EAST JESUS
by
Chris Manno
Genre: Contemporary Literary Fiction
Publisher: White Bird Publications
Date of Publication: March 8, 2016
Number of Pages: 314
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In the summer of 1969, a small town in west Texas prepares to send one of their finest young men off to fight a faraway, controversial war. A parallel battle of domestic violence erupts at home as a younger generation struggles to reconcile older notions of right and wrong and even fractured family ties with the inevitable price that the fighting demands.
There's more. "East Jesus," said one editor, "is a message of hope for our children." Too often, teenagers who've survived a young lifetime of domestic violence believe "this is the hell I was born into, this is the hell I must accept for life." East Jesus turns that notion on its ear: though there's a price to pay, there's a better way that rises above the violence.
The novel is peopled by strong characters, particularly women, in a salt-of-the-earth, small town, west Texas community. The price of a far away, unpopular war always comes due in small town America, then (set in 1969) as well as now (Iraq and Afghanistan). But the lesson of hope, sacrifice and redemption is timeless.
To read East Jesus is to live that story, to transcend the fighting at home and abroad, and to embrace the hope and faith in what's right above all else.
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How has being a Texan
influenced your writing?
Some of the best writing comes from real experience, which
is a practical restatement of the old saw “write what you know.” I know west
Texas in particular and Texas in general. Texas is a wide-ranging palette of
colors and geography. I think Texas is the perfect setting for a
character-driven novel like East Jesus
and in fact several readers have cited the setting as an additional character
that lives, breathes, grows and changes. That to me is vital for a story that
readers don’t just “read,” but in a visceral sense, they live.
Are you a full-time
or part-time writer? How does that
affect your writing?
Part time. I teach university English classes part time as
well; the rest is spent in the cockpit of a Boeing 737 as an American Airlines
captain. That pays the bills.
Why did you choose to
write in your particular field or genre?
I’ve studied writing my whole life, from my undergrad degree
in English to my doctorate from Texas Christian University in rhetoric and
literature. Most of my academic research has been in the area of literary
theory and criticism and I teach a university writing class today. For that
reason, aesthetic fiction in the creation as well as the interpretation has
been a natural core for my writing. I admire short fiction the most because I
see short fiction as the bridge between poetry and aesthetic narrative. I’ve
written and published short fiction, but I’d always planned a longer aesthetic
narrative that captures the best intensity of shorter prose. That’s what has
driven East Jesus from concept to
publication.
Where did your love
of books/storytelling/reading/writing/etc. come from?
Even as a kid I read voraciously and all through grade
school and high school, writing and reading came easily and naturally to me. I
decided in college that I needed to major in math so as to be competitive as an
Air Force officer striving to get one of the very few pilot slots granted to
the very competitive group vying for the assignment. After I flunked college
calculus the second time, I came to my senses and declared an English major. I
did get into USAF flight school and became an Air Force pilot for seven years.
I often think my English degree helped: the Air Force needed engineers and
technical major grads, but had no idea what to do with a newly commissioned
English major. I think the arrangement worked out just fine.
What kind(s) of
writing do you do?
I publish a lot of non-fiction in periodicals such as
Mashable.com, Conde-Nast Traveler and
Airways Magazine. I also do a regular
amount of research and academic writing in my specialty, which is
pre-Raphaelite aesthetic criticism. Of course, I’m always working on short
stories and have another novel in the works.
What did you find
most useful in learning to write? What
was least useful or most destructive?
Reading most useful; proscriptive “teaching”—which I try to
avoid—the most destructive.
What was the hardest
part of writing this book?
The characters become real for readers, and so much the more
so for me. So the losses that come with an authentic life story are hard to
bear, much less write, for lovable characters. But to be a real story, rather
than a fairy tale, you have to stand by as a writer, just a parent must, and
watch your beloved bear the vicissitudes of life and humanity. As a writer, I
find that both difficult and essential.
Chris Manno matriculated from Springfield, Virginia and graduated from VMI in 1977 with a degree in English. He was commissioned in the Air Force and after completing flight training, spent seven years as a squadron pilot in the Pacific at Kadena Air Base, Okinawa and Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii. He was hired by American Airlines as a pilot in 1985 and was promoted to captain in 1991. He flies today as a Boeing 737 captain on routes all over North America and the Caribbean. He earned a doctorate in residence at Texas Christian University and currently teaches writing at Texas Wesleyan University in addition to flying a full schedule at American Airlines. He lives in Fort Worth.
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Each winner gets an author signed copy of East Jesus PLUS
a free download of Chris's cartoon book #RudeLateNightCartoons
(US ONLY)
May 10 - May 19, 2016
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