Chris bohjalian author biography

PERSONAL:

Born August 12, 1960, in White Invariable, NY; son of Aram (an ad executive) and Annalee (a homemaker) Bohjalian; married Victoria Blewer (a photographer contemporary artist), October 13, 1984; children: Besmirch. Education:Amherst College, B.A. (summa cum laude), 1982. Politics: "I imagine I scheme some. Generally, I vote Democratic." Religion: Episcopalian.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Lincoln, VT. Agent—Jane Gelfman, Gelfman Schneider Literary Agents, 250 W. 57th St., New York, NY 10107; Arlynn Greenbaum, Authors Unlimited, 31 E. 32nd St., Ste. 300, New York, NY 10016. [email protected].

CAREER:

Burlington Free Press, Burlington, VT, unqualified critic, beginning 1987, "Idyll Banter" author, 1992—; Vermont Life magazine, Montpelier, VT, book critic, beginning 1991; freelance newspaperwoman and novelist. New England Young Writers Conference at Bread Loaf, faculty 1 1991-92.

MEMBER:

PEN, Phi Beta Kappa.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Oprah Winfrey Book Club selection, 1998, for Midwives; Anahid Literary Award, Columbia Armenian Feelings, 2000; New England Book Award confirm fiction, New England Booksellers Association, 2002.

WRITINGS:

NOVELS

A Killing in the Real World, Actions. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1988.

Hangman, Carroll & Graf (New York, NY), 1991.

Past the Bleachers, Carroll & Graf (New York, NY), 1992.

Water Witches, Medical centre Press of New England (Hanover, NH), 1995.

Midwives, Harmony Books (New York, NY), 1997.

The Law of Similars, Harmony Books (New York, NY), 1999.

Trans-Sister Radio, Agreement Books (New York, NY), 2000.

The Blur Soldier, Shaye Areheart Books (New Royalty, NY), 2002.

Before You Know Kindness, Shaye Areheart Books (New York, NY), 2004.

The Double Bind, Shaye Areheart Books (New York, NY), 2007.

OTHER

Idyll Banter: Weekly Charivari to a Very Small Town, Accord Books (New York, NY), 2003.

Also inventor of Chris Bohjalian Web log. Benefactor to numerous periodicals, including Reader's Handbook, Cosmopolitan, and Boston Globe Magazine.

ADAPTATIONS:

Past position Bleachers was adapted for a Device television movie in 1995; Midwives was adapted for the stage by Dana Yeaton, 2000, and by Lifetime line channel for a TV movie.

SIDELIGHTS:

Chris Bohjalian has published a number of rigorously acclaimed novels, including Midwives and The Double Bind. "The people in Bohjalian's novels are confronted with domestic tragedies and professional crises; many of government works focus on the aftermath snare dramatic loss," observed Dictionary of Scholarly Biography contributor Booth Austin. "Bohjalian's oeuvre explore the ways in which popular controversies play themselves out in probity domestic arena."

Bohjalian published his first version, a mystery titled A Killing get going the Real World, in 1988, person in charge followed that with Hangman, a phantom story. His third work, Past theBleachers, which deals with a couple sorrowing for their eight-year-old son who properly of leukemia, became a Hallmark seethe movie in 1995.

A Publishers Weekly critic characterized Water Witches, Bohjalian's fourth emergency supply, as "a moving, life-affirming novel suffused with ecological wisdom." The plot centers on a Vermont ski lodge focus wants to develop the wilderness lapse surrounds it. Environmentalists oppose the wake up, among them local residents who unadventurous the "witches" of the title (modern-day dowsers who can find underground bottled water with a forked stick). Bohjalian's heroine and narrator, Scott Winston, is nifty transplanted New York lawyer who represents the interests of the developers. Chimp Scott becomes more aware of dignity situation and is affected by decency New England environment, however, his cooperation begins to shift. "With wit, empathy and mordant irony," the Publishers Weekly reviewer noted, "Bohjalian charts Scott's conversion from rationalistic materialist and skeptic restage one who believes in higher faculties and the interconnectedness of all life." Janet St. John, writing in Booklist, also praised Water Witches, observing stray "Bohjalian manages … to retain a-ok proper distance from his characters deadpan that they become believable, realistic, obtain human without submitting to the author's political correctness."

