Elia, a lit student,
is infatuated with Cameron Beck's masterpiece, Secrets of Odysseus.
The book is a compilation of poems Beck wrote to his mysterious muse,
but no one knows who she is. Elia is determined to find out. She
desperately wants to know what love is and Cameron seems to have the
answer.
In a coffee house
one night before the end of term, she thinks she hears Beck read a
new poem. The poem is left behind when the poet vanishes. Elia
rescues it and now is determined to find Beck. The search leads her
to a remote Caribbean Island. The islanders have befriended Beck and
resent the stranger's intrusion, but she persists.
This love story is
told from several perspectives. Elia is the protagonist in the
present day, but we also see Cameron. In the past, we see him and his
lost love. Usually, I find stories told in two time periods don't
work well. However, in this case with the secret of lost love as the
thread holding the story together, it works well.
Elia is a
delightfully naive character. She is desperately searching for the
meaning of love, but she is also capable of determination to see her
adventure through to completion. Beck is a more nebulous character.
We glimpse his total infatuation with his lover, but in the present
day he is more subdued yet willing to part with his secret to the
right person.
The characters who
inhabit the island: Isabella, the island matriarch, Fatty, the
medical doctor with a drug habit, Paco, the cantina owner, and
Falcon, the pilot, are extremely well drawn. Each is unique and each
fits the setting perfectly. They were some of the best parts of the
book.
If you enjoy an
adventure wrapped in a romance, you'll enjoy this book.
I reviewed this book
for PR by the Book.
Author Q&A:
What
inspired you to write The
Poet’s Secret?
At
the time I wrote The
Poet’s Secret,
I was on a personal pilgrimage. I essentially took a threeyear
sabbatical, sort of an adult “time out,” and embarked on a new
path. I dedicated myself to explore the meaning of life and love and
particularly the arc of passion. I became consumed by the idea of
living in the present, honoring the “now” as the only real moment
in time, the only authentic eternity, which allowed me to both
disconnect and connect like never before and let go of the constructs
of past and future as fictions created by the mind. I gained a new
appreciation for relatively brief moments and encounters as having
potentially profound effects. I was living abroad, reading, writing,
surfing and slowing down my existence.
The
tale that became The
Poet’s Secret
was conceived in a hovel perched atop a onetable taverna in the
hillside village of Avdou, just a scooter ride from the blue waters
of the Aegean Sea on the island of Crete. I was sequestered alone,
halfway around the world from my home, and recovering from a life,
and a relationship, that had left me hollow, or at least I thought at
the time. But it turned out words kept flowing out of me, first in
raw, chunky verse that faintly resembled poetry and then in images
and scenes that bore an even fainter resemblance to a novel. For
months I wrote, swam in healing waters and disappeared into this
remote, antiquated Greek village. I had never done anything like that
before, but at the time it was the only existence that made any
sense.
So
many miracles happened during those months. I experienced a
cleansing, a healing and an awakening, and I began to perceive light
and water and imagery and words and the souls around me like never
before. I eventually returned to California, and then traveled to
Bali, Mexico, Costa Rica, Thailand, Cambodia and South America,
following the sea and surf with laptop in hand and continuing to
write. The backstory to writing The
Poet’s Secret
is a story in itself.
How
did you select the locations for the novel?
It
was tempting to set the bulk of the novel in Greece, a country I
adore. However, as the story evolved the compass for the island
setting spun toward the West Indies, and the story’s life raft
washed ashore on the fictional island of Mataki. I was fortunate to
spend a good part of my sabbatical on tropical islands and coastal
villages that certainly informed the setting. As for the early campus
setting, I based it on a fictionalized version of my beloved alma
mater, The Ohio State University.
What
was your particular process in terms of plot, outlining and
character?
I
essentially began the novel with two scenes that were haunting me.
First, I had a reclusive poet on a remote island cliff about to
attempt suicide. Second, I had a bookish young woman captured within
the confines of the great romances of literature. I really had no
idea about their connection, if any, but those two images would not
let go of me. As I began to write, the concept of the woman yearning
for what nearly kills the poet began to take hold.
