Robert Hough, Artsci鈥85, was walking his dog in Toronto when an idea for a novel struck him from nowhere 鈥 or, at least, from deep in his subconscious.
鈥淚 can鈥檛 explain it. I鈥檓 not an anarchist. I have really no interest in politics. And yet, there it was: Why not Emma Goldman?鈥
His muse has a great sense of timing. As he read Goldman鈥檚 autobiography, it struck him how much this revolutionary and writer born in 1869 might speak to the 21st century.
鈥淪he would be a major player in the No Kings movement, and #MeToo. Those were her two things: women鈥檚 issues and the distribution of wealth in America. She would be completely unafraid.鈥
All the same, it wasn鈥檛 the politics of Goldman鈥檚 life story that drew Mr. Hough in, but the psychology, especially her relationship with Alexander Berkman. His novel, Anarchists in Love, follows these two young idealists as they develop into revolutionaries 鈥 and plan the murder of an industrialist who set armed Pinkerton agents against striking workers.
That interest in human behaviour goes back to Mr. Hough鈥檚 time at Queen鈥檚, where he majored in psychology. At Queen鈥檚, he wrote a reg-ular satirical column for The Lictor, a weekly paper published by the Arts and Science Undergraduate Society. Mr. Hough remembers that column as 鈥済ood training鈥 in coming up with something entertaining on deadline.
Mr. Hough became a freelance writer in Toronto and published his first novel, The Final Confession of Mabel Stark, in 2001. His books have been nominated for several awards, including the Trillium Award, the Giller Prize, and the Governor General鈥檚 Award.
His novels often examine historical figures and settings. When it came to Anarchists in Love, Mr. Hough found the real events so compelling (and occasionally outrageous) that he wasn鈥檛 tempted to invent. 鈥淚 promised myself I wouldn鈥檛 change anything in their story. I would make up as little as possible. Luckily, it was all there.鈥 The challenge was to get to know these long-dead revolutionaries, how they walked and talked, so he could bring that naturalism to their portrayal in his novel.
Mr. Hough is now working on a satirical novel 鈥 which, in some ways, goes back to the skills he developed writing that column for The Lictor as a student. In the meantime, he鈥檚 been fascinated by how Anarchists in Love has tapped into readers鈥 frustration at the disparity between billionaires and the rest of us.
鈥淭here鈥檚 something in the air,鈥 he says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 the second Gilded Age we鈥檙e living in. And, in fact, the distribution of wealth today is very similar to what it was during Emma Goldman鈥檚 time.鈥
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