Questions and Answers

1. What’s this novel about?
2. Why’d you choose Ann Arbor as the setting for your novel?
3. Did the Weather Underground ever try to blow up the Michigan Law School?
4. What were your personal experiences with 1960s student radicals?
5. Did you participate in any student demonstrations?
6. What were the primary sources for your portraits of aging radicals?
7. What do you find compelling about the histories of Kathleen Soliah and Katherine Ann Power?
8. Is your tabloid reporter David Fisher meant to be a hero?
9. Why is the novel written in short staccato sentences?

Q: WHAT’S THIS NOVEL ABOUT? back

A: A Question of Identity is a comic mystery about David Fisher, a disbarred attorney turned tabloid reporter, who stumbles on a real news story when he uncovers irrefutable evidence that one of four middle-aged women connected with a small Ann Arbor law firm is, in truth, a legendary fugitive radical from the 1960s activist group, the Weather Underground, who’s been wanted on murder charges for 35 years.

Q: WHY’D YOU CHOOSE ANN ARBOR AS THE SETTING FOR THIS NOVEL? back

A: I was born in Ann Arbor, and lived there for 40 years. Also, it was a hotbed of student radical activity in the 1960s.

Q: DID THE WEATHER UNDERGROUND EVER TRY TO BLOW UP THE MICHIGAN LAW SCHOOL? back

A: Not as far as I know. Like all the action (and characters) in the novel, the attack on the Law School in the opening scene is fictional.

Q: WHAT WERE YOUR PERSONAL EXPERIENCES WITH 1960’S STUDENT RADICALS? back

A: I was a teenager in Ann Arbor in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when student unrest peaked. My friends and I rode our bikes to most of the major anti-war and anti-government rallies, the way kids in other towns might ride their bikes to the county fair. We grew up watching violent confrontations between police and demonstrators in the streets and on the university campus as fairly regular events; and more important, we felt the “trickle-down” effect of the oft-repeated radical message: “if you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.” I remember growing up with a vague unfocussed sense of guilt over not being a radical activist myself.

Q: DID YOU PARTICIPATE IN ANY STUDENT DEMONSTRATIONS? back

A: No, although I attended many as a bystander. But by the time I was old enough to be a participant, the central message of the anti-war movement had changed, from its original non-violent focus to advocating violent protest. Personally I couldn’t accept the ends-justifies-the-means argument that the Weather Underground offered in defense of its violence – the argument being that violent protest is the only meaningful way to effect change in a violent society ruled by a violent war-mongering government. But I understand why the radical leaders reached that point – and sadly, in the final analysis I think the violent demonstrations of the 60s and 70s played a greater role in bringing about the end of the war than the non-violent protests did.

Q: WHAT WERE THE PRIMARY SOURCES FOR YOUR PORTRAITS OF AGING RADICALS? back

A: There’s a great DVD you can rent or buy called The Weather Underground, which features fascinating interviews with many of the prominent student leaders, now middle-aged (and middle-class) professors and business owners and bartenders and prisoners and so forth. I also read several non-fiction books and biographies about the student protest movement, with particular focus on Kathleen Soliah and Katherine Ann Power, because their personal histories are so compelling.

Q: WHAT DO YOU FIND COMPELLING ABOUT THE HISTORIES OF KATHLEEN SOLIAH AND KATHERINE ANN POWER? back

A: They’re the two best-known examples of radicals who paid for their crimes by forfeiting their identities and living false lives for decades. When the FBI finally arrested Kathleen Soliah living under a false name in a Minnesota suburb in 2001, she was a soccer-mom holding bake sales at the local church, whose husband and children had no idea of her radical past. There was deep pathos in her reaction to finally being caught – instead of despair, she exhibited huge relief, because even though she knew she was going to prison, she could finally be herself again. The strange, zombie-like life of a fugitive living under an assumed identity is almost like death-in-life. I tried to capture that death-in-life feeling with the portrait of the fugitive radical in A Question of Identity.

Q: IS YOUR TABLOID REPORTER DAVID FISHER MEANT TO BE A HERO? back

A: Well he’s certainly not a role model, given his blithe willingness to commit various crimes and misdemeanors – breaking into law offices and stealing from libraries and violating wiretap laws and impersonating other people – all without much compunction other than minimizing the risk of getting caught. But I did intend David Fisher to be an unsettling portrait of Everyman, because most of us, whether we admit it or not, have similar moral flaws. Look up the statistics on how many adults engage, at some time in their lives, in adultery or shoplifting or minor ‘fibbing’ on tax returns. It’s most of the population. So technically David Fisher may be more of an “anti-hero” than a “hero”, and he may go a little further in pursuit of his story than most people would – breaking-and-entering, after all, is not a crime most of us ever commit – but I did want the reader to identify with Fisher’s engaging personality and with most of the choices he makes, including even some immoral ones.

Q: WHY IS THE NOVEL WRITTEN IN SHORT STACCATO SENTENCES? back

A: The staccato sentences represent David Fisher’s tabloid-driven, ADD-like mentality and approach to life. Always working on deadline, always looking for the quickest way to get a story, Fisher is a man whose job compels him to think and talk fast. So the first-person narration consists primarily of active, punchy, easy-to-read short sentence fragments. Almost all readers tell me that initially they found the writing style unsettling, but after just a few pages they got used to it, and then they found the style enjoyable and a perfect fit for David Fisher’s narration. Also, the short sentences lend themselves to humor – and this novel is supposed to make you laugh out loud at least once every four pages.