Driven to continue
Lawyer Noel Obiora’s circuitous path to his first novel spans continents and decades
Noel Obiora is senior legal counsel for the California Public Utilities Commission, where he has spent nearly two decades deciphering and analyzing all the legal aspects of the regulatory process for the commission. Before that, Obiora had his own private practice in Los Angeles, and way before that, Obiora, 55, was a shy kid in Nigeria who dreamed of becoming a writer.
Now, finally, Obiora has fulfilled that dream with the publication of his legal mystery, “A Past That Breathes” (Rare Bird Books, $26), set in 1990s-era Los Angeles, a place he got to know well — “I was my own messenger service and ran all my own errands”— in his 10 years there. (He now lives in Benicia in Solano County.)
Obiora, who cites “To Kill a Mockingbird” and “Bleak House” as influences, started writing the book some time ago but went to London to study drama. “I wrote my thesis play, then came back and wrote another play,” he says, adding that he has always written late at night after work or on the weekends. “But every time I’d open the drawer, I’d say, ‘I really like this story.’ I workshopped it in 2009 and then didn’t do anything for a long time before I finally came back and finished it.”
Obiora spoke recently via video about his circuitous path to becoming a novelist and how being Black but not American shaped him as a person, attorney and writer. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Q What brought you to America from Nigeria?
A
I came for college. My sisters had been in school here and would come and go back. I was going to go back after school, but soon after I arrived there was a coup in Nigeria, and then another, and it just kept going.
Q
What was the culture shock like adjusting to America?
A
Everything was just bigger, shinier, faster. The proportions were just different and the possibilities too. Coming from a Third World country where the little you have has to be managed, you come here and the possibilities seem endless.
Q Did you want to be a writer or a lawyer first?
A
By the age of 11, I wanted to be a writer. I was an introvert, the kid who stayed by himself and read a lot. My aunt was Flora Nwapa, so knowing someone who was successful at it added motivation. In high school for our
drama club, our library didn’t have enough plays so I started writing plays for us to do and then I tried writing stories.
QSo
how did you become a lawyer?
A
To be able to maintain my status in America, I had to stay in school, so after college I went to law school. I came to law by process of elimination.
First I tried engineering, but I couldn’t sit still in math class. Then I studied economics but after graduate school in economics, you become a consultant or go get a Ph.D. and teach. Someone said, you have to find a job to make money so you can afford to write. My dad was a lawyer so I defaulted to law.
QHow
did you end up in Los Angeles?
A
Young man, go west.
Connecticut was the first time I saw snow, and before I adapted to it, I thought: California’s the place to be. And I wrote a film script when I first came here. Then “L.A. Law” happened and that became the thing that made me come to Los Angeles. I think I might have published a book sooner if I’d gone to New York where my sister lived and I had support, but “L.A. Law” really tempted me to come out here.
Q
Your book is packed with plot and characters. Did you write a detailed outline to keep it all straight?
A
I’m not very good at writing with outlines. When you get an idea, the outline looks like it’s telling you to wait. Only when the passion is not driving you as intensely is when you stop and say, ”Where are we going next?”
I can’t tell you how many people have said, “Stick to your day job.” But then I’d put it away and later I’d read it again and say, “This is good. English is not my first language so someone can edit out all the other stuff.”
I really didn’t care about the size of this book as long as it said what I wanted it to say. But all the editors said, “You must be crazy if you think someone’s going to read a debut novelist who writes 1,500 pages.”
I was ready for it to not be published because I wanted it to be something I liked, but I did cut a lot of the backstory of the characters.
Q
How did being Black but not American shape your perspective on race, as a person, an attorney and a writer?
A
The public education system in Nigeria did not educate us about America’s racial history even though we came from a colonial system. When you come here, you see the White political stereotype messages about Blacks, but if you come on an interim basis because you are just going to school, there’s a tendency — which is partially denial — to feel it’s not about you.
The inconveniences that racism becomes are a trade-off for the benefits you get from going to school here. You don’t internalize the racism and brush it off. But the longer you are here and the more you educate yourself the more you understand.
And when you realize you are staying here, you feel what it’s like to live with racism and systemic oppression. You’re no longer passing through it.
The legal system opened my eyes — watching the courts work is very difficult to stomach. I set out to write the novel about my frustrations with the system. In shows and movies and books about the legal system, you can always tell the good and the bad guy, but that’s not what I found.
I didn’t set out to write a novel about racial or social injustice but in this system, you can’t write a book about the issues without reflecting that.