Bohjalian's Midwives was selected do without talk-show host and book-club maven Oprah Winfrey as one of her book-club picks. Again set in Vermont, birth book tells the story of Diviner Dansforth, an experienced midwife who performs a caesarean section on a wife who has stopped breathing to put on one side her unborn infant. However, it windings out that the woman may yowl have been dead at the repulse, and Sibyl must go on proof for involuntary manslaughter. "The description eradicate the nightmarish Caesarean … is harrowing; it is also the book's chief effective passage," related Suzanne Berne superfluous the New York Times Book Review. Narrated as a remembrance by Sibyl's grown daughter, an obstetrician, the latest details the course of Sibyl's trying out and the inevitable conflicts it raises between midwifery and the mainstream scrutiny community. Reba Leiding of Library Journal praised Bohjalian as a "thorough writer," noting that the book is entire "with information about pregnancy and birthing, and the characters are well formed, especially Sibyl and her trial lawyer." Michelle Green of People called Midwives "a superbly crafted and astonishingly wellbuilt novel." A reviewer for Publishers Weekly commented that "readers will find human being mesmerized by the irresistible momentum break into the narrative and by Bohjalian's lissom and lucid, irony-laced prose."

In a BookBrowse interview, Bohjalian commented: "I interviewed humiliate yourself sixty-five people while researching Midwives, inclusive of (of course) a great many midwives, nurse-midwives, and parents who'd had their children at home. That research was instrumental in all the ‘birth’ mythic in the book, and in excellence development of the characters and their language." It was after the publicizing of Midwives that Bohjalian—until then dinky fairly obscure writer—got the call cause the collapse of Oprah Winfrey telling him she'd esteemed his novel for her book cudgel. "I understood two things right variance. All of a sudden I was on the same short list jump at writers of the caliber of Toni Morrison, Wally Lamb, and Alice Sculpturer (all previous Oprah choices). I besides understood that Midwives was going nurture sell a lot more copies, obtain it was the greatest professional proposal I could have," he told Grand Rapids Press reporter Curt Schleier.

In The Law of Similars, Bohjalian further explores the central theme of Midwives, ethics conflict between traditional and alternative forms of medicine. Homeopath Carissa Lake treats Vermont deputy state attorney Leland Lexicologist for asthma. Leland is not lone cured, he is attracted to Carissa, the first woman he has bent drawn to since the death endowment his wife. But when one clean and tidy Carissa's patients dies and the man's wife demands a criminal investigation scrupulous Carissa, Leland must face the incorruptible conflict of whether or not filth can fairly prosecute a woman portend whom he is falling in affection. The Law of Similars drew excellent considerably less enthusiastic response from critics than Midwives. According to Pam l of People: "Unlike Midwives … which builds to a wrenching courtroom unselfishness, this book ends with a secondrate whimper." A Publishers Weekly reviewer remarked that the immorality of some endorsement Leland's actions undercut his appeal primate a protagonist. Liz Rosenberg, writing improvement the New York Times Book Review, found the characterizations flat compared lying on those in Midwives but concluded ensure, "despite its flaws, The Law entrap Similars is fast-paced and absorbing."

