Interview with Terra Ziporyn
Do Not Go Gentle
iUniverse (2006)
ISBN 9780595375394
Reviewed by for Reader Views
(12/06)
Reader Views welcomes Terra Ziporyn,
author of the psychological thriller, “Do Not Go Gentle.” Terra is being interviewed by Juanita Watson,
Assistant Editor of Reader Views.
Juanita: Thanks for taking the time to talk with
us today Terra. We are interested in hearing more about your new psychological
thriller novel, “Do Not Go Gentle.” Would you start by telling us the
storyline?
Terra:
Do Not Go Gentle is the story of Dr. Alvin Forman, a soft-spoken allergist,
single father, and suburban homeowner—who, in his spare time, also happens to
be a serial killer. A former child prodigy, Alvin has struggled all his life to
reconcile his desire to save humanity with his desire to destroy it. Now a
respected community member, he finds himself meticulously and ruthlessly
dismembering patients, loved ones, and neighbors between administering allergy
shots and raising his troubled teenaged daughter. But Alvin is beyond
suspicion. Even Gloria, an evangelical Christian neighbor who hopes to convert
Alvin as well as see him happily remarried, is clueless about just how much his
soul actually needs saving. The story—a “why-done-it,” as opposed to the more
traditional “who-done-it”— raises a number of questions. What would push a
doctor who has sworn to protect life to kill? What demons haunt such a troubled
mind? And what happens when he loses the only thing that matters to him?
Juanita: Terra, you are an
award-winning science writer with publications that include “The New Harvard
Guide to Women’s Health,” and “Alternative Medicine for Dummies”, as well as
the novels “Time’s Fool” and “The Bliss of Solitude.” Would you tell us a
little more about your professional background, and your interest in writing
novels with a scientific twist?
Terra: My background in the history of science
& medicine plays a major role in all of my books, both fiction and
nonfiction, as does the research work I did as a grad student in biopsychology.
I have a BA in both history and biology from Yale University and a PhD in the
history of science and medicine from the University of Chicago. Having worked
as an editor at the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), and
continuing to work as a freelance medical writer and editor, definitely played
a part in this book—as several of the characters are involved with medicine
and/or medical journals.
Juanita: What inspired you to write “Do Not Go
Gentle”?
Terra: Undoubtedly growing up with a forensic
psychiatrist as a father sparked my interest in the subject of mass and, by
extension, serial murderers. My dad, to whom I dedicated this novel, was chief
psychiatrist at Cook County Jail and even wrote a book in the 1960s, Born to
Raise Hell, on his “patient,” Richard Speck, the murderer of 8 student nurses
in Chicago. Another inspiration, I think, was all the years I’ve spent writing
about doctors and medical conditions. With this background, the story of a
doctor—sworn to “do no harm”—who takes human life on the side intrigued me and
allowed me to weave considerable medical detail into the story.
Juanita: Why do you think we are so
fascinated with serial killers?
Terra: Really, they could be us, or at least people
we see every day! As this book shows—and as we’ve seen in some recent real-life
newspaper stories—even the sweetest next-door neighbor may have a heinous
hidden hobby.
Juanita: Would you give us some
background/insights into your main character, Dr. Alvin Forman?
Terra: Alvin is a former child prodigy, and I think
that says a lot. He grew up being told and believing he was great—and destined
for even more greatness. Then, as happens with all of us, reality started to
sink in. He started to discover that he was flawed, he was limited, and—worst
of all—he was mortal. But unlike most of us, Alvin isn’t equipped,
psychologically, to deal with those limitations. He isn’t equipped to being
anything except great and immortal. That’s why he has struggled all his life to
reconcile his desire to save humanity with his desire to destroy it. Both are
grandiose impulses, and kind of flip sides of the same kind of gargantuan
egotism.
Juanita: It’s interesting that even Alvin
doesn’t understand his need to kill and dismember his patients. Would you
elaborate on this strange anomaly, and do you think this unexplainable urge is
common to serial killers?
