Do you agree with this statement made by Junior Davis? Why or why not? Do you think it is a sentiment felt by others in novel? What does this say about Junior Davis? He was referring to the Gulf War; do you think this sentiment is applicable to current events in Iraq?
9. Why did Captain Hall make the decision to rescue Ben Narcisse from the Haitian prison? What effect did witnessing the horrible conditions in the Haitian prison and the families gathered at the HIV hospital have on Tory’s final decisions?
10. How do both Junior Davis and Tory individually deal with their HIV infection? What do you think of Tory’s delay in telling anyone of her condition? Was it justified? Does Junior Davis’s mistaken impression that he didn’t infect Tory change him in any way? Why do you think Lorraine chooses to stay with Junior Davis?
11. Why do you think the book is titledVoodoo Lounge ? What does that part of the ship symbolize?
Q & A with Christian Bauman
There’s a great tradition in literature of tragic or doomed love stories set in wartime. What is it about war that affects relationships?
War heightens all emotions. It bares nerves. It’s like a high or a sexual rush; you’ll do heroic or horrible things in wartime you’d never do sober, and wake up afterward unable to remember your motivations. This holds true on or off the battlefield—think occupied Paris in World War II, or lower Manhattan in the weeks immediately following 9/11. In a nationalistic sense war stirs anger and revenge and gives a sense of purpose to those who are otherwise powerless—something that never fails to be exploited by those who want to wage a war. For soldiers and others intimately involved in the war there can be other complex and seemingly contradictory emotions, all of them heightened: desperation, power, fear, strength, hate, desire. Wartime romance is dangerous. And for those with such real knowledge that it could all be gone tomorrow, connecting with another human being is imperative.
Why did you choose to shield the gender of Tory Harris in the novel’s opening?
Voodoo Lounge is a novel of transitions, in the characters and place, as well as in the narrative. The biggest narrative transition is how Tory is slowly revealed through the book, from soldier to human being. It occurred to me that if I was opening with a sketch of a soldier, it would make no difference whether the soldier was male or female. Her gender means very little to her situation at the beginning (although it means everything to her decisions in the end). Once I wrote Tory’s opening description in these terms, it then became important to me to strip overt references to everyone’s gender in the opening, for the sake of equality. We’re all just soldiers going in; who we really are comes out later.
Is there any particular character in this novel that you identify with the most? If so, why?
I didn’t plan this, but Tory and Junior are, I think, the yin and yang extremes of my personality. Not their actions, but their take on the world. Writing them was like pulling apart two halves of a whole to see what’s inside, see what makes it tick.
How much of this novel is based upon your experiences while serving in Haiti?
I witnessed the opening minutes and hours of the Haiti invasion from the bow of the Army shipLSV-1. After the first few days, though, most of my time in-country was passed in relative comfort and safety, under way from port to port on the ship. It gave us a perspective most of the ground soldiers never had. We saw different parts of the country, and were able to freely and casually interact with the Haitians—especially in Jacmel—in a way not allowed to most of the Marines and 10th Mountain Division soldiers. My Haitian experience was an interesting juxtaposition to my deployment to Somalia two years before: We went to Haiti expecting violent urban combat in Port-au-Prince, and at the last minute entered and held the country mostly unopposed. Somalia, on the other hand, we deployed to expecting a non-violent, humanitarian mission. That unraveled rather quickly.
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