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Nov. 30, 2007
Young readers, real topics
Carol Matas makes existential and everyday issues entertaining.
CYNTHIA RAMSAY
Curiosity may have killed the proverbial cat, but for author Carol Matas, it's a main ingredient in her writing. From 16th-century France to Nazi Germany to modern-day Winnipeg, from the everyday problems of a teenager to the supernatural, Matas covers it all – and more – in the 35-plus books she has written for children and young adults.
A few of Matas' particularly popular novels have been reissued this year, including 1997's The Freak. Publisher Key Porter Books has also just released the sequel, called Visions – written by Matas 10 years after The Freak, but picking up the story right where it left off.
Matas told the Independent that the plan had always been to do at least a trilogy centred on the character of Jade, who dies, but is resuscitated and survives a bout of meningitis, only to find that she developed psychic powers from the experience. The powers, while ultimately helpful in making the world a safer place for Jade, her family and her friends, make her somewhat of a "freak" to herself and to others. No doubt, there are many teenagers who can relate to those feelings that result from not conforming to the "norm."
"I've had a wonderful response to The Freak and Visions from young people so far," said Matas, "and am thrilled that they are so into what I would call an existential mystery, dealing with the big issues of life, afterlife, faith, fate and free will. I'm already getting e-mails asking when the third in the series will be out – it'll be published in the fall of 2008 and will be called Far."
Matas noted that Key Porter Books has also recently published another of her stories. Past Crimes deals with "large issues in a supernatural way, but is for an older audience, adults and older teens. It's about a Jewish 19-year-old single mom, whose husband has just been murdered. She's living in Palm Springs and is having dreams, which take place during the Spanish Inquisition and the persecution of the Jews then."
As well, Orca Books has recently re-released Matas' The Burning Time, in which 16th-century witch hunts form the plot's foundation. This was a topic that Matas said she knew nothing about until one of her friends (to whom The Burning Time is dedicated) was doing a series of paintings based on the subject. Matas was interested and followed up with the research and wrote the story of Rose, whose father dies in a tragic accident and whose mother, a midwife, is pursued, tortured and tried as a witch.
Some of Matas' first books were science fiction and now she's writing a series about ghosts with her friend, Perry Nodelman. The varied stories mean that no one publishing company will publish all of her books, she said.
Matas attributed her range to the fact that her father was a lawyer and a judge and her house was very political. From an early age, she said, she read a lot – she was one of those kids who stayed up late at night, reading under her covers with the aid of a flashlight. In her childhood home, she explained, there was no such thing as bad literature. She was reading War and Peace, as well as her father's Mad magazines, and she raised her kids on a similar breadth of reading material.
But while there are many issues that Matas touches upon in each of her books, she said she sets out to only examine one or two themes. The other material – comments on the health system, sex, psychiatry and prescription medication in The Freak, for example – is just everyday stuff that enters the telling of the story.
"When I begin a book like The Freak or Visions, I have one theme in mind that I am really interested in exploring," she said. "It's always a question that I don't have the answer to, but something that is currently fascinating me.
"With The Freak, I am looking into the relationship between fate and free will. I have had what could be called psychic experiences, where I exactly predict an outcome, and I've been to psychics who have told me exact things. But how can that be? Don't we have free will? Don't our choices matter? What do the various religions say on the matter, what do the philosophers say? These are the questions I pose in my books, as Jade, the central character tries to come to terms with her psychic abilities.
"The books can be read as simple mysteries or as something deeper to delve into," concluded Matas. "As for other 'issues' in the books, really that is the result of a bright central character who is always observing the world around her. Often adults are surprised that there is so much to discuss in my books, but I've never had that reaction from young readers. They are simply interested in what's there."
Perhaps this is why Matas doesn't shy away from difficult issues or disturbing imagery in her writing. Other authors targeting younger readers might find that a risky approach, but Matas doesn't.
"I would consider it a risk if I didn't write honestly about my subject matter," she said. "Once I've taken on a topic and a story, the only way to do it is with absolute honesty and if that turns out to be harsh or depicts cruelty, as in The Burning Time or The Whirlwind – a book about a refugee from Nazi Germany who questions God and the meaning of life – then that is as it must be for the character and the story to be true.
"In The Whirlwind, the central character and his father translate the Book of Job, a very troubling book that raises all sorts of questions, but gives the novel a philosophical foundation on which to rest."
Research for her books can take anywhere from a few months to a few years, Matas explains on her website (www.carolmatas.com). If possible, she talks to people. She reads history books, memoirs and diaries, and also tries to view videos, movies or photographs.
Matas said that researching Daniel's Story, which was published by Scholastic Inc., in conjunction with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, changed her life. Before that, she explained, she could easily believe that God didn't exist, given that the Holocaust happened. She said she became a much more spiritual person in the process of writing that book, in a way she hadn't thought possible – even though she grew up in a household where Judaism was very important.
"My father, Roy, and my mother, Ruth, were ardent Zionists," she said. "My dad was a proud Jew who was always naming the accomplishments of Jewish people. My parents weren't very religious and neither am I in the traditional sense, but I do have a sense of the spiritual that's very important to me."
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