Joseph Hawke
Author Interview - Joseph Hawke
Author of On Earth As It Is In Heaven
On Earth As It Is In Heaven begins from MARY’s point of view (#1: “Prologue”) with the birth of YOUSUF, the product of an unsanctioned love affair between Mary, a Canadian woman, and MUHAMMAD, a Pakistani man. (#3 “The Honeymoon”) Younger siblings FATIMA and ALEEM arrive as they build a life together in the United States (#5 “Dinner Guests”, #7 “Stonewood Road”).
Mary and Muhammad’s marriage ends in divorce and both remarry, but, notwithstanding Muhammad’s second marriage, Mary agrees to care for her ex-husband until he passes (#10 “The Offer”, #11 “The Meeting”).
Yousuf has multiple childhood and coming of age tales told alternately first- (#4 “Winter Day,” #9 “Myrtle Beach”) and third-person (#6 “Fifty-Cents of Pain,” #8 “The First MLK Day”) Themes include: contrition, jealousy, inclusion/exclusion implicating his friend ERIC, and culminating with his uncle RAMIZ.
Ramiz is initially introduced early in the collection (#2 “The Scene Back Home”) before Yousuf is born. We come to know Ramiz more fully in the final entry (#12 “Me and My Uncle”), when Yousuf’s ability to visit Pakistan is no longer constrained (he himself is getting divorced and his children are no longer minors), and he feels compelled because his children never knew their paternal grandfather (Muhammad).
It is in many respects a quintessentially American tale that seeks to entertain the reader with a chronologically ordered series of stories that explore the themes of religion (Christianity and Islam), culture (American and Pakistani), virtue and sin, family and belonging.
Author Interview - Joseph Hawke
Author I draw inspiration from:
Generally, I am drawn to the work of folks like Ernest Hemingway and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., both because of the economy of their language and the themes they address. Both were also highly accomplished authors of short stories and novels. I would also say Ken Kesey, not only for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, but also his collection of short stories, Demon Box, and also Tom Wolfe, for his ability to capture specific moments of American history and culture from multiple perspectives. Jack Kerouac’s On The Road was probably the first thing I read that really made me want to write and become a published author. That was over thirty-five years ago. Interestingly, Kerouac’s protagonist, Dean Moriarty, in On The Road, is based on the real life Neal Cassady, who is also featured in Tom Wolfe’s Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, and is the subject of “The Day Superman Died,” a short story in Demon Box that Kesey uses to describe his relationship with Cassady, upon hearing the news that Neal had passed from this Earthly realm. And then, of course, the Grateful Dead sings about him in the eponymous song, “Cassady.” I’ve always thought if I ever taught an English class, all of those would be on the syllabus, and we could use the different sources as a way of exploring both character development as well as research the real person himself. I also adore Joseph Heller’s Catch-22. It is classically American and iconic for the way it surgically parodies the blunt instrument of government bureaucracy, of which, you might guess, I am not a fan. Other than Hemingway, of authors that are in the “canon” of American or English literature, I would have to also say Orwell (1984), Faulker (The Sound and the Fury), and C.S. Lewis, for everything from his Chronicles of Narnia, to Mere Christianity and The Screwtape Letters. Among newer authors, I am a huge fan of Khaled Hosseini. I thought his book The Kite Runner was absolutely masterful.
Author Interview - Joseph Hawke | Author I Draw Inspiration From
Favorite place to read a book:
I like to read in bed or in on of the recliners in the sectional sofa in my home office/man cave. The theme is feet up. Get comfortable. This is gonna be a good read. That's at least what I tell myself when I start reading a book. Sometimes, I'm proven wrong.
Book character I’d like to be stuck in an elevator with:
Holden Caulfield, from J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye.
I press the button on the elevator of the seventeenth floor of a midtown hotel, computer bag slung over my shoulder, blazer unbuttoned, sockless in my loafers. It is early spring, a sunny day, bright blue sky, warming up to the high seventies. I'm looking forward to the five block walk to my agent's office, the pre-meeting before we join my publisher for lunch.
The red digits above the elevator doors start counting down from 32, stopping at 20, then counting down, 19, 18, and stopping at 17. The doors slide open, and I enter the elevator. A young man stands in the far left corner, donning a red hunting hat, with a very long brim. An unlit cigarette dangles from his mouth. He looks up as I enter, and I nod at him as we make brief eye contact. The lobby button is already lit, I note, as the doors close, and I turn to face the front of the elevator, and look up at the floor indicator, which starts counting down, 16, 15, 14 ... .
