It is every writer's dream to meet the author of a book that has moved him or her. It is an even dreamier dream to meet the author behind the author of said book. Recently my dream came true when I met "Andrew Westoll", the author of Riverbones: Stumbling After Eden in the Jungles of Suriname. That is, I met the real Andrew Westoll.
Elana Freeman, Toronto performer and writer has been keeping a secret. A very well written secret. Freeman and I meet at her office near Queen St. and Spadina in downtown Toronto for tea and to discuss her new book Riverbones, released in bookstores last week by McClelland & Stewart Ltd. The book tell of a journey to Suriname; "one of the least travelled countries in South America, a little-known land of myth, magic and ecological wonder." It is the story of Andrew Westoll, and aspiring primatologist of 23 years old who spent a year in the jungles of Suriname to study monkeys, then returns years later haunted by its jungles and in need of finding answers to why he is transfixed by such an unknown country. Upon meeting Freeman it is apparent that the jungle is her inspiration, as she answers the door wearing her leopard rimmed glasses, her outfit of choice, she tells me, when working. Her office is laden with tiny plastic jungle animals; zebras, tigers, rhinoceri.
"I've never been to Suriname" Freeman admits. "You know when you were younger and you played that game with the globe, spinning it dizzyingly until you stopped it harshly, thudding your finger down and landing on the country you are supposedly meant to visit when you are older? Well, I still play that game, and a few years ago, my finger landed on this tiny hardly noticeable country just north of Brazil called Suriname. I like the name, and I know there was no chance in hell I would ever go there, so I made stuff up about it." And so this is where Riverbones began, as well as the journey into the secret mind of Elana Freeman.
Reading the book, one would think it is impossible to have created such seemingly well-researched material, fine details of experiences seeming so real, so tangible. "If any of the stuff I wrote turns out to be true, it's a total fluke." says Freeman.
She is so good at creating secrets in fact that she has hired a man by the name of Andrew to take the book on tour for her, even hiring a photographer to shoot Andrew swimming in lake Ontario (subbing in for the waters off the shore of Suriname) to fulfill the need for an author's photo on the book's back cover. "I feel no need to make a big deal out of it. I didn't want to go on tour. I met this guy Andrew in Toronto at a party at the Gladstone. I think his last name was Westin, but I told him if he changed it to Westoll there could be some fame in it for him." Andrew is said to be a budding author all his own. Though he was unavailable for questioning, judging by the website up for the book, it seems he is keeping busy fulfilling the personae of the books author.
What is next for Freeman? Unlike what the website states of the upcoming work about Bolivia, which is in fact an adventure Andrew Westin (aka: Andrew Westoll) will be taking on himself in the near future, Freeman prefers to return to performance, creating an upcoming country soirée to take place in the New Year. When asked what she thinks of Andrew taking on his own book, she notes courteously, "Good luck to him. I don't see why he would actually go all the way out there to write about something, but hey, if that's how he likes to work, so be it."
So it seems this story is not yet over, but it is certain to be an adventure, whether in the real jungles, or the jungles of the mind.
Catherine Mellinger is a freelance reporter for Making Your Day Sporadically (previously Making Your Day Bi-Monthly) currently reporting from Toronto, Canada.
(for more information about Riverbones: Stumbling After Eden in the Jungles of Suriname, visit www.andrewwestoll.com)
No comments:
Post a Comment