“November Rust” – Updated Interview with Author Julian Gallo
3 
November Rust, Julian Gallo’s first novel, is one of those rare books that isn’t scared to take risks and doesn’t shy away from demanding the reader’s attention.
This interview was first published in 2009 after the release of Julian Gallo’s first novel November Rust. This interview includes an update in which Julian talks about November Rust almost five years after publication and the challenges faced when writing his subsequent novels.
“I spent half my life searching for Goddard days and Fellini evenings. Instead I found the dog days, lying in wait, watching the faces go by my window. They haven’t changed in all these years. But I have.” – November Rust
Very few writers these days are willing to take risks when it comes to their work. There are seemingly too few who are willing to experiment or play jazz with language and narrative. It may of course be the case that publishers are not willing to take a chance when it comes to writers who are actually trying to create something different from the mass marketed, over hyped next big thing. November Rust, Julian Gallo’s first novel, is one of those rare books that isn’t scared to take risks and doesn’t shy away from demanding the reader’s attention.
Ostensibly November Rust is the tale of an aspiring New York writer who decides to escape his problems by living in Paris. This plotline has been trodden before by the likes of Hemmingway and Miller but Gallo updates it for the 21st century. He holds up a mirror to today’s society and asks the reader to decide between reality and perception. Relationships between the sexes no matter what country they live in is the fundamental plotline here. The complex mind games people play with each other, and ultimately themselves, will be instantly recognizable to those who have a tendency to analyze their relationships, continually look for answers to age old questions. In this multi-layered story there are also numerous subplots including a bickering creative community living abroad, which many aspiring writers and artists will recognize and relate to.
November Rust is also an exhilarating experiment when it comes to leaving behind the cosy confines of the tried and tested prose routes. Various writing styles are peppered throughout the book between the more straightforward narrative structure. This does keep the reader on their toes and adds an extra dimension to the tale, perfectly capturing the ‘in transit’ dreamlike quality of living in a foreign country. When it comes to setting a scene Gallo cannot be faulted. He has been a published poet for many years now and has a way with imagery that takes the reader into the Parisian settings as if stepping onto the set of an Eric Rohmer film. The flashback New York passages are also touching, evocative, and above all, realistic.
Overall, November Rust is an ambitious first novel that requires a certain amount of investment from the reader. This is not a quick and easy read. But if you are looking for a book that will leave you thinking and doesn’t take the straightforward plodding plotline that has been used numerous times before then November Rust will be well worth the investment.
I talked recently to Julian Gallo about November Rust, his thoughts on writing that first novel, New York life and today’s literary world.
GC: Explain the first line of the novel.
JG: It’s taken from a Hungarian version of “Once Upon A Time”. It’s my little nod to Eastern European literature which I really enjoyed reading over the years. Hungarian fairytales usually begin with something like “It happened, it didn’t happen”. That’s the first clue that what you are reading may not actually be true. But a lot of it is really—for the most part.
GC: November Rust is partly about a writer escaping his problems in New York only to be ultimately faced with the same problems in Paris. Was this your initial intention?
JG: Part of the point of the novel is that you can’t run away from your problems since you will always bring them with you no matter where you go. It’s also a little bit of an ironic look at the “expatriate novel” as well; the romantic notion of the “writer running off to Paris” to write his book as if this, in and of itself, would make any issues one may have disappear. This is really a novel about growth; it’s a novel of ideas rather than plot. The idea of not being able to run from your problems or issues is one of those ideas I wanted to explore. Of course, not all the ideas expressed are necessarily “mine”, but are observations of the character.
GC: The narrator gives a great deal of good advice throughout the book to others but ultimately cannot help screwing up a relationship that he himself is in.
JG: I am always fascinated by how people relate to one another and what criteria they use to sometimes judge one another. The fact that in the book it’s mainly between men and women wasn’t intentional but I guess subconsciously I was trying to work something out based on my own experiences, which unfortunately were never all that good, with the exception of a few instances.
There are too many games people play with one another because people become so damaged over the course of their lives they always have their defenses up and it makes it difficult for people to truly be open and honest with one another. I do believe people can change and people often do change, that is, if they are aware of their own issues and work on them and not always look at themselves as if they were a victim all the time. I also wanted to show the flimsy and fragile nature of relationships at the turn of the 21st century, how things are as they always have been. Complicated, but sometimes unnecessarily so.
GC: One of the characters becomes a homeless artist on the streets of Paris. There is a cliché that certain would be artists/writers think they need to experience as a certain pathway to greatness falling upon them. Does he exist in the book as a way of getting this idea across and showing it for what it really is?
Page 1 of 5 | Next page
Tags: first novel, hipsters, julian gallo, november rust, paris, short stories, writer