Christal Cooper – 1,425 Words
LEONARD CHANG
the storyteller, the memoirist,
the storyteller, the memoirist,
and the philosopher
www.leonardchang.com
www.leonardchang.com
THE FRUIT ‘N FOOD
For
six months Tom lay in a hospital bed, blind, in a coma, though he didn’t know
that – all he knew was that he sometimes heard voices around him, wavering,
echoing away, and he couldn’t see, couldn’t speak.
Copyright by Leonard Chang
DISPATCHES FROM THE COLD
Everything
I learned about Farrel Gorden I learned from reading his letters, and although
I knew reading someone else’s mail was illegal . . .The letters helped distract
me from my problems. . . Copyright by Leonard Chang
OVER THE SHOULDER
I
glance at the tape recorder. She sighs
and shuts it off. “Okay, you want to
start off the record? I’m just trying to
do my job, Mr. Choice.”
“My
job requires that I stay quiet. I’m not
supposed to be noticed.”
Copyright by Leonard Chang
UNDERKILL
This
is a story about Linda as much as it is about me, about the disturbing events
we would witness together and separately, about what happened after she visited
her mother and stepfather in Los Angeles.
Copyright by Leonard Chang
FADE TO CLEAR
Allen lives off Clement Street, around the
corner from the New May Wah Supermarket and near Green Apple Books, where he
has been buying used, well-worn, and student highlighted copies of Kierkegaard
and introduction to philosophy texts.
Copyright by Leonard Chang
Los Angeles, California based writer
and Korean-American Leonard Won Chul “the pinnacle of wisdom or philosophy” Chang,
along with his older brother and younger sister, was raised in Long Island, New
York by his parents, Korean immigrants.
Chang was a quiet, shy, imaginative
child living in an environment that could be described as tumultuous. By the age of seven, he found escape by
reading voraciously outside his apartment building or at the Merrick
Library.
“I used to read everywhere but I liked reading outside, even if it was
cold. Huddling with my parka on, my hood
over my head, my gloved hands cradling the book, I felt as if I was burrowed
with the characters I was reading. Maybe
on some level the book was warming me up.”
Upon entrance to Dartmouth College,
he chose to study Philosophy instead of writing. “I
wanted to study philosophy because I’ve always had questions about God,
religion, the purpose of our lives, and all those other big questions, but no
real avenues or opportunities to explore them.
I found that studying Philosophy was just a different way to approach
the same questions I had in fiction writing.”
After two years Chang found himself
stressed and unhappy. “I needed to get away from school, from
taking classes I wasn’t very interested in, from my peers who seemed not to
have similar goals and ambitions. I
wanted to focus on my writing, which I wasn’t at the time.”
Chang chose to
enter the Peace Corps and moved to Kingston, Jamaica where he worked on the
computers, automated the database systems, and managed the head office
library.
He also focused on his writing – by
reading at least one novel per day and writing short stories, which was both
cathartic and moving. “I realized I had
actually composed something that seemed to work.” Two of those short stories, “Clay Hats” and
“Collect Call” were published.
He also traveled to his parent’s
homeland, Seoul, Korea, to learn the language and culture. “This
affected me as a writer insofar as I felt completely alienated and isolated in
Korea, that despite my ancestry Koreans viewed me as some oddity. I did find kinship, friendship and fellowship
with other Korean Americans. I knew that
I wanted to write about the Korean American experience as we knew it.”
After one year at Kingston he returned to the
states with a new zest for writing, but he chose to pursue his philosophy
degree.
“Most writers advise aspiring writers not to major in English because
you approach texts as a critic, not as an author. I found this to be
true.”
After graduating with honors from
Harvard University, Chang moved to California to attend the University of
California Irving’s MFA Creative Writing Program, where he made a habit of
reading two to five novels per week.
The two novels that influenced Chang
the most were The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and The
Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway, which he reads at least once a
year.
“The Great Gatsby is
wonderfully unified and tightly-written novel, and is a constant reminder of
how a novel can be a piece of art.
Hemingway is rougher and cruder, and the power of his writing comes from
concision, repetition and ambiguity.”
Since then Chang has written five
novels, each exploring authentic Korean-American characters: Thomas Pak and the Rhee Family in The
Fruit ‘N Food are hard working Korean Americans who focus all of their
dreams on the family grocery story, only to have the end come to devastating
results;
Caucasian Farell Gorden’s journey
from dissatisfaction to anger and violence against his Korean-American boss and
his anonymous Korean American letter reader is explored in Dispatches From The Cold;
and then, perhaps, Chang’s greatest
character come to reality, Allen Choice, is born in Over The Shoulder, and
continues to fascinate readers in Underkill, and Fade To Clear.
