#77 The Magnification of One Memory In Memoir THE BOY WHO PROMISED ME HORSES by David Joseph Charpentier, published by Bison Books on May 1, 2024
https://www.davidjcharpentier.com
What is the date you began writing this memoir and the date when you completed the memoir? 2014 – 2020
Where did you do most of your writing for this memoir? And please describe in detail. Mostly at my writing desk in my basement. BELOW: David Charpentier and Maurice
What were your writing habits while writing this memoir- did you drink something as you wrote, listen to music, write in pen and paper, directly on laptop; specific time of day? I usually lit some sweet grass before I started writing. I also listened to music from the time the events in the book took place, in the 90’s. I listened mostly to Bob Mould’s Workbook and Will T Massey’s Troubadors of Texas albums. Burning the sweet grass and listening to the music brought back memories so that I was able to include more specific details.
I composed entirely on my laptop, and I wrote first thing in the morning almost every day. Once I got rolling on a chapter, I could write anywhere, at the airport waiting for a flight, in a parking lot outside of the grocery store. After completing a chapter, I was usually emotionally drained, and I had to recharge myself for a few weeks before I began again. Then it was back to my writing desk, and it was hard work to get into the new chapter. I usually listened to loud music as I muscled my through the plot of the next chapter. When the structure was there, the revising became much easier, and I could take my laptop anywhere, to the coffee shop, the library.
David Charpentier reads from and discusses his memoir “The Boy Who Promised Me Horses” at Elk River Books, Livingston, Montana, on Thursday, June 27, 2024.
Out of all the specific memories you write about in this memoir, which ONE MEMORY was the most emotional for you to write about? Chapter 25, You Don’t Want to Help Me Then, Do You?
Page – 256
We shot through most of the clays, using up two boxes of shells. My shoulder ached and my ears rang as we sat and dangled our legs over the ledge. One by one, soft sounds replaced the vacuum as the echoing diminished, meadowlarks calling to each other in singsong patterns, patient wind scurrying through tall grass.
I felt an ant crawl over my left hand, which was pressed palm down to the cool stone. Clouds that moments before were just a hazy background to zinging black and yellow discs resumed their shapes and lazy drift across the sky. I looked down and saw that two ants were now crawling above my knuckles, rising up and down as they crossed my raised veins. I let them be. Maurice’s hand was inches from mine. It was the place his skin had darkened the most over the summer. I sensed him going somewhere. I wanted to grab his hand to keep him with me.
We sat in silence, strangely now the only two objects on the landscape that did not move or make noise.
Can you describe the emotional process of writing about this ONE MEMORY? This passage was crucial for me. It didn’t appear in early drafts and the entire chapter felt like it was missing something. The breakthrough happened when I felt my hand press down to the cool stone. That touch brought back so many memories and emotions, so many things came flooding back. The more I felt, the more I could remember, and then I started seeing Maurice’s face, could hear his words. Writing this passage also brought back other memories and details that I was able to add throughout the book. In essence, I wrote myself back into my memories in this passage by describing what I felt, saw and heard, when I put myself back into that physical setting. Even today, when I read this passage to an audience, when I get to the lines, “Maurice’s hand was inches from mine. It was the place his skin had darkened the most over the summer. I sensed him going somewhere. I wanted to grab his hand to keep him with me,” I can’t stop myself from crying. It is a metaphor for our entire friendship. I could never get close enough to him to change his life. To tell him that I loved him. (BELOW: David, Keoppe, and Maurice)
