Author turns mysticism into a family affair
Ideas about Kabbalah simmered long before writing
Vancouver Writers Fest
Sunday | Granville Island
Tickets and info: writersfest.bc.ca
THE MYSTICS OF MILE END
Sigal Samuel is a writer and editor whose writing has appeared in The Daily Beast, The Rumpus, The Forward, Tablet, The Walrus, Event and Plenitude, among other publications. She has written and produced six plays in Montreal, Vancouver and New York. Her debut novel, The Mystics of Mile End, is about a Jewish family infatuated with the mystical. Samuel is originally from Montreal and lives in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Q How did the idea for your (latest) novel begin? And how did that idea evolve as you wrote?
A The Mystics of Mile End tells the story of a dysfunctional family with a dangerous mystical obsession. Since my dad was a professor of Jewish mysticism, I grew up surrounded by the texts and ideas of Kabbalah from a young age. I always knew that I wanted to make use of these rich ideas in a novel, though when I sat down to write it, the book kept changing on me. I ended up rewriting some sections many times over from different perspectives until I found the right family member’s voice to narrate each part.
Q To what extent does your subject or plot reflect parts of your own life story?
A My novel reflects my family’s history, though I didn’t discover that until after I’d finished writing it! At that point I went to visit my grandmother, who’s an Indian Jew. She said, “It’s so funny that you wrote such a book,” and I said, “Why?” and she said, “Didn’t you know that your great-great-grandfather was a famous Kabbalist in Bombay?”
Q What advice could you give to an aspiring writer?
A If you don’t see characters like yourself or your relatives represented in books, don’t assume that means you can’t write about such people. Assume the opposite! Why not write exactly those kinds of people? Instead of aiming for some mythic neutral universal, to borrow a phrase from Zadie Smith, trust that you will get at the universal through the particular.
Q What do you do when you’re not writing?
A I love travelling. My most recent trip was to India, where I went in search of my great-great-grandfather’s lost Kabbalistic secret society. I later wrote about it for the foreword.
Q What’s next on your reading list?
A I’m looking forward to reading Giller Prize nominee If I Fall, If I Die by Michael Christie, whose story collection The Beggar’s Garden amazed me.