Terra: Serial killers aren’t really all that
different than the rest of us. We all hover on the edge of a cliff, but the
murderers (serial or otherwise) among us have undergone a certain unfortunate
series of circumstances that push them over that edge. Similarly, we all
sometimes have irrational and shameful urges, like the urge to throw our
screaming baby out a window or to drive the car into the opposing traffic. Most
of the time—fortunately—these are just urges, and we keep ourselves from acting
on them. But the urges themselves are not the mystery. The mystery is the
circumstances that cause some people among us to lose control over them.
Alvin, like just about everyone else, likes to think of himself in
a positive light. But he has urges that don’t fit with his noble self-concept.
That’s all very normal, as is the inability to think of himself as a person who
has ignoble urges. In other words, Alvin’s confusion about feeling a way he
doesn’t want to feel, or having urges he doesn’t want to have, is something I
think we all experience. What’s not normal, though, is that Alvin acts on those
urges. What makes Alvin go over the edge? That’s what the book explores. My
feeling is that growing up the way he did, with the self-concept he had, and
the grandiosity, is one of the reasons he takes things to extremes. But readers
may have other ideas. Human behavior is hardly straightforward or unilinear.
Juanita: Who are the other pertinent
characters in this novel? Would you set them up in the context of the
plot?
Terra: There are several key figures. One is Gloria,
Alvin’s meddling, evangelical Christian neighbor who wants to save Alvin’s
soul—and has no clue whatsoever about just how big a job she’s undertaken. She
also wants to find Alvin a new wife and Miranda a new mother, and she finds
just such a savior in the form of Madeleine, a secretary at a medical journal
who is kind of the opposite of Alvin in terms of grandiosity—she has
essentially put her life on hold after losing her husband years ago. The other
main character is Miranda, Alvin’s precocious but ultimately insecure teenage
daughter, whom he idolizes, despite her sometimes risky behavior. Alvin’s
tendency to idolize—and idealize—is something that gets him into trouble.
Juanita: Did you do any research to
prepare for writing “Do Not Go Gentle”?
Terra: My whole childhood was spent listening to
stories about mass murderers and other violent criminals, and the psychology
underlying their crimes. But I also read some other books about serial
murderers before settling down to write this novel. That helped me think more
deeply about why people do things like this.
Juanita: What an interesting childhood.
What feelings/thoughts came up for you when you heard these stories at such a
young age? Did it scare you, or were you intrigued?
Terra: I was never scared—even when Richard Speck
once offered to babysit us! My father always felt very strongly that good
people could do bad things because of alterations in their brains but that they
were still, ultimately, human beings with value. I was a bit worried about my
dad, though, I have to admit, since he spent a lot of time sitting in jail
cells with these convicted killers.
Juanita: Would you comment on Alvin’s
opposing desires – one to save humanity, and the other to destroy it? Is
it a God complex, a need for power…?
Terra: Absolutely. And that “God complex” goes hand
in hand with a terror of being completely helpless.
Juanita: What are your thoughts on whether
one is born a serial killer, or if they transform into one at some point in
their life?
Terra: I think we all have the potential to do
horrific crimes under the right circumstances. Alvin had the right
circumstances.
Juanita: Is there any hope for
Alvin? What about serial killers in general? Do you think that they
can be rehabilitated?
Terra: That’s for readers to decide at the end of the novel, at
least in terms of Alvin. In terms of serial killers in general, I think that if
you accept the role of circumstances in pushing someone towards murder, you can
also accept that other circumstances might push a person in another direction.
Juanita: What themes are you exploring in “Do Not
Go Gentle”?
Terra: I don’t think so much in terms of themes as
in terms of questions. What is the relationship between creativity and
destructiveness? How much are humanity’s greatest achievements attributable to
benevolence and how much to selfishness? Are altruism and egotism two sides of
the same coin? What about ambition and fear? Or grandiosity and vulnerability?
Those are just some of the questions and connections that I think the novel
explores.
Juanita: Terra, what is the underlying message of
your novel? What do you hope readers take away after reading “Do Not Go
Gentle”?
Terra: I really don’t like to boil fiction down to a
single message. Because it seems to me that if you just have a message, it’s a
lot easier to write one sentence than write a full novel. A novel is richer
than that, and has to be taken as a whole.
If you really insist, though, I just hope readers come out with a
deeper understanding of human beings, and of themselves. Just what that
understanding will be, though, will depend on how they personally process the
details of the story.
