Alex Austin realized that if the waves became too strong when his sons were surfing, he could do nothing to rescue them. The alumnus said this feeling of paternal terror stuck with him and became a theme weaving through his latest book, “Nakamura Reality.”
The thriller novel was completed earlier this year and is dated for publication in February 2016 by the UCLA alumnus and former Daily Bruin contributor. Austin’s body of writing has extended from magazine articles to full-length novels to screenplays and theatrical scripts.
In “Nakamura Reality,” a world-famous author and member of the Japanese “yakuza,” or crime syndicate, seeks vengeance against an American man who marries his daughter. Austin said “Nakamura Reality” is about surrealism versus realism.
He said he drew intimately from his own life and deep appreciation for Japanese culture, which began after one of his sons traveled to Japan to teach English and ended up marrying a Japanese woman.
The Daily Bruin’s Emily McCormick spoke to Austin about the inspiration for his novel, his interest in Japan and experiences working for publications at UCLA.
Daily Bruin: What has your firsthand involvement with Japanese culture been like?
Alex Austin: Well the time I’ve actually spent in Japan is zero. But I learned so much from my son, from his wife, from their relatives when they come over here. A lot of it is research – you dig and you dig and you ask questions. A tremendous amount of research went into the book just trying to get certain things correct in terms of Japanese culture. I read everything I could about Japanese culture and society and history.
DB: What aspect of Japanese culture has interested you the most?
AA: In Japanese culture, there is an indirect communication. You don’t say things directly, but the other person kind of gets it and understands what you’re trying to say. I think there’s an inherent Japanese courtesy and politeness, and it’s part of that. You don’t hit the nail on the head in terms of a conversation or making a point.
DB: How much of your novel would you say is based on your own life and experiences?
AA: “Nakamura Reality” is actually about that question. The idea is that the novelist’s father-in-law is writing a novel, excerpts of which are in “Nakamura Reality.” The person that he’s writing the novel about is essentially the main character in “Nakamura Reality.” He’s writing about his own life – he’s taking that person’s life and fictionalizing it.
So it occurred to me, what he’s doing in the inner novel is exactly what I’m doing in the outer novel – taking my life and people that I know and fictionalizing it. Separating your characters from reality is impossible, and that’s what I’m trying to show with the book.
DB: As a contributor for the Daily Bruin and UCLA’s Westwind, journal of the arts, while you were at UCLA, how do you think those experiences helped inform your career as a writer today?
AA: With the Daily Bruin and Westwind, with those first articles, when you get something published, especially when it’s earlier in your career, it’s the highlight of your life. It sustains you each time you get something printed. No matter how many rejections you got in between, you still feel like you’re making progress, that somebody liked your work and wants to put your words in the paper. You start thinking, maybe I can do this in the long run, maybe I can be a writer.
DB: How do you think “Nakamura Reality” distinguishes itself from your other novels?
AA: My other books were very realistic novels. They were based on realism, strictly on my life as a working-class kid growing up in a blue-collar town in New Jersey.
DB: Do you think “Nakamura Reality” is signaling a shift in your writing in terms of style or subject matter?
AA: Absolutely. I don’t think I can go back to that realistic style. This new style is much more demanding. With the realistic novel, you’re really just working on one level. With a novel like “Nakamura Reality” – with a novel within a novel – you’re writing and revising on so many different levels. It’s much more abstract.
Compiled by Emily McCormick, A&E contributor.