New novel combines Vegas glitz, Princess Di legacy
Chris Bohjalian joins a stellar lineup at the Barbara Bush Houston Literacy Foundation’s 30th anniversary of “A Celebration of Reading” on Tuesday.
Bohjalian, the New York Times bestselling author of 24 books, including “The Lioness,” “Midwives” and “The Flight Attendant,” is one of the invited speakers for the foundation’s annual event that supports reading and literacy.
Three of his novels — “Secrets of Eden,” “Midwives” and “Past the Bleachers” were made into movies, and his work has been translated into more than 35 languages.
His latest book is “The Princess of Las Vegas,” which he describes as “a slow-burn thriller about two damaged sisters living in Las Vegas.” One is a Princess Di impersonator.
Bohjalian was intrigued by two things that culminate in the novel. First, he wanted to understand Las Vegas more deeply, describing it as “a fiery meteorite that shoots across the night sky.” Its iconic status in American culture fascinated him; he sees it as a mysterious place of glamour and longing. He noted the observation often repeated about the town, that “if it didn’t exist, it would have to be invented.”
Next, he was curious about why Princess Diana is “still part of the zeitgeist 27 years after her death in a Paris tunnel.” He felt that could be interesting to dramatize.
Bohjalian had the idea of Lady Di as a subject of performance in Las Vegas — and he noted that the only museum dedicated to her is located in Vegas. Princess Diana and the Royals Exhibition, which opened in September 2022, has 10,000 square feet dedicated to her personal artifacts, with “an exact replica of her famous wedding dress.” A character who impersonates seems fitting for this novel’s setting.
The book asks whether two estranged siblings can get along, given all of the damage and scars in their personal histories, he said.
But unlike his previous novels, which lean more toward historical and literary fiction, this one is a thriller.
“Yes, there is a body count,” he said, noting the “level of pyrotech
nics and violence” is upped in “The Princess of Las Vegas.”
His novels “all begin with a vague premise,” Bohjalian said. Here, he was taken with the notion of a Princess Di impersonator thrust into domestic conflict and drama in a Las Vegas casino. The result is a narrative of twists and turns focusing on family secrets, cryptocurrency and organized crime. It also focuses on the odd scenario of having fans for pretending to be someone else who is dead. And there’s a brutal murder of the owner of the Buckingham Palace Casino.
Bohjalian is a fan of Houston and the work of the Bush foundation, noting that “librarians do the work of angels, and they do it because they care deeply about what stories can mean to the soul.”
The current trend of taking library books off of shelves in schools concerns him, and he laments that his novel “Midwives” has recently been removed from some high schools.
The key is to “give kids the right books,” he said. “There are so many perfect books for 6-yearolds and 16-year-olds. Publishing is being supported by young readers who are devouring ‘romantasy.’
“I have been reading since I was a little boy, and writing since second and third grade. I cannot imagine a world without books and stories,” he said.
Bohjalian calls this “the worst of times and the best of times for books,” noting that there has been a “remarkable literary renaissance after the pandemic.”
“Great books were written in quarantine and lockdown, really game-changing books,” he said, likening it to the literary excellence that came after the 1918 influenza epidemic.
He writes in the mornings with a goal of 1,000 words a day; he bikes in the afternoons. Between spring and fall, he bikes 20 to 40 miles a day.
As a novelist, “my superpower is anticipatory grief,” Bohjalian said, as in the notion of “how I love my dog so much, but I don’t miss a waking moment knowing I will outlive him.”
Yet, he is also a fundamentally upbeat human being. His goal is not to write the same book twice.
Another novel, “The Jackal’s Mistress,” will be released in March 2025. It’s a Civil War love story between a Vermonter and a Virginian, continuing his interest in historical fiction. Many of his novels take place in real or fictional settings in Vermont, a place he says helped him discover the issues that were meaningful to him.
“My work succeeds because I am able to tap into the soul’s need for comfort,” he said.
Bohjalian has a clear idea of where he wants the reader to go: “I want them to be so involved with the characters that they put their cellphone on airplane mode.”