Juanita: Would you comment on your writing
process. How did this Jeckle and Hyde character transform in your
thoughts…..was it an odd experience?
Terra: I know this sounds strange, but I understand
Alvin. I don’t quite understand how he can take his revulsions and turn them
into brutal actions—that is, I can’t understand how he can’t stop himself—but I
do understand his revulsions as well as the inability to control certain
compulsions. It’s kind of like someone with obsessive compulsive disorder
(OCD). A person with OCD knows that it’s ridiculous to keep touching the door
handle, but he just can’t help himself. When Alvin goes into one of his
destructive states, he’s doing the same thing. The part of his mind that is in
control has gone out to lunch.
By the way, if I thought I didn’t understand Alvin, I don’t think
I would have bothered writing about him. I think any novelist who is being
honest can say this about any character. Alvin, like anyone else worth
chronicling, is a human being. He’s flawed, but he’s also trying the best he
can to make it through this world. I get upset when people think all characters
need to be admirable. None of us are admirable, at least not all the time, and
at least not if we’re honest with ourselves. Fiction is most gripping to me
when it’s honest and shows you how a person not so different than you—if you’re
really willing to admit who you are—can end up doing something you might never
do, and hope and pray never to do, but certainly could do.
Juanita: You write nonfiction, plays, as
well as scientific articles. What does writing in the genre of fiction
offer in contrast to the others? Do you prefer any one style?
Terra: I never feel more alive than when I’m writing
fiction. I feel like I have enormous power, almost immortality, kind of the way
Alvin would like to feel, I suppose! True, I get enormous gratification out of
my nonfiction writing—particularly when I help people understand scientific and
medical concepts that might otherwise be obscure to them. I’m very proud, for
example, of what women can get from The New Harvard Guide to Women’s Health.
But I feel my life is worth living when I’m writing fiction.
As for style of fiction, the novel is my absolute favorite.
Dialogue comes pretty naturally to me, so I enjoy writing plays. But plays
aren’t really the sole creation of the writer. They only come to life when a
director and actors, as well as a production team, helps nurture them. They
also have many structural limitations because they have to “work” on a stage in
front of a live audience over a finite period of time. Novels give the writer
more, almost infinite, freedom. Plus, they encompass all of life. One of my
favorite quotes—one I’ve carried around with me for years—is from the novelist
D.H. Lawrence, and it succinctly explains what I feel about this genre: “I am a
man and alive,” he wrote. “For this reason I am a novelist. And, being a
novelist, I consider myself superior to the saint, the scientist, the
philosopher, and the poet, who are all great masters of different bits of man
alive, but never get the whole hog….Only in the novel are all things given full
play.”
All my life, I have tried to avoid specialization, or putting
myself in a single category. I’ve always wanted to see the big picture, and be
part of it. That either makes me a hopeless dilettante—or a novelist. I hope
it’s the latter.
Juanita: Can readers expect any more
psychological thrillers from you in the future?
Terra: I’ve written 7 novels so far—4 of which are
still in my desk drawers awaiting revision! Every single one is different. One
other novel I published, Time’s Fool, is more a historical novel than anything,
and another, The Bliss of Solitude, is a contemporary, realistic piece. I don’t
think anything else I’ve written could be considered a thriller, although all
probe into the human psyche. So, I really can’t say what the future will bring
because I don’t consider myself a genre writer, just a writer. Whatever strikes
me as important, true, and intriguing—that will be what gets me to write again.
Juanita: How can readers find out more
about you and your endeavors?
Terra: My website, www.terraziporyn.com
gives you some idea about my other novels, as well as my nonfiction and
playwriting. There are also links to various reviews and articles that may be
of interest.
Juanita: Terra, thanks for the opportunity
to talk with you today. We have enjoyed hearing more about your book “Do
Not Go Gentle,” and encourage readers to look for a copy at local and online
bookstores. Do you have any last thoughts for your readers today?
Terra: If you enjoy the book (or any of my other novels), please let me know, or, even better, write a review on amazon.com and pass the word on to your friends. Writing is a lonely occupation, and there’s nothing more gratifying to a writer than knowing that she’s reaching someone with her words.
