Q&A with Emmanuel Dongala, Author of The Bridgetower Sonata: Sonata Mulattica -- AUTHOR INTERVIEW

AUTHOR INTERVIEW: EMMANUEL DONGALA

Author of The Bridgetower Sonata: Sonata Mulattica (2021, Schaffner Press)

Emmanuel Dongala is a Congolese novelist who fled his native country during the civil war in 1997. He was a professor at Bard College at Simon's Rock until 2014 and still lives in Massachusetts. He is the award-winning author of several novels, the latest of which is based on the true story of George Bridgetower, an 18th Century violin virtuoso and the son of a Black man from the Caribbean. 

Bridgetower was a child prodigy who entertained Parisienne high society then fled to London to avoid the French Revolution and enjoyed the patronage of the Prince of Wales. He later moved to Vienna and became the friend and collaborator of Ludwig Van Beethoven. Dongala's new historical novel brings life to this forgotten story. 

Emmanuel talked with Rose City Reader about George Bridgetower, his new book, and researching historical fiction:  

Who was George Bridgetower?

George Bridgetower was a Black musician – he had a Polish mother and a Black father from Barbados. He befriended the young and upcoming composer Beethoven in Vienna. The latter’s most famous violin sonata known today as the Kreutzer sonata was originally written for Bridgetower.

What drew you to Bridgetower’s story and made you want to write The Bridgetower Sonata, a historical novel about his life?

For me, it was both fascinating and challenging to write about this musician, very famous during his time and yet completely forgotten today.

How much of your novel is based on true, historical events and how much did you have to imagine? In particular, how much do historians know about Bridgetower’s interactions with Beethoven, Thomas Jefferson, Alexandre Dumas, and other real people depicted in your book?

The book is based very much on historical events. Examples: The last concert Jefferson attended in Paris where he was the US ambassador was a concert given by Bridgetower. The falling out between Beethoven and Bridgetower was about a woman, Giuletta Giuccardi. Bridgetower was really adopted by the future king George IV etc. However, all the details, the dialogues, the interactions between the protagonists are of my imagination.

How did you research the historical information and detail found in your book? Did you have access to primary source materials?

I used all sources available. I even found a French magazine of 1789, where was the review of the first concert given by Bridgetower in Paris.

Did Beethoven really dedicate a sonata to Bridgetower before changing it to the Kreutzer Sonata? What is the story there?

Yes, he wrote it for Bridgetower. The original title was Sonata Mulattica, as a joke toward his friend who was what they used to call then “mulatto” a person of “mixed race” as they say today.

Why did you choose to write Bridgetower’s story as historical fiction instead of straight biography?

I am a novelist. [Ed. note: Best answer ever to this question.]

What did you learn from writing your book – either about the subject of the book or the writing process – that most surprised you?

The biggest challenge was how to get out of all the historical material I collected during my research and turn it into a novel.

What is your background? How did it lead you to writing fiction?

I am a scientist, a chemistry professor. I was always an avid reader and this led me to try may hand at writing.

Is your own writing influenced by the authors you read?

I think all writers are influenced by other writers. Not necessarily directly, but all that they absorb here and there by reading.

What is the most valuable advice you’ve been given as an author?

The best advice I can give to a would-be writer is to read a lot, be an avid reader in all categories.

What kind of books do you like to read? What are you reading now?

Right now I’m re-reading The Underground Railway by Colson Whitehead.

THANK YOU, EMMANUEL!

THE BRIDGETOWER SONATA IS AVAILABLE ONLINE IN HARDCOVER AND EBOOK.

Three New History Books -- MAILBOX MONDAY

 

Three New History Books from Pegasus Books

Are you traveling anywhere this summer? 

Now that corona restrictions are easing up, I had hoped to make a few trips to visit family. But it looks like those trips are on hold until after a big trial scheduled to take most of September. I don't mind traveling in the fall though, when the weather is cooler and crowds thinner. 

So it looks like my summer travel will be of the armchair variety. With these three new books from Pegasus Books, I'll travel back in time as well as out of my Pacific Northwest home.

Cheyenne Summer: The Battle of Beecher Island: A History by Terry Mort. The first stop on my history trip will be eastern Colorado during the Indian Wars of the late 1800s. 

