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MIKAELA MACKENZIE \/ FREE PRESS<\/p>\n
David Bergen\u2019s new literary thriller, Days of Feasting and Rejoicing, is a psychological study about reinvention.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Feasting follows Esther Maile, an American woman in Thailand with her Canadian friend Christine Case. An incident early in the novel sees Christine drown, with Esther not exactly innocent in the way things play out. After Christine\u2019s death, Esther begins taking over her late friend\u2019s life, all the while making increasingly erratic decisions, while Christine\u2019s friends and family \u2014 and local police \u2014 begin to suspect something is amiss.<\/p>\n
As the circle tightens around Esther, now mainly living as Christine, she makes rash choices, getting in all sorts of trouble, and is nearly nabbed numerous times by authorities before the book\u2019s unsettling but highly satisfying final act.<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t While Bergen\u2019s latest comes on the heels of his 2023 novel Away from the Dead \u2014 a book set in early 20th-century Ukraine \u2014 Feasting\u2019s origins reach back to earlier in the author\u2019s critically acclaimed writing career.<\/p>\n \u201cI wrote this book 15 years ago \u2014 I tried to sell it, and there was no interest in this particular kind of story at that time,\u201d Bergen says. \u201cMaybe the zeitgeist has changed in how people approach this kind of a story.\u201d<\/p>\n Feasting was published on Sept. 2 by Goose Lane Editions, who also published Bergen\u2019s novel Away from the Dead and 2021\u2019s Out of Mind.<\/p>\n Feasting takes a sharp turn away from the world of Bergen\u2019s last novel.<\/p>\n \u201cThe style is very different. I still love Away From the Dead, but some of my ideal readers might think, \u2018Oh, Bergen, what have you done? You\u2019ve gone off, veered off in a completely different direction,\u2019\u201d he says, laughing. \u201cI think that\u2019s OK. I\u2019ve never wanted to repeat myself, and I\u2019ve certainly not done that with this novel.\u201d<\/p>\n In revisiting Feasting, Bergen trimmed the first 35 pages from the initial draft, which dealt with Esther\u2019s past, instead dropping the reader directly into the action.<\/p>\n \u201cI reckoned the back story maybe wasn\u2019t necessary for this particular kind of book,\u201d he says. \u201cI didn\u2019t want to reveal motivation in Esther\u2019s choices \u2014 I just wanted to watch her.\u201d<\/p>\n What didn\u2019t change since those first drafts were the novel\u2019s ending and its title, the latter of which is biblical in origin.<\/p>\n \u201cIt comes out of the (Old Testament) Book of Esther, when (the Jews) kill 15,000 of their enemies and then have days of feasting and rejoicing. The irony, of course, is very important \u2014 I knew immediately it should be the title.\u201d<\/p>\n The book\u2019s title also tips the hat to the many evocative descriptions of food that appear throughout the novel. Bergen has lived in Thailand and visited multiple times, and the smells, spices and appearance of the dishes in Feasting are evocative and plentiful.<\/p>\n \u201cWe cook Thai \u2014 we learned how to cook when we lived there, and we\u2019ve carried that through to our lives here,\u201d he explains. \u201cFlavour is very important, but so is presentation in Thai food. And in tandem with the presentation of food is the presentation of Esther \u2014 how does she present herself to others?\u201d<\/p>\n Despite her shifty nature, Bergen is hesitant to call Esther\u2019s character unreliable.<\/p>\n \u201cI prefer malleability to unreliability\u2026 we\u2019re all unreliable narrators of our own lives. In fiction, that\u2019s even more so.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI prefer malleability to unreliability \u2014 we\u2019re all unreliable narrators of our own lives. In fiction, that\u2019s even more so,\u201d he says. \u201cThe decisions she makes are completely by chance. It\u2019s all contingency\u2026 I\u2019m not sure she\u2019s terribly conscious of the choices she\u2019s making other than in the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n These choices contribute to Esther\u2019s almost being nabbed or discovered numerous times \u2014 sometimes seemingly on purpose.<\/p>\n \u201cI think she wants to pull off something. She wants to trick people, she wants to see if she can succeed at duping people into believing that she\u2019s not actually Esther,\u201d Bergen says. \u201cThere\u2019s a push and pull, times where she almost wants to get caught\u2026 she both wants to be noticed and not be noticed. She wants attention, but doesn\u2019t want the attention. Her life appears to be one of secrets.\u201d<\/p>\n Bergen found the notion of an intimate look at a malleable, troubled character with secrets such as Esther\u2019s to be appealing.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s really a psychological study. I have some empathy for her and if I can convince the reader to to go along with Esther and almost cheer her on \u2014 not in her violence, but in her attempt to escape detection \u2014 then I think I\u2019ve achieved something in making the reader sympathize with who this kind of person is.\u201d<\/p>\n In the end, Feasting was, for Bergen, a chance to explore a character\u2019s quest to become someone else.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not sure all of us go through that, but we imagine other lives. And Esther actually chooses another life and chooses another identity, and she gets to put on that identity and then find out what happens,\u201d he says. \u201cI loved following Esther through her world.\u201d<\/p>\n books@freepress.mb.ca<\/p>\n @bensigurdson<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t Ben Sigurdson Ben Sigurdson is the Free Press\u2018s literary editor and drinks writer. He graduated with a master of arts degree in English from the University of Manitoba in 2005, the same year he began writing Uncorked, the weekly Free Press drinks column. He joined the Free Press full time in 2013 as a copy editor before being appointed literary editor in 2014. Read more about Ben<\/a>.<\/p>\n In addition to providing opinions and analysis on wine and drinks, Ben oversees a team of freelance book reviewers and produces content for the arts and life section, all of which is reviewed by the Free Press\u2019s editing team before being posted online or published in print. It\u2019s part of the Free Press\u2018s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press\u2019s history and mandate<\/a>, and learn how our newsroom operates<\/a>.<\/p>\n
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Literary editor, drinks writer
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