The Court Jester Holds Court, by Gabriel Valjan

 

The Court Jester Holds Court

 

Do you often/sometimes weave a moral message into your writing, or do you think that’s awful, and something that should never be attempted? Can you recommend good examples of books that do one or the other?

 

I’ve said in interviews that all my books focus on friendships. I prefer the word theme to message. I wish to convey that we need each other. I write about people who must trust each other. Society is something we agree to, a contract, and society, especially in America, has no such Social Contract. Cradle to grave, you are on your own.

 

In my crime fiction, readers are not spoon-fed and told what to think, or how to feel. I’m likely to frustrate readers who desire that Good triumphs over Evil, Right over Wrong, or the villain receives Justice, or the hero gets their love interest. Life doesn’t work that way. Bad people do good things, and good people do terrible things in my stories. I’m not a nihilist, though. I’m not a cynic, either. I don’t write so dark that you’d want a razorblade after the fact. Readers are invited to piece together meaning.

 

My other theme is forgotten history, and my strategy there is simple: I want you to think. I want readers to question received interpretations of historical events and their cultural prejudices. I try to provoke readers to think and form their own conclusions. That is my message.

 

In THE GOOD MAN, out this August, I present the early days of the CIA in 1948 Vienna. Readers do not receive a James Bond adventure with gadgets and a string of besotted women left breathless in his wake. It’s a story of friends assigned a difficult and unprecedented task. The US government has tasked them to interview and recruit former Nazis for any technological lead they can offer over the Soviets. All goes well until one a Nazi SS officer is murdered, and the intrigue begins. The only thing I expect readers to know is that the United States and Russia were allies during World War II. The mental gymnastics required to go from ally to enemy is not the story. If there is any ‘message,’ it’s the revelation of just how naïve we Americans were in postwar Europe. Mistakes happened, deals with the Devil made.

 

When I shopped the novel around to agents in 2010, I received the usual ‘thanks, no thanks,’ that was par for the course of the search, but one agent’s reaction surprised me. Her initial email offered compliments on the writing, but the upshot was that she didn’t think she could sell it. [Publishing is always about what will sell.] I thanked her for her time, and I went on my way. Minutes later, I received another email, where she took me to task, saying that the premise was implausible, and then doubled down and called the novel morally offensive. I thanked her again and I sent her the CIA’s declassified file on Operation Paperclip.

 

In THREADING THE NEEDLE, the third in another series I write (whose the rights have reverted to me), I bring readers to Italy and introduce them again to the CIA and the Strategy of Tension and Years of Lead, which was a systematic program of terrorism that tore through Italy from the late 60s to mid-80s. It may sound counterintuitive, but the aim was to stabilize the government on pro-NATO positions, in the country with the largest Communist party in the West. The rationale was the terrorist attacks would push people to demand more and more law & order, up to an authoritarian right-wing regime if necessary. The Strategy remains a taboo topic in Italy. Imagine a daily reminder of 9-11. Italian television would list the names of the kidnapped, missing, and murdered every single night for decades.

 

In the Shane Cleary series, friendships and alliances matter. The cops can’t be trusted in 70s Boston. Corruption is systemic. Politicians treat their constituency like a one-night stand because all they want is the vote. It’s a world where there is no pretense to the lie; ethnic tension and violence are the daily reality. I drew inspiration from real Boston history and places. It’s a landscape where few people function with a code of ethics.

 

Writers ought to be like court jesters, with immunity from the king and other nobles.

 

I don’t offer a fantasy of the world. Nothing is black or white; it is gray and ambiguous because that is realistic for life and human behavior. Relationships are often predicated on utility and not love. Irrespective of culture, gender, and sexuality, history has shown we are a violent species. People protect their own interests. Not everyone is accepted, and some will never be accepted. The world is a hard tough place.

 

I work hard to make your time with me worthwhile. To think for yourself is to be active, and not a victim.

 

Discover my characters and see what makes them tick. You may find something in my stories to relate to, but I won’t tell you what to think and feel.