Mort's new book (out next week) focusses on one battle, which he describes as not strategically significant but of cultural an historical importance. In 1868, Cheyenne and Sioux warriors fought US Army scouts, including two battalions of Black "Buffalo Soldiers," in the Battle of Beecher Island. Mort uses the battle to write about America's Western frontier and one of the most transformative periods in America's history.

The Florentines: From Dante to Galileo: The Transformation of Western Civilization by Paul Strathern (also out on July 6). Next, I'll travel to Florence, the city that gave birth to the Renaissance.

Strathern offers a masterful history of 400 years of Florentine culture. He explores how the ideas that flourished between the birth of Dante in 1265 and the death of Galileo in 1642 -- ideas expressed in the art and architecture of Florence -- converged as the philosophy of humanism and changed the world.

The Normans: The Conquest of Christendom by Trevor Rowley. This one comes out August 3. I was excited to get an early copy so I can finish my trip backward in time. My last stop is Normandy of the Middle Ages, or more specifically, the early 10th Century to about the middle of the 13th Century.

Trevor Rowley offers a comprehensive history of the Normans in this fascinating little book. The Normans conquered England, Wales, Ireland, and parts of Scotland, and established kingdoms in southern Italy, Sicily, the Holy Land, and North Africa. 

MAILBOX MONDAY

What new books came to your house last week? Join other book lovers on Mailbox Monday to share the books that came into your house last week. Visit the Mailbox Monday website to find links to all the participants' posts and read more about Books that Caught our Eye.

Mailbox Monday is hosted by Serena of Savvy Verse & Wit and Martha of Reviews by Martha's Bookshelf. They are looking for another co-host, so if you are interested, contact them for details.

The Real Hergé: The Inspiration Behind Tintin by Sian Lye -- BOOK REVIEW

 

BOOK REVIEW

The Real Hergé: The Inspiration Behind Tintin by Sian Lye (2020, Pen & Sword Books)

Hergé is the pen name of the famous Belgian cartoonist who brought Tintin to life. His 24 books chronicling The Adventures of Tintin have sold over 250 million copies and been translated into over 110 languages. But George Prosper Remi himself is a complicated figure. While celebrated as a beloved author – Belgium put him on a stamp in 2004 – his life involved a series of scandals, from marital infidelity to accusations of sexism, racism, and anti-Semitism, including possible collaboration with the Nazis during World War Two.

It is easy to hear about these shortcomings and think maybe Hergé should just be written off, his books no longer read. But is that the best course? The Tintin books bring joy. Isn’t it better to wrestle with Hergé’s flaws and see what we can learn from them, rather than deny readers the pleasure of his books? Wrestling with his flaws is just what journalist Sian Lye does in her new biography, The Real Hergé: The Inspiration Behind Tintin. Lye examines Hergé’s life with all the controversies that surround it. She also looks at the personal relationships and experiences that influenced his attitudes and his works.  

Some of these earliest influences were his Catholic mother, who suffered from mental illness, and his involvement in Boy Scouts. Although his time in Scouting was tainted by sexual hazing among the boys and conduct by his Scoutmaster we would consider abusive today, Hergé loved the Scouts. The camping trips appealed to his sense of adventure and gave him an opportunity to travel and explore. This love of adventure inspired his Tintin stories. However, the cruelty of his Scoutmaster made Hergé hate authority and order, feelings he carried with him the rest of his life.

It was through Boy Scouts that Hergé had his first opportunity to publish his work. He began regularly submitting articles and illustrations to Le Boy-Scout, the official publication of the Belgian Catholic Scouts, when he was 15. This led to a job with a Catholic newspaper and, shortly after, his first Tintin book.

Lye’s analysis of Hergé’s life and work leads her to conclude that he was easily influenced by strong personalities around him. Often these “charismatic characters” as she calls them brought out his best work. But sometimes they led Hergé to make bad life and political decisions that haunted him. However, Hergé was willing to reconsider his past views and work. He took criticism to heart, just as he was swayed by other opinions. He often revised his books before they were reprinted.

It is certainly possible to enjoy the Tintin books without knowing Hergé. But they are more interesting after learning about this complex, sometimes frustrating, man. We can learn from him, even if we learn from his mistakes.

