Ready, Set, and...Off to Join the Circus: Deborah Kalb on her new novel
Also! Poet Adrianne Kalfopoulou's new (nonfiction) book, On the Gaze
Sunday morning greetings from Pasadena, CA, where last Saturday we experienced what I’ve since seen referred to as a hurriquake. I felt a small tremor in my study at the same instant my phone grew frantic with another emergency alert. My partner Adam in the next room didn’t feel a thing—he was on the sofa, which is very plump and apparently a good shock absorber.
Hope you all are bearing up, and the week ahead will feature more peace and quiet than upheaval.
Today I’m sharing a guest post by Deborah Kalb, a Washington, D.C.-based writer whom I met via her literary blog, which offers a large buffet of author interviews. She also hosts a podcast (more on this below) and is a former journalist who covered Beltway politics for years.
In July, she published her first novel for adults, Off to Join the Circus, and she kindly consented to doing a self-interview for Bookish.
DK1: What inspired you to write Off to Join the Circus, and how did you create the Pinsky family?
Deborah Kalb: I was thinking about the impact an absence can have on a family. Someone recently mentioned the concept of the "presence of absence" to me, and that's exactly what the backdrop of this book is about. Adele Pinsky ran away at age 16 from her home in West Orange, New Jersey, in 1952, leaving her parents and brother Howie, 11, behind. Howie, bewildered, asked his dad where Adele had gone, and his dad waved his hand in the air. "Off to join the circus, Howie. Off to join the circus." Howie, being 11, believed him. As he got older, he considered other possibilities, but the circus idea remained. And Adele remained absent.
As the novel opens, Howard, now a retired lawyer, is celebrating his 75th birthday with his wife, daughters, and grandsons. He should be having a nice peaceful day. But then, after 64 years, the phone rings. It's Adele, and she wants to come for a visit. The book focuses on how Adele's reappearance affects each member of the family.
DK2: You've described the Pinskys as overly enmeshed. Can you say more about that?
DK: Well, at book readings I've found some people who completely identify with the Pinskys and dispute that characterization! I've also intimated that the Pinskys might have some things in common with my own family, although we are, of course, not the Pinskys. But they are the kind of family where if one person needs to go to a doctor's appointment, the whole family comes along.
The family consists of Howard; his wife, Marilyn, their three daughters, and their two grandsons, and I tell the story from each of their perspectives. They've fallen into the kinds of patterns many families fall into, with each daughter playing a role ("the responsible one" and "the circus one" and "the baby").
Before I go on, let me say something about "circus." The Pinskys use that term as shorthand for someone--like Adele--who conceivably could have joined a circus. A free spirit. A wild child. The middle daughter, Diana, an actor and ghostwriter, is circus. The rest of the family is "not circus"--meaning they would never dream of joining a circus.
DK3. So how was the book's title chosen?
DK: Howie's dad's throwaway remark about Adele's running off to join the circus becomes central to Howie's life--and to the lives of his family members. I think the title also signifies the idea of people who are "circus" or "not circus" and what that means for their lives. I am definitely not circus. Other people I know identify as circus. We've had a lot of fun discussions about this since the book came out! And beyond that, we return to the idea of the presence of absence. The phrase "off to join the circus" could signify that absence, and the deep hole it left in Howard's life. The book has been described as very funny, but also as poignant. There's that layer of sadness running beneath the humor.
DK4. Did you know how the novel would end before you started writing it, or did you make many changes along the way?
DK: I knew what the last scene of the book would be. How I got there was another story. Many things happened along the way that I didn't expect. When Adele decides to come for a visit, and Howard and Marilyn agree to have her stay with them, the family is in the middle of preparing for the younger grandson, Will's, bar mitzvah, and also for the birth of Diana's baby. Drop an infuriating, theatrical, high-heel-wearing octogenarian in the mix and you never know what will happen.
DK5. What are you working on now?
DK: I have various manuscripts that I've been working on and would love to get them published one day. Beyond that I have my book blog, Book Q&As with Deborah Kalb, where I post daily interviews with a wide variety of authors. And I'm pleased to announce that my longtime friend Mary Grace McGeehan and I recently launched a podcast called Rereading Our Childhood, where we reread the books that made us who we are today. One recent favorite was Harriet the Spy.
DK6. Anything else we should know?
DK: I am in several book groups and love talking with book groups about my work! I'd be glad to discuss Off to Join the Circus with your book club, either in person if you're somewhere near the D.C. area or on Zoom.
Creator bio: Deborah Kalb is the author of the novel Off to Join the Circus, her debut novel for adults. She has written fiction for kids and nonfiction for adults, and she’s the host of the blog Book Q&As with Deborah Kalb, where she interviews an eclectic range of authors, and the co-host of the new podcast Rereading Our Childhood. A former longtime D.C.-based journalist covering Congress and politics, she lives in the Washington, D.C. area.
Recommendations!
1. Poet and nonfiction writer Adrianne Kalfopoulous’ new book, On the Gaze: Dubai and Its Cosmpolitanisms (Fulcrum Publishing). Adrianne is such an elegant writer of poetry and prose as well as a gifted teacher. I met her and first read her work when we were both teaching for Regis University’s low-residency MFA program.
2. Novelist, poet, nonfiction writer and publisher Kathleen Rooney (her new novel From Dust to Stardust is out on September 5) will be leading the spring International Writers Retreat in the Himalayas in March 2024—more information here.
3. Middle Men by Jim Gavin. This extremely enjoyable and accomplished story collection was published in 2013, and I’m not sure why it took me so damn long to read it. My favorite story is probably “Bermuda.” I also recently started watching the show Gavin created, Lodge 49, which is streamable on AMC+, set in Long Beach, CA, like many of his stories are.
On my to-read list. And, by the way, I listened to Held and found it very moving.
I am so grateful for this post! Being in rural Australia I don’t always hear about important new books and this one resonates so strongly for me, putting words to an experience I’d never named. The self-interview with DK was also incredibly helpful, and set my writer synapses firing. Thanks to you both.