attracts and frightens him. As his fears about fighting mount, he must face the fact of his own cowardice, in love and on the battlefield.

Jenny Shank is a fiction writer and journalist living in Boulder.