A Conversation with Jerry Levy

As a longtime educator, book reviewer for The Ottawa Review of Books, and fiction contest judge for The Writer’s Union of Canada, Jerry Levy is very familiar with recognized and emerging Canadian fiction writers. He is also a fiction writer himself whose work has appeared in a variety of magazines and anthologies over the past thirty years. Recently, his third collection of stories was published by Guernica Editions, one of Canada’s oldest and most prominent independent publishing houses.

In this exclusive interview with Lowestoft Chronicle, Levy discusses his story collections, his literary influences, and the real-life inspiration behind his intelligent, socially awkward philosophy hack protagonist Karl Pringle, the star of his newest book.

Lowestoft Chronicle (LC): Your newest collection, The Philosopher Stories, published in May, introduces the fascinating, dumpster-diving philosophy hack Karl Pringle, a thirty-something loner ejected from his university’s graduate program for belting his academic mentor, now living a squalid existence. Through twelve exquisitely crafted fictional stories, you peel back the layers of his psyche, offering a lucid, analytical rationale for his deviant, sometimes violent behavior and bleak situation. Where did you get your inspiration for this character? Did reading philosophy books and exploring literature on Übermensch motivate your writing, or did that research occur after you began the book?

Jerry Levy (JL): Many years ago, I was friends with someone who was doing his PhD in Philosophy at the University of Toronto. My friend introduced me to his academic supervisor and the three of us would occasionally lunch at a Hungarian restaurant on Bloor Street, here in Toronto. In those days, dining out was pretty cheap and as I vaguely recall, we would buy a plate of Wiener Schnitzel (or Veal Paprikash) and Dumplings, Chicken Noodle Soup, and Beet Salad. All for something like $5.99. Then you wouldn’t have to eat for the rest of the day! So, the three of us would talk philosophy, although in truth I mostly listened as I wasn’t schooled in the subject like those guys.

But I’m getting a bit off topic. Anyway, this friend of mine mucked about in the PhD program for many years and never finished it. I don’t recall whether he was asked to leave (simply because he had been in the program too long) or whether he simply dropped out. When that happened, he lost his focus, his whole raison d’etre. He fell into a deep depression, his wife left, took the kids. I think he ended up driving a cab, the usual for a philosophy hack.

To be honest, my friend was sort of a misfit, never really fitting in with the mainstream of society. But despite that and the fact he couldn’t quite hack school nor mainstream society, he thought a lot of himself. A lot. That he was brighter than everyone else. And so he became the inspiration for Karl Pringle, someone who similarly thinks a lot of himself and who quite never fits in anywhere…well, except for the Philosophy program. So while that old friend was the inspiration, all the stories come from my own imagination. From plucking the ‘ideas tree’ in my backyard! Where else? Ha!

Even to this day, I’m not particularly well schooled in philosophy. Oh, I’ve taken a couple of courses here and there, and done some reading. But the idea of writing about an Übermensch really came after reading Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishmentwhere the notion of a superior being, a Superman, as it were, is depicted in fictional form.

LC: Although this is your third story collection, you deviate from previous books by maintaining a singular narrator throughout. What made you tell Karl’s story in twelve chronological stories rather than weave these strands together to form a novel?

JL: This is an interesting question because in fact, the linked stories almost read like a novel, don’t they? I guess I could easily have written a novel from the material but the truth of the matter is that I felt that with my background, having published two collections of short stories, that I would be more successful pitching the book to a publisher if I wrote a short story collection. As you no doubt know, getting published by a traditional publisher is so very difficult these days and the material I wrote was so good (at least in my opinion), that I really wanted to get it out there in the world, published, and read by others.

LC: It is, indeed, high quality material, with a fascinating main protagonist. In fact, Ian Thomas Shaw of The Ottawa Review of Books aptly describes him as “innocent, thieving, gentle, nerdy, and explosive.” He’s workshy, conceited, lacking morals and self-control, and a danger to himself and others, yet ultimately, the reader finds themselves rooting for him. Was it a challenge creating an antihero that readers could deem somewhat relatable and appealing? Why did you locate him in Toronto’s Kensington Market district?

JL: I’ll answer the second part of your question first, the Kensington Market angle. For those of you who don’t know, that area in Toronto is, what I call, ‘bohemian-central.’ Here’s an excerpt from the book which talks about the area: “surrounded by vintage clothing stores, fragrant cheese shops, an African hand-drum store, and even the fish market where crabs crawled over each other in aquarium tanks….a cornucopia of diverse humanity, where this century’s newly ordained hippies mingled with Italian grocers and Portuguese sausage makers, and where everyone, no matter how off-beat, fit in perfectly. Even the shabby man who wore a long white robe and proclaimed to be Jesus, was well tolerated.” So that’s it, why Karl lives above a butcher shop in Kensington Market—he’s an outcast of sorts, and the Market tolerates all sorts. So, he fits in perfectly there.

