The Costco Connection

AUGUST 2014 ;e Costco Connection 65

By Stephanie E. Ponder

SIMON VAN BOOY is not the first person to examine the nature of man’s connection to or perceived isolation from others. But his novel The Illusion of Separateness, this month’s Book Buyer’s Pick, offers a fresh look with spare and beautiful prose.

The idea that all humans are connected was just part of the inspiration for the novel, which spans more than seven decades and two continents and weaves together the stories of six characters who have no idea how intertwined their lives really are.

For Van Booy, who grew up in rural Wales and now lives in Brooklyn with his wife and daughter, two of the characters came to life after hearing stories told by his wife’s grandmother, Annette Knapp. During World War II her new husband, Bert, was in a B- 24 Liberator that was shot down over France. He survived through the kindnesses of locals.

Around the same time Van Booy heard those stories, he began to mull a variety of philosophical questions. For example, giving thought to who a blind person would be attracted to at a dinner party—likely the kindest or funniest person versus the most attractive—planted the seed for the book’s blind museum curator. A meditation on physicality and reality left him thinking about his daughter, Madeline, and how who he knows her to be is based on her physical self, not her less tangible, yet more defining, consciousness.

“So I wondered … if you can’t see something physically or touch it, does it mean it’s not there, and of course it’s just not true,” Van Booy says while meeting with The Connection at an outdoor café in For the author, characters are born from more than putting pen to paper. “I usually buy things that my characters own, like if I see a motorcycle jacket in a thrift store with tears in the back, I’d say, ‘Yeah, that could belong to the character I’m working on now,’ ” says Van Booy. “I’ll sort of collect things, things that they’d have in their pockets, things from their childhood, and so I’ll build a sense of the person through colognes or clothes or photographs from eBay that might have been their ancestors.” For The Illusion of Separateness, Van Booy ended up gathering up, among other things, a watch, a robe, a handkerchief and a blank Western Union telegraph so he could re-create the message Bert Knapp sends to Annette upon reaching safety in England: “Just back from the most fabulous vacation on the Continent.” Not unlike his fictional creations, Van Booy has spent his life creating the kinds of connections made obvious in The Illusion of Separateness. He has lived in Paris, Athens and Kentucky; he’s written short stories; and edited three volumes of philosophy. He’s also written a play, teaches at Manhattan’s School of Visual Arts and is involved in the Rutgers Early College Humanities Program for young adults.

What became of the philosophical questions that prompted The Illusion of Separateness Readers might have to draw their own conclusions, as Van Booy admits, “It hasn’t led to any kind of spiritual epiphany. I’m just more confused now.” C

Web of life

Signed book gıveaway

COSTCO HAS 50 signed copies of The Illusion of Separateness, by Simon Van Booy, to give away. To enter, just go to: www.costcoconnectionbookgiveaway.com.

NO PURCHASE, PAYMENT OR OPT-IN OF AN Y KIND IS NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN THIS SWEEPSTAKES.

Purchase will not improve odds of winning. Sweepstakes is sponsored by HarperCollins, 10 East 53rd St., New York, NY 10022.

Open to legal residents of the U.S. (except Puerto Rico) who are age

18 or older at the time of entry. One entry per household. Entries must be received before the September issue is available online, which will happen around August 25. Winners will be randomly selected and noti;ed by mail on or before October 1, 2014. The value of the prize is $14.99. Void where prohibited. Winners are responsible for all applicable federal, state and local taxes. Odds of winning depend on the number of eligible entries received. Employees of Costco or HarperCollins and their families are not eligible.

FR A NC E FR EEM A N h robe, a handkerchief and a blank Western Union co B et

The Illusion of Separateness. He has lived n ol also written a play, teaches at Manhattan’s School l draw their own conclusions, as Van Booy e

Pennie Clark Ianniciello,

Costco book buyer SOME BOOKS sneak up on you, and it’s not until you turn the last page that the heft of the story settles in. And then there are novels like this month’s book pick, The Illusion of Separateness, by Simon Van Booy, that leave you dog-earing pages so that you can easily return to the sentences that are so pure and true they stop you in your tracks.

As the title implies, the novel is a story of six people, from a boy orphaned in World War II to a contemporary blind museum curator, who at different times and in different places feel they are completely alone.

Van Booy helps us realize that even in our darkest moments the people who have been here before us, people who will come after us and those who are not so far away right now all create a web of inter-connectivity that we can barely begin to see.