Crossing the Hudson
Translated from the German by David Dollenmayer
by Peter Stephan Jungk
List Price: $14.95
Pages: 232
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9781590512753
Publisher: Other Press
Peter Stephan Jungk was born in Los Angeles, raised in several European cities, and now lives in Paris. A former screenwriting fellow of the American Film Institute, he is the author in German of eight books, including the acclaimed biography Franz Werfel: A Life from Prague to Hollywood (Grove Press, 1990) and the novels Tigor (Handsel Books, 2004), a finalist for the British Foreign Book Award, and The Perfect American (Handsel Books, 2004), a fictional biography of Walt Disney’s last months, which Philip Glass is adapting into an opera.
David Dollenmayer is Professor of German at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and the translator of works by Bertolt Brecht, Peter Stephan Jungk, Michael Kleeberg, Anna Mitgutsch,Perikles Monioudis, Mietek Pemper, and Moses Rosenkranz. He is the author of The Berlin Novels of Alfred Döblin and coauthor of Neue Horizonte: A First Course in German Language and Culture. He lives in Hopkinton, Massachusetts.
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A Conversation with Peter Stephan Jungk...
Q: The setting of your new book Crossing the Hudson is a traffic jam on the Tappan Zee Bridge in the stiflingly hot summer months --- an atmosphere that is powerful and domineering --- setting the tone for the novel. Why did you choose that location? Does it have any personal significance for you?
A: I feel truly attached and attracted to the area where my novel is set. I spend all my summers at a lake upstate (not the one mentioned in the novel!) and every time I pass by the Tappan Zee Bridge or cross it, I'm intrigued by its immense span, by its grandeur, and, yes, by its ugliness. I am tremendously attracted to bridges in general --- and always have been. New York possesses some of the greatest spans in the entire world. For instance, to see the G.W.-bridge from afar --- that sight alone makes my heart jump.
Q: A recurring and central theme in your work, including Tigor and Crossing the Hudson, is the contemporary relationship between the U.S. and Europe --- a tension between their conflicting cultural and social values. What compelled you to focus on this motif? What have you observed about the connection between American and European ideals?
A: I belong to both worlds --- I am like a bridge between the U.S. and Europe. I feel at home on both continents; I know their atmospheres; I know what makes them tick. I try to mirror this double-belonging in my work; on the other hand, I think the ideals differ tremendously, I see very little similarity between American and European ideals.
Q: Your body of work is highly diverse and inventive, ranging from an acclaimed biography of Franz Werfel to a fictionalized account of Walt Disney in The Perfect American. Where do you draw your unique ideas from? Do you prefer writing fiction or non-fiction?
A: A writer rarely knows where he or she draws his or her ideas from. At least I don't, but I guess my ideas are all rooted in my own personal experiences and dreams. The biography of Werfel is my only book of non-fiction so far and it took four years to be completed, since I had to do enormous research, in Europe and in the U.S., to meet the people who had known him, etc. I don't feel sorry for myself for having worked on that book, but I don't think I will ever repeat anything similar. Researching a story and then turning it into fiction is my greatest joy: having the freedom to invent, to assume, to dream.
Q: What authors do you admire? Have any other literary works inspired you?
A: I don't think so. But I know that I started writing at the age of 16, on the day after having seen a play by Peter Handke, "Kaspar," in Berlin, in1969. We have remained friends ever since.
Q: What are your writing habits? Do you write daily, at a specific time of day, or place, etc.?
A: When I'm not travelling, yes, I do try to write on a daily basis, even when I'm not "inspired" which happens every now and then. Of course, I have the great luxury of being able to work in a small room just above our apartment, in Paris. They call it ‘chambre de bonne', in French, maid's room --- those little chambers below the roof were inhabited by maids --- that is where I work. So I'm at home and not at home at the same time. The room overlooks the rooftops and opens my sight to the clouds. My best time to write is between 9am and 2pm, the afternoons are rarely as concentrated.
Q: The fantastical inclusion of Ludwig Rubin's enormous, naked body extended over the Hudson River is completely unexpected and original. What caused you to include this surrealist image? What did you intend the body's presence to signify?
A: It was a true vision: my father had passed away eight or nine years before. Lying awake one very early morning, the image took hold of me and never let go of me any more. Again, I should not try to explain or speculate regarding its significance since every reader has the right to interpret the father's surrealist enormousness in his or her very own way.
Q: 7. You've grown up in LA, Austria and Germany, and now live in France. How has your own multicultural background shaped your work? Where do consider "home"?
A: I feel at home in all the places you name. And I feel at home nowhere, of course. But as my hero Gustav Rubin says when he approaches New York: "As soon as the city came into view, he always had the expansive feeling of coming home. Nothing like this happened to him anywhere else..." I, too, have feelings of this sort when I arrive in New York. And I could imagine it to become my place of residence one day.
Q: Composer Philip Glass is currently adapting The Perfect American for the opera. How does that book fit the premise of this completely different medium of art?
A: I think this question should be answered by Philip Glass. But I do know that he was mesmerized by the novel when he first read it and immediately knew that he would want to adapt it for the opera. I myself am a great believer in cross-influences between different forms of art --- literature, film, music, even architecture and painting.
Q: In Crossing the Hudson, your writing reveals a lot about human psychology and family dynamics. Do these themes interest you or do you work with them unconsciously?
A: I won't deny that family life and its psychological intricacies fascinate me --- every aspect of them, and yes, human nature, human psychology too, of course. But isn't that true of practically every writer who ever lived and ever will pass by on this planet?
Q: Are you working on anything new? Can you share any details?
A: My new book's title is The Electric Heart. I can talk about it because the first draft is written. It's a dialogue between a playwright and his heart: they quarrel, they love each other, they suffer together. The heart has been operated on two times already, open heart surgery. It has often lead its ‘master' astray, getting the playwright involved in love affairs he wouldn't even dream of. Mostly, the heart is stronger and more determined than its owner and thus gets its way.
© Copyright 2012 by Peter Stephan Jungk. Reprinted with permission by Other Press. All rights reserved.
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