With 'The Bucharest Dossier,' author Maz deftly juggles genres
May 1—There's a scene in the new novel "The Bucharest Dossier" when a character takes action in a way that means the writer had know how to administer a potentially toxic property.
Fortunately for first-time author William Maz, his former longtime day job was as an anesthesiologist — not that the operating theater would ever have required this particular procedure. But that's not the only time Maz called on his own experiences to write a book he adeptly calls a "Russian doll of a novel — a love story inside a spy story inside a thriller."
Set mostly in Romania on the eve of the bloody 1989 revolution against the Ceausescu regime, the novel focuses on CIA analyst Bill Heflin, who has returned to the country of his birth at the insistence of his KGB asset Boris. Though raised in the States and educated at Harvard, Heflin is also motivated in Bucharest to pursue a long-shot search for his childhood love Pusha, who over the years has taken on larger-than-life qualities. As the revolution intensifies into savagery, Heflin is forced to adlib at every turn because the priorities and motivations of his CIA superiors, Boris and other unknown forces — even Pusha? — seem to change daily and with increasing desperation.
For a first published novel — albeit one that took a while to reach bookstores — "The Bucharest Dossier" has scored plenty of big time favor. Lee Child, F. Paul Wilson, Jon Land and William Bernhardt are among the established authors who provided blurbs.
Maz appears virtually Tuesday in the latest of our "Read of The Day" author series in partnership with Bank Square Books.
Going home
The settings in "Dossier" are evocatively detailed, and there's a wintry, brooding atmosphere that permeates the book in captivating fashion. Part of the realism of the work is that, like Heflin, Maz was born in Bucharest of Greek parents and emigrated to America as a child. He also graduated from Harvard but, rather than join the CIA, Maz attended Mount Sinai School of Medicine, did his residency at Yale, and entered practice.
"The truth is, only a small part of the book is autobiographical," says the soft-spoken, thoughtful Maz by phone last week. "Obviously, having lived in Romania provided details, and I love the language and the people. I also witnessed a lot of the revolution before and after and have relatives still there I could talk to.
"But the mistake I think a lot of authors make with the 'write what you know' advice is to replicate exactly what happened in their situation. I think you should use what you can from the past to fulfill the need of the story's structure. Every story has a point and a three-act narrative; real life just doesn't happen that way. In fact, in ("Dossier") I took the plot one step outside the dimensions of reality as we know them and interjected a bit of magical realism."
Echoes of history
Maz acknowledges, though, that there are real-life similarities in his book to events going on right now in Ukraine.
"I see the parallels, they're there," Maz says. "There is the issue of the quote-unquote American communist who has certain unrealistic ideals. I wanted to show what communism is really like. It's strict totalitarianism. In Europe, in the amount of distance from New York across Pennsylvania, there are several countries who are all paying very careful attention to what's happening because it's frightening.
"There is no equality in communism. There are very different classes; some are driving around in Mercedes and everyone else is waiting in food lines. And the spy novel is an effective way to talk about issues like this and bring it home. In America? We have that upper eschelon, too, and the reality of whatever might trickle down to the peasant. There's also the issue of emigration. Should you leave your home for a better life? You lose a lot: customs, language, a natural sense of belonging. And then, sometimes you have neither. I think all those issues are at play in the book — but in a subtle way that underscores the action."
The writing life
Maz says writing has been a passion long before he studied medicine, and he describes a short story he wrote for a seventh grade class about three little chicks in the refugee army barracks he and his family lived in in Greece before coming to America. It was deep winter; there were no heaters and the chicks died in the cold.
"The chicks were real and I was heartbroken, so I wrote the story and turned it in. My teacher loved it and had me read it in front of the class and they applauded." He laughs. "I was hooked. But it took a while — a very long while — to get better. I'm still trying to get better."
Because his father and brothers and several family friends were all doctors, Maz says, "Medicine was preordained, like an arranged marriage. And I enjoyed it. But I was always passionate about writing. I can feel my mind lighting up when I'm doing it; the creative part is so amazing. I love the whole process and can get overjoyed over one sentence or one word choice."
Moz completed a novel while he was in residency at Yale. He got an agent and, he says, "The book nearly sold to (prestigious publishing house) Knopf. Ultimately, it was turned down for being too psychological. I was upset but at the same time, Knopf! I was even more hooked."
Sustained passion
Throughout the many years of his medical practice, Maz kept writing. He took creative writing classes at Harvard, the New School and the Writer's Studio and studied fiction with Gordon Lish, the editor who worked with, among other literary stars, Barry Hannah, Amy Hemple, Raymond Carver and Richard Ford.
"It was pretty intense. I was practicing medicine all day and I'd write nightly," Maz says. "I must say, it had a big effect on my social life. But I was invested."
No longer repped by an agent, Maz focused on the manuscripts. He finished two more as yet unpublished novels before "The Bucharest Dossier, which he sold it by himself to the small but respected Oceanview Publishing.
"I'd almost come to the conclusion I'd never get published, but I also wasn't going to stop writing," Maz says. "Finally, Oceanview made an offer. They said, 'Are you sure you want us? We're not one of the Big 5 houses.' Are you kidding? I was kissing the ground in gratitude!"