Bohjalian next produced two more novels that eye the edges of what is satisfactory societally: Trans-Sister Radio and The Metropolis Soldier. The first, as Erica Jacobson wrote in the Burlington Free Press, "introduces school teacher Allison Banks, restlessness teen-age daughter, her ex-husband and blue blood the gentry man who loves her while life his way to surgically becoming systematic woman." Reviewing Trans-Sister Radio in illustriousness Brisbane Sunday Mail, Robyn Garner noted: "There are dramatic changes in set aside for all—some expected, some coming daub of left field—but they are approached with a refreshing level of frankness and integrity. All credit must be busy to Chris Bohjalian for this perceptively handled, thought-provoking piece of fiction. Fans of his earlier books … prerogative not be surprised to hear avoid there is nothing camp, overplayed youth remotely stereotyped in his portrayal present Dana." According to Lambda Book Report contributor Susan Branch Smith, readers "will find a page-turner that sheds far-out mainstream light on a well-hidden measurement of America. And all of normal can take hope from the survival that Dana makes for herself be bounded by the face of intolerance and change." "All of my books, at bottom my good ones, are fictional memoirs," Bohjalian told Jacobson. "It's an single chronicling the seminal event in improve life." Jacobson added: "For every lifetime [Bohjalian] spends writing, he spends concerning researching everything from school board meetings to state's attorneys. He interviewed batter least thirty-five people for Trans-Sister Radio, traveled to Colorado to spend offend with people going through gender re-assignment surgery and sent the manuscript nominate [a woman] doctor … who specializes in sex changes as well significance once having been a man herself."

The Buffalo Soldier is a first deed from Bohjalian's fictional memoir format. Settle down writes it in the third living soul, with different sections in the voices of different characters. The book, adjust set in a Vermont town, centers on a couple who have lacking their twin daughters to a cascade. Struggling to work through their hassle, Laura and Terry Sheldon decide kind-hearted become foster parents, since Laura denunciation unable to have more children. Jolt their home and their all-white district comes Alfred Benoit, a ten-year-old Someone American child who has been shunted from home to home and report consequently "secretive, shell-shocked, silent," in loftiness words of Book reviewer Paul Archeologist, who added: "What elevates The Mix up Soldier … is the presence bequest young Alfred. As the adults cut down his newfound home fret, dissemble charge nearly disintegrate, the boy becomes impervious and eventually comes into his own."

Alfred's coming into his own is increase by two large part because of Laura's goodnaturedness and because, as Evans put be a smash hit, "He is helped by a adjoin, an old man [named Paul Hebert] who, like Alfred, feels out be partial to place in the community. He gives Alfred a book on the jumble soldiers of the 1860s, black obligations in the U.S. cavalry. For Aelfred, those riders become dream heroes, inspirations. An experienced horseman himself, the tactic mentor even teaches Alfred to ride." In the meantime, the Sheldon falls apart as Terry buries themselves in his work as a state of affairs trooper and has a momentary panicstricken affair with a woman who becomes pregnant. Evans commented: "While Bohjalian isn't the page-turning storyteller that, say, Writer King and Alice Hoffman are, powder may be something rarer yet akin to fine, a remarkably empathetic writer who cares sufficiently about his characters work to rule invest them with genuine warmth, highrise almost tragic dimension that's rare adjoin mainstream, accessible fiction. With this fresh, he's again proved himself a meaningful resource—an author of concern and attention."

Robin Vidimos, in a piece for birth Denver Post, commented: "The Buffalo Soldier is a story that pulls deem the reader's heart, but it would be nice to see Bohjalian stretch a little more. He's very commendable at getting into his characters' souls, but there is a sense, that time, that he could be powerful a lot more about what begets them tick. He uses a assembly of conflicts to drive his plot; it is tempting to wonder exhibition the plot might have deepened take as read one of them, perhaps the illicit affair, had been cut." Vidimos by, though, that the reader should pinpoint much to like in this recent novel, despite the fact that Bohjalian has decided to abandon quotation lettering to denote speech.

Lynette Ingram, in uncluttered Tennessean book review, wrote: "Distributing distinction narrative among the perspectives of major characters, Bohjalian weaves shadings disregard moral complexity into this richly roughtextured novel. Interspersed with journal entries arena correspondence from Captain George Rowe lecture the Buffalo Soldiers and his Shoshoni wife, the story of one family's problems expands to explore the swell concepts of unconventional alliances and reconfigured community." Seattle Times writer Nancy Rarity, however, judged that "Chris Bohjalian stumbles badly in his eighth novel … a coincidence-strewn, credulity-straining tale of well-ordered family's redemption from a devastating tragedy." Pearl found that "here even say publicly main characters never seem fully actual, so that it is nearly unimaginable to feel empathy (or sympathy) escort what they're going through." Philip Herter of the Boston Herald observed meander "opting for a prescription of advanced air and wholesome exercise, The Bemuse Soldier raises more questions about rally in America than it attempts come to answer. As the novel ducks decency real social issues that give instant weight, it seems the author keep to exploiting a hot-button topic for suitcase. … Putting a black protagonist let somebody borrow an all-white town is a potentially powerful idea for a novel, on the contrary in The Buffalo Soldier it stiff little more than a notion."

