Date: October 21, 2006
Source: The Hamilton Spectator
A Writer of Character
Hamilton's Trevor Cole has time for accolades, but likes to keep moving
By Jon Wells
Novelist Trevor Cole always starts a book the same way, not with a plot, but a character. Figure out what's going on inside the character's head, what he calls the psychological landscape. Then inject events and situations.
"A plot-oriented novel, where you just put people in it. It's dead," he says.
OK. Let's start with a character: Trevor Cole.
Where to go from there? The present. It is Thursday. Cole, who lives in the west end, sits in a booth by the window of the West Town restaurant on Locke Street. Wears jeans, black T-shirt, leather jacket, works on a burger, fries and Coke.
This week he was nominated for a Governor General's literary award for his second novel, The Fearsome Particles. His first novel, Norman Bray in the Performance of His Life, was also nominated for that honour. Two books, a rare two nominations, reviewers dropping legendary names like Kingsley Amis and Truman Capote to describe his work.
All that and Trevor Cole can never be entirely happy. Why?
Perhaps we should start further back. On Lake Erie, 2004, Cole is holed up alone for a week in a cottage, typing. All his earlier preparation for Particles, mapping out the characters and situations on a white board now paying off, the narrative flowing from his fingertips, he gets 5,000 words down in one week.
"An animal that small, that dextrous, could be anywhere." It is the first line of his draft in the cottage, talking about the lead character and his cat (named Rumsfeld), that will stay like that right through to publication. Second page: "(Gerald) was much too conscious; he was conscious to the point of affliction." A good line and somewhat autobiographical.
We could start back further, 2002. Cole leaves the Globe and Mail after 15 years of editing and writing -- leaves the Globe and Mail, this "destination" job, and Toronto, the city he had dreamed of reaching for so long, encouraged by his new bride to become a novelist.
No. They are all good scenes, but to unearth the psychological landscape, you go back to the beginning, to his father. Bill Cole was a talented actor, singer. But he never went as far as he might have, didn't find steady work, instead rested on his laurels, satisfied with what he had accomplished as a younger man, rationalized away his lack of continued success.
Trevor is the oldest of Bill and Hilda's two children. When he's a teenager, living in Cambridge, his parents divorce. There is turmoil in the house. Before Trevor finishes high school, he leaves home, for a time lives in a ridiculous little apartment in downtown Galt.
He becomes driven not to end up like his father -- the unfulfilled potential, the illusion of a life fully lived, his dad all those days at home still in his housecoat while mom keeps the family afloat working as an executive secretary.
The father shapes the son, who Trevor Cole will become and always will be. The Present: Cole in the booth with his hamburger. "My dad rationalized his lack of continued success by saying he had already achieved greatness. As a consequence, he disintegrated as an artist."
As a young man Cole started his career writing commercials for radio, bounced from Simcoe to Cornwall to Ottawa, the end of the rainbow always seeming to him to be Toronto. He started writing more. A play, magazine stories.
In 1987 he landed at the Globe, in the magazine division. He had made it. Toronto. Mission accomplished. Wasn't it? Do not end up like your father. Do not stand still.
Cole was mostly editing magazines, a great job, but he wanted to write. It was a battle to get the chance. People slot you into roles. It's tough to break out. Finally he got his shot, in business writing, something he knew nothing about. He ended up winning two National Magazine Awards for his stories -- another rare accomplishment.
The urge to chase a novel had long been with him and he had, in fact, been working on a novel for several years, one that was never published. He showed it to a woman he met, journalist Krista Foss.
"It didn't have my voice," says Cole. "But it helped convince her to fall in love with me, so even though it was never published, it was successful."
Krista, who became his wife, encouraged Trevor to chase his dream, write fiction. So he left the Globe. They lived in Winnipeg for a short time when Krista headed the Globe's bureau there, before settling in Hamilton where Krista had family.
In 2004, Cole's debut novel was published after he took a year-and-a-half to write the first draft and another six months to do the second. The main character, Norman Bray, is a "raving narcissist" who must deal with mundane realities in life such as mortgages and listening to people. Norman was based on his father, Bill. In many ways Norman is a negative character, but also one who comes off in the end as somehow endearing despite it all.
Bill Cole died last year, on Christmas Eve, a victim of cancer. (Trevor's mother is alive and well, living in Waterloo. She is credited in The Fearsome Particles acknowledgements page for "modelling a work ethic second to none.")
But before Bill Cole left this world, he had the chance to read his son's acclaimed novel. Trevor was fearful that dad would be hurt by it. So he had the publisher print a special jacket cover for dad's copy, so he would not see the description of Norman Bray that had a negative tone to it. Bill actually enjoyed the book, read the clearly fictional parts as fictional and actually told his son that he took a deep breath and learned about himself in the truer-to-life parts.
"He knew it was him, yes," says Trevor. "He was quite flattered that he inspired it. Luckily he acted as the true narcissist. He saw what he wanted to see in it."
Cole is determined to see himself, and life, for what it is. Do not settle for seeing what you want to see.
He credits Krista with helping to keep him real. And, while he doesn't see himself as wedded to any place or city, living in Hamilton helps, too, just being able to so easily get to a park and walk their dog, feel the warm embrace of family and friends who live here.
Trevor Cole is not conventionally ambitious and self-aware. He is, he admits, at his worst moments, like his main character Gerald Woodlore in The Fearsome Particles, "conscious to the point of affliction."
He knows the challenge is to pause and enjoy his success more, fight the perpetual fear of standing pat. The second Governor General's award nomination? It helps.
"Sure it does. I allowed myself to be happy for a day," he says with a grin.
Still, Cole has finally come to the place in his life, when at 46, he knows he is where he should be, writing fiction, exploring the characters of others and himself -- not that there's time to languish in it. He's started his next novel, has the main character, the plot.
Could there be any better outlet for Cole's restless soul than novel writing?
"It's possible to never be satisfied when you're writing books because no one knows what you're capable of. It's up to you. The challenge is as great as you are willing to set yourself."