14 MAY 4-10, 2023 westword.com WESTWORD | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | LETTERS | CONTENTS | Full Circle BY TEAGUE BOHLEN Colorado author Juliet Wittman’s new book, Again and Again, describes itself as “taking place in cancerland, a world where no one wants to visit.” True, at least in the fl esh-and- blood world of health and illness, of suffering and triumph. But in the fi ctional realm? In the pages of Wittman’s latest book? It’s a welcome place to put up your feet and stay a while. Wittman, an award-winning former staff writer for Westword who was also its theater critic for decades, as well as a contributor to the Washington Post and other outlets, is no newcomer to the publishing world; her pre- vious book, Stocker’s Kitchen, came out a few years ago. More pertinent to this newest book, though, is her 1993 memoir, Breast Cancer Journal: A Century of Petals, which won the Colorado Book Award and was a fi nalist for the National Book Award. A direct line can be drawn from the experiences recounted in that book to Again and Again, which tells the story of two women and a small crew of others mov- ing through cancer diagnoses and treatments, big causes and small crusades, salvation, love, fear and “the intense joy and vitality that can inform lives lived in the shadow of death,” according to Wittman’s website. “It’s just a very intense period of your life,” Wittman says, speaking of her own cancer diagnosis as well as those experienced by her characters in Again and Again. “Everyone is telling you about all these books about how you can save your life. You just have to be a nice and more creative person. Eat lots of carrots. Meditate. I threw one of those books across the room after about a page.” So she wanted to write something else, a story decidedly different from the ones she found far too tossable. Her fi rst idea was to write something comedic. “A caper,” she says, “in which a bunch of cancer patients do crazy things because what do they have to lose? But unfortunately, I’m not really a comic writer. I always go to the darker side.” She was still trying to fi nd the right angle when she met someone who changed the course of the book. “She was a woman who’d just been diagnosed,” Wittman recalls, “very beautiful, perhaps in her thirties, and the moment I saw her, I recognized the state she was in. It’s this kind of liminal state where you’ve got no protection from the world. That was really when one of my two protagonists came into being.” The inspiration from that chance meet- ing became Again and Again’s Chloe, who departed in some radical ways from the woman Wittman met. “Characters change from their point of origin,” Wittman insists. “Chloe is only 23, a little spoiled, kind of rude, and wild and somewhat narcissistic. She just sort of took over. She’s very strong-willed.” It’s Chloe who takes up the banner of a young boy with leukemia whose insur- ance won’t pay for needed treatments. The story spins out from that point, embracing not only Chloe’s tale, but those of others in the immediate vicinity: their triumphs and tragedies, their fears and hopes. It might be set in cancerland, but it’s not a sad story. “I don’t think it’s dreary or depress- ing,” Wittman says. “Because these people are so full of life. Even the angry and pissy ones.” Wittman embraces all her characters be- cause “all your characters are you,” she says, laughing. “You couldn’t pull that person out of yourself if it wasn’t part of you.” The detail work in most novels is some- thing open to interpretation, of course, and entire dissertations are written attempting to contextualize those things through a certain authorial or cultural lens. But sometimes, as the saying goes, a cigar is just a cigar. Wittman notes that in at least two of her novels, Margaret Atwood, one of her favorite authors, has a character who goes to a party where one of the rooms is painted completely black. “I remember as I read those, I thought there must be some deep meaning there,” Wittman says and laughs. “But later, when I got to interview her, I asked her about that. She said that she’d gone to a party as a gradu- ate student and was very impressed by this black room. That was it. I think bits and pieces like that pop up in the stories we create.” Bringing it full circle, Atwood recently chose Again and Again as one of six medically themed books to spotlight. It’s an honor that Wittman doesn’t take lightly. Being recom- mended by a writer who inspires you? That’s a world anyone would want to visit. Juliet Wittman will read from and discuss Again and Again at 6 p.m. Monday, May 8, at Tattered Cover, 2526 East Colfax Avenue. Learn more at tatteredcover.com. CULTURE KEEP UP ON DENVER ARTS AND CULTURE AT WESTWORD.COM/ARTS