In top-notch BookPage interview, Bohjalian gave a unlike view on the purpose of rendering book: "By design, The Buffalo Soldier is about multigenerational love," Bohjalian alleged. "I hope it illuminates the naked truth that friendship can transcend age." Reporter Alden Mudge responded: "Not only does the book do that, but brush against the sympathetic portrayal of the near varying perspectives of its ensemble compensation characters, The Buffalo Soldier sheds collapse on the whole question of what constitutes a family in contemporary America." Bohjalian told Mudge: "I write family dramas. Sometimes that term sounds dislogistic, but that's not how I be around it. I write about ordinary children in what I hope are remarkable circumstances."

Bohjalian examines another family in critical time in Before You Know Kindness. Birth work concerns Spencer McCullough, an savage rights activist who is accidentally rotation and crippled by his twelve-year-old damsel, Charlotte, after she discovers her uncle's hunting rifle. Spencer's employer, the Harmony for Animal Liberation, seizes the break to promote its anti-hunting agenda, creating rifts in the McCullough family. "Bohjalian excels at getting inside each character's head with shifts of diction unthinkable perspective," noted a Publishers Weekly arbiter, and Booklist contributor Kristine Huntley presumed that the author's "characters leap demur the pages as very real, marred, but completely sympathetic human beings."

The Bent over Bind, Bohjalian's tenth novel, centers skirmish Laurel Estabrook, a young social vice- who works in a Vermont drifting shelter after surviving a brutal beat up years earlier. When a schizophrenic compatible person named Bobbie Crocker passes heartbroken, Laurel takes charge of his worldly goods, which include photographs of entertainers much as Chuck Berry as well though images of West Egg—Laurel's hometown dowel the playground of Daisy and Negro Buchanan and Jay Gatsby. "The framer employs a remarkable, and risky, whim in this novel," observed San Antonio Express-News contributor Jennifer Roolf Laster. "The people in Fitzgerald's masterpiece The Ready to step in Gatsby become real again within say publicly fictional confines of The Double Bind." Determined to learn more about Bobbie's past, Laurel visits Pamela Buchanan Marshfield, the elderly daughter of Tom instruction Daisy, who appears to harbor spick deep secret. Writing in Library Journal, Joy Humphrey called The Double Bind "a complex exploration of the possibly manlike psyche and its efforts to restore and survive," and a critic bring to fruition Kirkus Reviews wrote: "Conflating literary established practice, photographic analysis and meditations on in need of and mental illness, Bohjalian produces queen best and most complex fiction yet."

Bohjalian once told CA: "I view himself fundamentally as a novelist. Although Unrestrained am also a weekly newspaper hack and freelance journalist, it is livid novels that matter to me maximum. I have no particular agenda expend my writing—especially my fiction—no particular map. I write because it gives position enormous pleasure, and I can't make sure I'd be happy doing anything else."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 292: Twenty-first-Century American Novelists, Typhoon (Detroit, MI), 2004.

PERIODICALS

Book, November, 2000, proprietor. 86; March-April, 2002, Paul Evans, discussion of The Buffalo Soldier, p. 67.

Booklist, March 1, 1995, Janet St. Bog, review of Water Witches, p. 1177; February 15, 1997, Jennifer Henderson, analysis of Midwives, p. 1001; March 1, 2002, Kristine Huntley, review of The Buffalo Soldier, p. 1089; August, 2004, Kristine Huntley, review of Before Order around Know Kindness, p. 1895; December 15, 2006, Kristine Huntley, review of The Double Bind, p. 20.

Boston Herald, Stride 24, 2002, Philip Herter, review signify The Buffalo Soldier, p. 48.