The Dive: The Untold Story of the World's Deepest Submarine Rescue by Stephen McGinty - BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

We are heading into a scorcher of a weekend here in Portland. Like all Oregonians (or all Willamette Valley dwelling Oregonians), I complain about the heat as soon as we have more than two days in a row over 80 degrees. So when the temperature is forecast to go 100+ for days on end, I dread it. 

There's no a/c in my house, so my weekend plan involves lying on the floor, trying not to move, with an iced beverage in hand and a box fan blowing on me. A book about undersea rescue might help cook me down.

What are your weekend plans?

In the meantime, please join me for Book Beginnings on Fridays, where participants share the opening sentence (or so) of the book they want to highlight this week. Add the link to your Book Beginning blog or social media post in the Linky box below.

MY BOOK BEGINNING 

From The Dive: The Untold Story of the World's Deepest Submarine Rescue by Stephen McGinty (2021, Pegasus Books):

In the cabin the gentle rock and roll of the ship is as good as a lullaby to Roger Chapman.

-- from the Prologue.

The hook resembles an anchor but with five arms instead of only two, the hands at the ends of the arms resembling shovels in shape. To the hook was connected a thick wire rope, more than five miles long. 

-- from Chapter One.

I included both beginnings because the description in Chapter One really captured my attention more than the first sentence of the prologue -- especially the idea of a wire rope five miles long. 

The Dive is the true story of the race to save two men trapped in a broken submarine on the ocean floor. It's the kind of real-life adventure story that appeals to readers like my husband, who cannot wait to read this book. His favorite books are the ones where explorers have to eat their sled dogs or ships sink -- or both. 

Stephen McGinty is a British journalist and book author. The Dive is his first book published in America. It is the minute-by-minute account of the daring rescue mission to accomplish the deepest rescue in maritime history. It is a nail-biter of a story!

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

If you share on social media, please use the hashtag #bookbeginnings.

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THE FRIDAY 56

Another fun Friday event is The Friday 56. Share a two-sentence teaser from page 56 of your book, or 56% of the way through your e-book or audiobook, on this weekly event hosted by Freda at Freda's Voice.

MY FRIDAY 56

From The Dive:

At 2 pm on 28 June 1774 the Maria was towed out to a spot just off Drake's Island in Plymouth Sound by HMS Orpheus, a navel frigate on whose stern gathered invited guests. Hundreds more members of the public were spread out on the coastline in the hope of witnessing [John] Day sink, then ascend at the appointed hour. 

Describing the early history of submarine experiments, not the 1973 accident and rescue that is the subject of The Dive. 

Blue Desert by Celia Jeffries - BOOK REVIEW

 

BOOK REVIEW

Blue Desert by Celia Jeffries (2021, Rootstock Publishing)

Sixty years after Alice George lived in the Sahara desert with the nomadic Tuarig tribe, she received a telegram telling her that Abu was dead. "Who is Abu?" her husband asks. "My lover," she replies. This is the set up for Blue Desert, the new novel by Celia Jeffries. The story braids the two narratives of Alice's time spent in the Sahara during the years of World War I and 1970s London, during the week she tells her secrets to her husband for the first time.

The story of Alice’s time spent with the Taurig people is particularly fascinating. The Sahara is land mass larger than the continental United States and is seemingly hostile to human life. But this tribe found a way to live in harmony with that environment. Add to that, women were valued and held power within their society in a way that contrasted markedly with the British society Alice had left behind in the early 1900s.

One of the main themes in Blue Desert is how survival and love can be entwined and take many forms. What helped Alice survive in the desert was acceptance—of her situation and of the people she found herself among. What helped Martin survive the WWI was acceptance of the altered state of the world. Finally, what made their marriage work was total acceptance of each other as they were.

If you like historical fiction with a feminist bent, Blue Desert is the book for you.

NOTES

Read my author interview of Celia Jeffries, here.

Learn more about the book Blue Desert and author Celia Jeffries on her website, here.

Watch the YouTube video of the Cambridge Common Writers launch of Blue Desert, here, where you can listen to Celia read from her novel and answer questions about the story and her writing process.