This interview is part of a series of interviews conducted by emerging voices in BC publishing in conversation with the authors that excite and inspire them. Here, Jakub Zeleznik speaks with David Spaner about his first novel published in November 2024.
Jakub Zeleznik: Your latest book, and your first work of historical fiction, Keefer Street, published by Ronsdale Press, is undoubtedly an ambitious project. In the span of just three hundred pages, you tackle the Great Depression, a veteran reunion in Spain, and themes of activism, identity, relationships, marriage, family, antisemitism, solidarity and community. I am curious how it all came together. Did it start out this complex or did you add more over time?
David Spaner: The period I’m writing about—the 1930s to the 1980s—was a tumultuous time with so many historic events occurring as well as mass political movements and a wealth of groundbreaking cultural artists. So that time lent itself to a breadth of topics for me. I knew a volunteer for Spain from Strathcona would be in the thick of those times. So I started out with him and the story grew more complex as I wrote, with new characters and other elements added. I can’t imagine writing a novel without unexpected additions over the considerable time it takes to write it.
JZ: How did you manage that time?
DS: I’m very organized and diligent when working on a book. To me, it’s a job and every week a certain number of work days and hours are set aside to do it.
I can’t imagine writing a novel without unexpected additions over the considerable time it takes to write it.
JZ: For me, one of the most interesting aspects of your novel was the depth of the characters, particularly Jake, that volunteer from Strathcona you just mentioned. All of them are morally complex with their own vices and virtues and you’ve clearly taken the time to make sure that even the side characters are well-rounded individuals with nuanced lives of their own. I am wondering where the inspiration for your characters comes from. How did you put together these mosaics of idealisms and cynicisms?
DS: I’ve encountered a lot of people over my lifetime, and Keefer Street and its characters—the incidents, the dialogue, the vices and virtues—are at times inspired in part by actual occurrences and people I’ve known and at other times entirely conjured up in my imagination. Unless the characters, even minor ones, are well-drawn and nuanced, the book is not going to work.
JZ: Keefer Street is not a typical war novel. The bulk of the narrative, written in present tense, is set before and after Jake’s service in the Spanish Civil War. Ultimately, the readers only get a handful of snapshots of the actual war, all told in past tense by veterans and coloured by their unique perceptions of it. Could you talk a bit more about this choice and what you hope readers take away from it?
DS: A relatively short event often defines someone’s lifetime. The Spanish Civil War, for instance, lasted less than three years, but it was the big memory for so many of the volunteers. The importance of one of the storied events of the twentieth century—the Spanish Civil War—in their lives is shown throughout the book. But by also focusing on their lives before and after Spain, they become rounded human beings trying to cope with the present while wrapped up in the past, not only their pasts in Spain but their entire pasts.
JZ: Your previous books, Dreaming in the Rain: How Vancouver Became Hollywood North By Northwest, Shoot It! Hollywood Inc. and the Rising of Independent Film, and Solidarity: Canada’s Unknown Revolution of 1983, have all been works of nonfiction. What inspired you to tackle historical fiction for Keefer Street and what was it like making the switch?
DS: I’ve always loved fiction (and several of my favourite novelists are Canadian!) and wanted to write a novel. My nonfiction in earlier books, magazines, and newspaper features was written in a literary nonfiction style. I told stories about actual events through the life experiences of people who lived them. My focus on character in my nonfiction writing was not far removed from fiction writing, so moving from nonfiction to fiction came pretty naturally.
My focus on character in my nonfiction writing was not far removed from fiction writing, so moving from nonfiction to fiction came pretty naturally.
JZ: Before writing, you used to work as a movie critic. Are there any particular films which had a formative impact on you?
DS: There are many movies that have deeply affected me. I tend to look at them in terms of genres and filmmaking movements. I loved, for instance, the French New Wave movies of Truffaut, Godard and others, because they captured an engaging time and place (France in the 1950s and ’60s) in such an honest, taboo-breaking way. Movies like Breathless and The 400 Blows were a delight to watch. I also loved the tough Warner Brothers movies of the 1930s and ’40s, with actors such as Bogart in movies like Casablanca and Little Caesar. And nothing’s better than the countercultural New Hollywood movies of the 1960s and ’70s (from The Graduate to The Godfather).
JZ: In an interview on the Talking Radical Radio podcast, you said that “[a film] can change one person’s world and also it can contribute to the change in the world.” I’m wondering if you could expand on this. What do you think is the role of fiction in activism and how would you differentiate that role from other genres?
DS: Years ago I was talking with a filmmaker who was an activist in her youth but had become cynical. “A filmmaker isn’t going to change the world,” she said. Afterwards, I thought about that and concluded that a film can, however, change one person’s world. Also, as terrible as the state of things are now, imagine how much worse they’d be without all of the great cinema, novels, music of the past hundred years. Not one of these works was going to change the world, but collectively they’ve changed the way so many millions of people think and feel. And it’s not just the overtly political works of art, but a Leonard Cohen poem or a Margaret Laurence novel or a Lenny Bruce comedy routine that have caused people to think and feel in a bit more of a humanistic way.
JZ: That’s a great way of putting it! I just have one more question: What’s next? Do you have any other major projects in the works?
DS: At work on a book about comedy and a screenplay set in Hollywood of the 1930s and ’40s.
JZ: I’ll have to keep an eye out for them. Thank you!
David Spaner has been a feature writer, movie critic, reporter, and editor for numerous newspapers and magazines. Born in North York, Ontario, and raised in BC, David is a graduate of Simon Fraser University and Langara College. He’s also been a cultural/political organizer (Yippie and manager of the legendary punk band The Subhumans). David is the author of Dreaming in the Rain: How Vancouver Became Hollywood North by Northwest and Shoot It! Hollywood Inc. and the Rising of Independent Film. His most recent nonfiction book, Solidarity: Canada’s Unknown Revolution of 1983, was nominated for the George Ryga Prize for Social Awareness in Literature.
Jakub Železník is an undergraduate student at the University of the Fraser Valley. He lives in British Columbia where he enjoys reading, writing, and taking long walks with his dog, Rozey.