I have this idea that we’re all flawed to some extent, that we all have our foibles and weaknesses. We’re all unsure of ourselves in certain social situations. Most of us don’t go off and live in caves for a time, as Karl does, but we have our own idiosyncrasies. I bring this up because in writing Karl as an “anti-hero,” I wanted to portray him in a light that we can all understand, even commiserate with. After all, he has fallen through the cracks and I would suggest it’s so easy to do so. A lost job, a spouse or child who passes, an illness, debt…so many things can make us spiral downward. And once you’ve hit bottom, it’s hard to survive. Karl in fact is on a downward trajectory because he’s been booted from the PhD program, lives in a squalid apartment, has no money, and so on, but he still wants to make his life matter; he doesn’t want to become invisible. So he tries his best to make that happen. He tries. In every story, he takes a leap of faith but unfortunately, he fails. To that extent, I suspect most people could understand Karl. Perhaps even root for him. He’s not a murderer after all (although he falls pretty deeply toward the end of the book when he beats up prostitutes, perhaps because he’s at his wit’s end, nothing works). Although as I indicated earlier that the inspiration for the book was based on that old philosophy friend of mine, I also modeled Karl on Ignatius J. Reilly, the anti-hero in A Confederacy of Dunces. To sum up, there’s a bit of Karl in all of us and I just tried to bring that to light when I wrote the stories.

LC: Interesting that you cite the influence of the magnificent A Confederacy of Dunces. Karl does have a comparable cunning and rebelliousness, and like Ignatius, his antics are comical and enjoyable. But despite the humorous tone that underlies much of the narrative, you touch on a lot of heavy subjects: suicide, vagrancy, mental health, miscarriage, electroconvulsive therapy, etc. And much like Albert Camus’ The Stranger, there’s a grim inevitability to Karl’s decisions. But there’s a point in the book, beginning with “The Lover,” when his life looks like it’s headed in a positive direction. What made you decide to veer the narrative in a murky direction? And why the open-ended conclusion?

JL: I guess I didn’t want to write a happy ending. When Karl goes to France in an attempt to reconcile with Solange, his ex-girlfriend, I could easily have tied up everything neatly at that point, have them go off into the sunset happily together, to borrow a cliché. And then what? I think that sort of ending would not have been in keeping with the overall heart or theme of the book. What I was trying to achieve by making Karl an anti-hero who just can’t get it right, despite him trying his best. For a brief time, I even considered him returning to school and completing his PhD, becoming a professor…but that didn’t seem right. Yet the open-ending conclusion leaves the door open for him to continue making attempts at righting his life; odds would certainly be against him doing so, but you never know!

LC: Story collections tend to be compilations of previously published work, and in the case of your debut collection, Urban Legend, ten of the fourteen stories originally appeared in journals. Have pieces in The Philosopher Stories appeared elsewhere? And how did you get involved with Guernica Editions, the publisher of this book and your previous collection?

JL: No, never tried to get any of the stories published anywhere, in literary magazines or any journals. As for Guernica Editions, I can tell you that unlike the U.S., there aren’t that many literary publishers here in Canada. Guernica of course is one of them. Moreover, they are well-known for publishing the works of authors both in Canada and abroad. I will suggest they’re probably the most multicultural of all the publishers we have here. Here’s an excerpt from their website:

“In 2017, we launched Guernica World Editions, for authors outside of Canada’s borders. To date, we have published authors from the US, the UK, France, Israel, Dubai, Italy, Switzerland, Japan, and many other countries across the world. Across our imprints and series, our mission remains the same: to expand our worldview in order to narrow the distance between us. ‘No Borders, No Limits.’”

With that in mind, I always thought it would be amazing to be affiliated with them. So, I submitted my second collection of short stories, The Quantum Theory of Love and Madness, to them and it was accepted for publication. The competition is fierce to try and get published, there are certainly no guarantees, and I was fortunate. A bit of luck, a bit of talent. But I’m very grateful to Guernica, that’s for sure. The entire staff is wonderful to work with and Michael Mirolla, the Editor-in-Chief, is incredibly erudite…and a nice guy, to boot!

LC: A recent article in Beach Metro Community News mentions that you serve as a judge for the Writer’s Union of Canada’s annual Short Prose Contest and are a regular contributor of book reviews to The Ottawa Review of Books. But do you submit stories to literary magazines anymore? That article also stated that you began writing thirty years ago, taking creative writing classes as a means to obtain a better work-life balance. When did you actively start writing fiction for publication? What was the first story you had published?

JL: So, I no longer submit stories to literary magazines. I did that for many, many years and had roughly 20 or 25 stories published in them. It was a great way to start and gave me the encouragement that I could in fact publish my work. But now I’m concentrating more on submitting books to publishers.

It’s true that I began taking creative writing courses as a means of achieving a better work-life balance. At the time, I was feeling burnt out from work, a high-stress corporate job. So I went to Paris, basically to following the footsteps of all the writers I had read. I went to the same cafes they did, places like Les Deux Magots and Café de Flore. And to Jardin du Luxembourg because I recalled that Victor Hugo highlighted it in Les Miserables. Also, I had read that it was a favorite spot of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas. Then I went to the iconic Shakespeare and Company where I stayed and got to know the then-owner George Whitman. We had a number of conversations and he encouraged me to try my hand at writing. So, when I came back to Toronto, I started taking all these creative writing courses and indeed, I developed a better work-life balance.

As for my very first story, it was published in Acta Victoriana, the University of Toronto’s literary magazine, where Margaret Atwood published. The story was called “In Africa She Lay Down To Sleep With The Lions” …. a rather long and unique title!

LC: Will you remain focused on short fiction and reviews, or do you have ambitions to write a novel someday? Are there book or literary projects you’re currently working on?

JL: I have yet another short story collection that I’ve submitted around. It’s called Tea with Giacometti and other stories. Twelve stories and like The Philosopher Stories, they are linked. And I do have a novel that is just about finished.