Koning Cool: An Interview with Author Hans Koning - Page 3

At one time, I believe you were a foreign correspondent, is that right?

A: I was "Reporter-at-Large" for The New Yorker.

Which agency, if any one particular, did you work for? Tell me briefly or in depth, whichever you prefer, where you went, what sorts of things you reported on. It sounds like a dangerous job, but an interesting one. Tell me about that.

A: China, Russia, Egypt, East Germany, Cuba, World War I and II, Mexico, Argentina, a.o. No agency, just directly for the magazines (note: as above question).

Did you ever fear for your life on such assignments?

A: In China and Indonesia I've been in tight spots. But "fear for my life" is too strong.

You've done so much nonfiction and yet you are a prolific fiction writer as well. That's hard to do - most people are good at one, not both. How do you reconcile your fiction with your nonfiction? is there any intersection of the two works - i.e., examples or events that you experienced that you then fictionalize, or is it all purely made up?

A: I hardly see an intersection. The subject of fiction, for me, is the human condition, "love and death". Non-fiction is concerned with human action-reaction in history. But clear writing is clear writing.

That makes me wonder, do you believe that fiction is ever truly made up? Or do you think that all fiction writers tend to draw on their own lives and their own experience and then gussy it up, fictionalize it a bit?

A: Some do, some don’t; a novel "is" a man or a woman, but the "it really happened" label is stupid and assuredly not something that makes a book literature.

Of your own fiction - then apply the last question - is most of it fantasy, made up? or is Hans Koning in there in some ways? I mean, isn't that unavoidable to some extent?

A: Of course I am in there (see above) but this is not something to "avoid." What happens in a novel is secondary. Primary is that the ideas and actions ring true, throw light on la condition humaine.

You've lived in the states for a long time now. Do you go to Europe for part of the year or head home just to touch bas with your roots, or do you live in the states year round?

A: I go to Europe as much as feasible, just to stay sane. Not to Holland necessarily or in the first place.

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