Jonathan Marcantoni

 

 

When I first started writing Traveler’s Rest back in 2005 it wasn’t with the intention of writing a book. I had spent the last year and a half writing scripts for a production company in Atlanta, my first paid gig as a writer. I enjoyed writing scripts but as I began to learn the convoluted and frustrating ins and outs of being a screenwriter, the more I longed to get back to writing stories. Given, the publishing world is as ruthless and difficult as the filmmaking world, but I felt more prepared and willing to put up with it. The one thing about filmmaking is that it is a wholly collaborative medium. A screenplay doesn’t really come to life unless it is produced, and there are a million people willing to take advantage of screenwriters for that reason. If it isn’t produced, the script might as well not exist. A book or story on the other hand, as long as it’s read, it fulfills its purpose. So I set out to write a few stories, starting with what is now the third chapter of this book, “Raul & Laura”. My intention was simple, to write an anti-romance, that looked at a loveless, manipulative relationship and the psychological ties that keep it going. It was a fun story to write, and at the time I was reading Nietzsche and was particularly interested in his take on how our choices make us slaves. It seemed like a good theme, so I wrote another pair of stories along the same lines, and a book started to take form, entitled appropriately enough, Slaves.

The more stories I wrote, the more I began to connect everything. I had one story, “Drifters” that was my ode to books like The Motorcycle Diaries and On the Road. I made that story the centerpiece of the book, and its hero, Tony, the connective tissue of the various story lines. After a few drafts, the book started to look less like a book of short stories, and more like a cohesive, yet non-chronological, narrative. After working with Zachary Oliver at Savant Books and Publications, the book was able to take the next vital steps to becoming a fully realized narrative.

An example of the elliptical, dreamlike narrative that encompasses much of the novel is its very first chapter, “Broken”, to read this chapter click on the title.

An influence that became more apparent now than it was back in 2005-2006 is Che Guevara’s The Motorcycle Diaries. Guevara’s Latin American equivalent to On the Road marks a clear distinction between the sensibilities of Anglo-Americans versus those of Latin Americans. Kerouac’s work was ultimately about a pair of reckless, wealthy, over-sexed white men who spoke of the suffering of life although nothing in their life indicates why they would be suffering. The suffering is both self-induced and self-involved. I’m not saying it isn’t valid, but his protagonists suffer in spite of the fact that they live a privileged existence. It is the same sort of sadness that pervades F. Scott Fitzgerald’s work, and which appeals to middle and upper class white men who are far less concerned with the state of the poor and the truly suffering than they are with a sense of wounded pride that they carry like a war wound. Guevara’s work is also about two privileged young men who initially set out looking to score with women and have some fun, but who become socially and spiritually awakened by the suffering of the poor, the disenfranchised and the oppressed they meet on their journeys. Che and his friend never act like they have a reason to suffer in and of themselves. What they feel is a compassion for their fellow man, and rather than just feeling guilt for their privileged existence, they decide to act and dedicate themselves to relieving the suffering of others.

At the beginning of Traveler’s Rest, Tony and Charlie are both figures out of Kerouac. They oppress themselves seemingly out of a desire to be interesting. The insights into Tony’s heroin addiction largely show an overgrown child as well as an egomaniac.  The same is true of Charlie’s existential despair. By the end, Tony becomes more of a Guevara figure, seeking to dedicate himself to a cause greater than himself.

For more on the journey taken by the two main characters, Tony and Charlie, click on their names.

That cause, Puerto Rican independence and the safeguarding of Puerto Rican culture, is one that is near and dear to my heart. Much like Tony’s family, mine came to the States from Puerto Rico and struggled since then to strike a balance between retaining the culture and assimilation. The characters of Charlie and Tony represent two aspects of growing up as the children of immigrants. Charlie is largely assimilated, and while his cousin, who also features heavily in the book, still has ties to the island, Charlie really doesn’t. He is for all intent and purpose an Anglo-American. Tony, on the hand, is caught between the cultures and the sensibility. His ties are mostly based on nostalgia, but he also has a realistic view of the island as it is today. That sense of being caught between two worlds, however, creates considerable confusion for him, and is at the heart of his inability to connect with his family, which has largely assimilated.

The struggle for independence depicted in the following pages is largely fictional. There is no Boriken movement, though it was inspired by the Macheteros, a real life guerrilla group on the island. The struggles depicted in “The Revolutionary” are also fictionalized, though there was a senator named Barbosa who tried to turn Puerto Rico into a State by helping the Americans suppress our culture and language. Thankfully, he was unsuccessful, though people like him continue to harm the island and its people. In real life, groups like the Movimiento Independentista Nacional Hostosiano (or MINH) are doing great work at uniting Puerto Ricans of all political and social stripes to better the lives of everyone on the island. But the independence movement is still largely splintered by those who are more militant and those who prefer a more diplomatic approach.

The book also features the fictional American terrorist group called Dark Horse, which is featured in another writing project of mine. Dark Horse is a racist organization that believes that America’s problems have their source in the Civil Rights movement. Dark Horse believes that allowing minorities to have power weakened America’s true leaders, white males. The inclusion of this group was meant to be a counter-point to the Boriken movement, as a way of showing American society as equally chaotic and on the brink of a meltdown as Puerto Rican society.

For more on the socio-political nature of the book and a character profile.

But more than politics, the books is about addiction and depression. While Tony exemplifies a more obvious addiction–that of drugs–the other characters are also addicts. Whether they are addicted to power, mourning, victimization, or just plain bad habits. The enslavement the characters experience comes from their unwillingness to change and let go of their pasts, which is prime reason for drug addicts to delve deeper into their addiction. The difference between a drug addict and a person who is addicted to their suffering is that the ostracizing and judgment placed on drug addicts is more justified in the general public’s point of view, whereas an addict of suffering (or depression, however you want to see it) can get by in life without much criticism of they hold a job and have the appearance of success. This is shown in the book in the relationship between Tony and his brother Raul. Tony gets all the flak for his stints in rehab, but Raul, in spite of having a good job and all the financial security that this society idolizes, is an even more screwed up person than Tony is. And what it comes down to is one’s willingness to change, something that Tony finds is far more valuable than having a new car and a big house.

Now, depression also has a stigma, and the characters who suffer from it are as isolated as Tony is, but in their case it is more of a conscious decision to retreat from society. But also like Tony, they are forced to confront moments where the world demands that they change, and their choices either condemn them or liberate them.

In many ways, Traveler’s Rest is a dreamscape, where the psychological and philosophical quandaries of the characters manifest themselves in situations and places that allow the characters to deal with those issues. It is a story of chaos and man’s need to control it, but more than that, it is about our need to control ourselves, and finding freedom in that control. Like any dream, it seeks to express more than what is merely on the surface, and it is my hope that like the best of dreams, this book will stay with you even after the last page is turned.   

Traveler’s Rest is now available for purchase on the publisher’s website.

Amazon

For more on the Jonathan, check out his blog.  He is also Editor in Chief for a new publishing house, Aignos Publishing, an independent, royalty-based publisher specializing in experimental and innovative literature.

To request an interview or to ask questions concerning writing and the publishing world send an email to  jon.marcantoni@gmail.com