The
process was fairly organic. I let the characters breathe and lead me
into the story. I wasn’t even sure whose story it was until shortly
after the first draft. Once the closing scene appeared to me I
realized that it was really Elia’s story. I then just had to
navigate getting there. While I did not develop any formal outline, I
downloaded scenes as they appeared, stockpiled them and later wove
them in when they seemed to make sense. It was a bit like swimming
across a sea, not sure which direction land might be but hoping that
if I kept going I would eventually find my way.
Stumbling,
a bit blindly, through this creative process was both exasperating
and exhilarating. As I was working on revisions, I attended several
writers’ conferences that stressed the necessity of thorough
plotting, which made me feel a tad vulnerable. I later read an
interview about Michael Ondaatje’s process in writing The
English Patient
and realized I was in good company.
The
novel is filled with excerpts of poetry, which came first, the poetry
or the narrative arc?
Most
of the poetry was written before any narrative took form. The poetry
came in often painful and soulsearching flourishes, and then was
revised over time. There is a line in The
Poet’s Secret
where Dean Baltutis refers to the poet’s inspiration being
“survival.” That is precisely how it felt at times. I also wanted
to combine both poetry and prose into one novel and attempt to slow
down the reader a bit at the beginning of each chapter to contemplate
and absorb the poetry, to be in that moment so to speak, before
continuing on the narrative journey.
What
in particular surprised you about the process of writing The
Poet’s Secret?
I
didn’t want to force plot twists or preconceived outcomes. I let
the characters find the story. I let go of expectations and trusted
the story to evolve. Tapping into this creative process was freeing,
exhilarating and challenging, sort of like jumping off a cliff into
the sea for the first time. I had never done anything quite like it,
but this particular process for me felt authentic. I certainly was
surprised how well the early drafts of the poetry and manuscript were
received, which bolstered my confidence to pursue the project through
publication.
Water
imagery is abundant throughout the novel, what is the particular
connection for you with water and particularly with respect to this
novel?
I
was thrown onto a swim team at age 8 even before I passed beginners
swim lessons (I was terrible at the back float). But water soon
became my life and in many ways my salvation. Throughout my youth I
swam, played water polo, lifeguarded and hung around Lake Erie in
northeastern Ohio. Somehow, I didn’t even see an ocean until I was
18. But I recall climbing out of the backseat of a Datsun 210
hatchback (or what they claimed to be a backseat) after driving for
twentytwo hours to Ft. Lauderdale for spring break and telling
my college buddies to just pick me up in a few hours. I was
mesmerized. I sprinted into the Atlantic Ocean and swam and
bodysurfed until dark. Today, I surf or swim almost every day. I feel
like I am about eighty percent water, the remaining twenty percent
made up mostly of curiosity and mischief.
Much
of the water in the universe is said to be a byproduct of star
formation. I’m no scientist, but I like the way that sounds.
Because when I look up at the night stars it feels a lot like gazing
west an hour before the sun dips into the sea, at least at my secret
little spot by the water. Flickering diamonds scatter everywhere
along the surface, and if I squint just right, I forget the sea is
even there. Instead, it looks like a galaxy of stars shimmering right
into me, washing across my heart, reflecting off my smile and filling
me with the belief that I can just float away into the universe. So I
often do.
Spiritually,
water often represents purification and healing. To me, water
represents so many things, perhaps most importantly love and life and
the sacred feminine. I once nearly died underwater while surfing in
Uluwatu, a place few have ever heard of and even fewer have visited.
But I know on so many occasions water has saved me, water has healed
me, and water has reset my compass when I have been spinning in some
uncontrollable vortex. So for me, my life and my love seem to be tied
to returning to the great aquatic source, again and again, maybe just
to fill the chasm that still exists in me, and maybe to some degree
still exists in all of us.
I
have been fortunate to swim with sea turtles and dolphins in the wild
on many occasions. When I stare into the eyes of a sea turtle or a
dolphin I cannot help but believe that they understand this great
aquatic connection, a connection beyond humanity, beyond species,
beyond even the stars. So when I am writing about passion,
heartbreak, healing, life and love, it is only natural for me to
write in a particularly aquatic language and style.
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