Allen Choice, an isolationist Korean
American who loves to read philosophy on one hand and carry a gun in the other,
is a private detective in each of the novels – which explores not only the
authentic life of the detective, but that of Allen Choice, his relationships,
and search for meaning.
Two of Chang’s books have been
adapted for movies - Dispatches From The Cold has been
adapted by Canary Films, and actor Daniel Dae Kim, a Korean American who is
scheduled to play Allen Choice, has optioned Over The Shoulder.
In response to questions about the movies being
faithful to his books and his readers’ expectations, Chang said, “I hope my readers will view any movies
based on my novels not as a representation of my work, but as an interpretation
or re-invention. If they are
disappointed then I hope they return to the novel.”
The people in
Chang’s novels and short stories are not characters but real living human
beings whom Chang describe as being “sometimes
more real than the person standing next to me.” The process of creating these
real-life-characters takes responsibility, discipline, and skill, which Chang
takes seriously.
“I want to be truthful as I can in rendering characters and stories. I like to try to have the reader come away
with something useful, whether it’s knowledge or understanding or simply a
greater appreciation of my characters.”
Chang’s goal is
to write one piece of work in which all three aspects of writers are
displayed – the storyteller, the
memoirist, and the philosopher. To
Chang, having these three aspects as well as characters that are “well-written, well rendered, vivid, and
dictate the plot” is the ultimate literary novel.
Chang does most of his creating in his
home office. “It is a small room with huge windows where I get morning light. I have a view of buildings, pine trees, and a
lake. It’s messy but comfortable, with
papers and books strewn on the floor.”
Here Chang writes at first dawn on
the computer, usually with a cup of green tea.
He is known as a perfectionist and can write dozens of drafts before he
is satisfied. He rewrites some of the
drafts at the local café and then edits them with pen and paper, and, after the
best draft is chosen, the others are thrown away. Others might think this is tiresome and self
defeating work, to Chang it is the joy of being a writer.
“I’ve never had writer’s block.
I’ve had slow days and frustrating days, but I just keep chipping
away. Writing is just a blessing; never
a curse. I can’t think of anything
better except maybe being in love.”
Or except his love for rock climbing,
which Chang’s brother introduced him to about four years ago. “I
spend most of my free time rock climbing.
Rock climbing is both intellectual and physical. Writers ought to have lives outside of
writing, because quite simply, they need something to feed the art.”
Chang is presently working on the
screenplay for Over The Shoulder, short stories, a novel about a young married
couple, and future plans for more Allen Choice novels. He also writes screenplays for television
including NBC’s Awake and FX’s Justified.
PHOTO DESCRIPTION AND COPYRIGHT INFO
Photo 1
Leonard Chang and his mother Umee
Chang Pepe. Copyright by Leonard Change.
Photo 2
Welcome sign on Merrick
Avenue. Public Domain.
Photo 3
Leonard Chang’s high school
graduation picture. Copyright by Leonard
Chang.
Photo 4
Seal of Dartmouth College (www.dartmouth.edu). Fair Use Under the United States Copyright
Law.
Photo 5, 20, 21, 23
Leonard Chang. Copyright by Leonard Chang.
Photo 6
Leonard Chang volunteering
for the Los Angeles Community Beautification Grant Program. Copyright by Leonard Chang.
Photo 7. 19, 22
Leonard Chang in his office. Copyright by Leonard Chang.
Photo 8
Seoul Panorama from
Namhonsanseors. CCA3.0 Unported License.
Photo 9
Leonard Chang attending a
workshop at the University of California in Irving. Copyright by Leonard Chang.
Phot 10
Jacket cover of The
Great Gatsby
Photo 11
Jacket cover of The
Sun Also Rises
Photo 12
Ernest Hemmingway in 1939 in
his Sun Valley, Idaho home. Attributed
to Lloyd Arnold. Public Domain.
Photo 13
Jacket cover of The
Fruit N Food
Photo 14
Jacket cover of Dispatches
From The Cold
Photo 15
Jacket cover of Over
The Shoulder
Photo 16
Jacket cover of Underkill
Photo 17
Jacket cover of Fade
To Clear
Photo 18
Daniel Dae Dkim singing autographs
at the Hawaii International Film Festival on February 28, 2007. Attributed to Crissy Terawaki Kawamoto. GNUFD License Version 1.2 and CCA-SA 3.0
Unported.
Photo 24, 25
Leonard Chang rock
climbing. Copyright by Leonard Chang.