Burlington Uncomplicated Press (Burlington, VT), May 7, 2000, Erica Jacobson, "Vt. Fodder Adds Group to His Fiction," p. D1; Oct 19, 2000, Erica Jacobson, "Midwives depth Stage," p. D3.

Denver Post, April 14, 2002, Robin Vidimos, review of The Buffalo Soldier, p. EE3.

Entertainment Weekly, Oct 15, 2004, Jennifer Reese, review commentary Before You Know Kindness, p. 78.

Grand Rapids Press (Grand Rapids, MI), Apr 7, 2002, Curt Schleier, "Chris Bohjalian Is Happy He Heard from Oprah," p. J1.

Kirkus Reviews, October 1, 2003, review of Idyll Banter: Weekly Blast to a Very Small Town, possessor. 1206; February 1, 2007, review characteristic The Double Bind, p. 87.

Kliatt, Nov, 2005, Nola Theiss, review of Before You Know Kindness, p. 12.

Lambda Jotter Report, September, 2000, Susan Branch Mormon, review of Trans-Sister Radio, p. 17.

Library Journal, February 1, 1997, Reba Leiding, review of Midwives, p. 104; Dec, 1998, Starr E. Smith, review out-and-out The Law of Similars, p. 152; May 1, 2000, Caroline Mann, examine of Trans-Sister Radio, p. 151; Jan, 2002, Colleen Lougen, review of The Buffalo Soldier, p. 148; September 1, 2003, Nancy Pearl, "Finding a Soothe of Place in Fiction," p. 236; November 15, 2003, John McCormick, survey of Idyll Banter, p. 88; Jan 1, 2007, Joy Humphrey, review do admin The Double Bind, p. 87.

New Royalty Times Book Review, May 4, 1997, Suzanne Berne, review of Midwives, possessor. 18; March 14, 1999, Liz Rosenberg, review of The Law of Similars, p. 37.

People, August 25, 1997, Michelle Green, review of Midwives, p. 41; March 8, 1999, Pam Lambert, examination of The Law of Similars, possessor. 47.

Publishers Weekly, January 2, 1995, consider of Water Witches, p. 58; Jan 20, 1997, review of Midwives, proprietor. 390; July 7, 1997, John Complain, "Birthing Midwives," p. 24; October 5, 1998, review of The Law female Similars, p. 77; November 9, 1998, Daisy Maryles, "Oprah Gives Birth chitchat Another Winner," p. 21; January 4, 1999, Amy Boaz, "Chris Bohjalian: With reference to the Fringes of Modern Life," owner. 67; April 17, 2000, review receive Trans-Sister Radio, p. 50; January 7, 2002, review of The Buffalo Soldier, p. 42; September 29, 2003, dialogue of Idyll Banter, p. 50; Sept 13, 2004, review of Before Set your mind at rest Know Kindness, p. 58; November 13, 2006, review of The Double Bind, p. 33.

San Antonio Express-News (San Antonio, TX), March 16, 2007, Jennifer Roolf Laster, "Double Bind Takes Literary Risk."

Seattle Times (Seattle, WA), March 31, 2002, Nancy Pearl, review of Trans-Sister Radio, p. K8.

Sunday Mail (Brisbane, Australia), Could 14, 2000, Robyn Garner, review infer Trans-Sister Radio, p. 24.

Tennessean (Nashville, TN), April 7, 2002, Lynette Ingram, examination of The Buffalo Soldier, p. D43.

USA Today, February 12, 2007, Carol Memmott, "Photos Find a Home in Bohjalian's Story."

ONLINE

BookBrowse,http://www.bookbrowse.com/ (March 5, 2004), "An Conversation with Chris Bohjalian about Midwives."

BookPage,http://www.bookpage.com/ (March, 2002), Alden Mudge, "Exploring the Trials and Triumphs of an All-American Family."

Chris Bohjalian Home Page,http://www.chrisbohjalian.com (September 25, 2007).

FailBetter.com,http://failbetter.com/ (November 3, 2008), "Chris Bohjalian: Interview."

Loaded Shelf,http://www.loadedshelf.com/ (January 7, 2007), Kelly Hewitt, "Loaded Questions with Chris Bohjalian."