As the elevator passes floor 10, it stops abruptly, with a hitch that causes us both to lose our balance.
"What was that?" I asked, turning to the young man.
"I dunno." I noted a faint whiff of tobacco emanating from the young man.
I pressed the emergency call button.
"What are you doing?" the young man asked.
"I'm trying to get us out of here. I need to get to a lunch meeting."
"It's only 10:30 a.m. That seems like an early lunch."
"I'm meeting my agent first."
"Are you a famous author?"
"Uh, not really. I'm an author. I don't think I'm very famous."
"What's your name. Maybe I've heard of you."
"Joseph Hawke. My friends call me Joe. What's yours?"
"Holden. Holden Caulfield."
I extended my hand to Holden, and he responded, taking my hand and shaking it. "Nice to meet you, Holden. I've been a fan for a long time."
"Yeah? Well nice to meet you, too. Never heard of you. Can you get this thing moving so I can light up this smoke?"
Author Interview - Joseph Hawke | Book Character I’d Like to be Stuck in an Elevator With
The moment I knew I wanted to become an author:
After reading On the Road, by Jack Kerouac, in 1989, during a seventy-five hour Greyhound bus ride from Chinatown in Philadelphia, to Chinatown in San Francisco, a trip I took with my then newly wed first wife, Linda, She was 21, and I was twenty.
Hardback, paperback, ebook or audiobook:
Hardbacks offer the heft and structure that accords importance to the work; on the other hand, they tend to be less inconspicuously portable and more expensive than other formats
Paperback is probably my favorite format. It gives the reader the satisfaction of holding and reading the tangible page. It's more or less what I was "raised" on.
ebooks are a format about which I cannot comment authoritatively, as I have never owned an ebook reader, and so I don't think I have ever technically read an ebook.
audiobooks are handy because they enable to reader to become a listener, which permits the ability to "read" while driving, but changes which sense's perceptive powers are being employed, enabling the reader to dedicate the sense of vision to the task of driving. The same could be said of cooking, doing laundry, or virtually any other activity, other than a phone call or listening to music.
The last book I read:
Khalil Gibran's The Prophet, which I re-read after discovering a copy in my nightstand drawer. I thought it was extremely well done. Creative format. Lovely messages within each chapter.
Author Interview - Joseph Hawke | The Last Book I Read
Pen & paper or computer:
I compose on the keyboard directly. I think it was largely generational, as I entered college in 1987, and that was the beginning of word processors (predecessors to programs like Word) becoming ubiquitous. So, while I left for college with my typewriter, I submitted precious few papers produced on that little portable typewriter and far more produced on computer (nowadays and for the past few decades, the laptop). That said, I do take notes using pen and paper, and sometimes for jotting down an idea to store for later elaboration, pen and paper can be most efficient.
Book character I think I’d be best friends with:
Holden Caulfield, Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger.
After we depart the elevator, which we manage to do, after negotiating with both the call button, which apparently had loose wires, resulting in an erratic connection, and the person on the other end of the connection, who, after she could finally could hear our coordinates, dispatched help in the form of the fire department. I was surprised the outage was not alarmed, but evidently, she could not see it on whatever system she could access.
Once out of the building, Holden offered me a smoke, which I did not decline, and we spent another ten minutes on the sidewalk talking while we smoked. It turns out he was living in his aunt's apartment, his mother's sister. She had passed away six months ago, but none of the contents of the apartment had been dealt with, and his mother suggested he occupy the apartment at least until the end of the lease.
I sensed that his mother was perhaps hoping he might take some initiative with the disposition of the furniture, and I suggested that, if there were any antiques, I could perhaps introduce him to an old friend who I met when I was in college, who was an antique dealer. He would buy inventory to sell in his shop, which was on Ardmore Avenue.
"I'm not so sure. Mom doesn't like to throw things away. Or get rid of them at all."
"This is not throwing away. It is selling! Turning it to cash. Letting someone else make good use of it, and clearing out the space."
"Well, when you put it like that... I can ask her."
We agreed to meet again that evening over a drink at the bar across the street, and I ran off to my agent's office so we could at least arrive at the lunch with my publisher together.
That evening, we did meet again, and it began what occurred to me in retrospect to be the unlikeliest of friendships, given our age difference, but it made not difference to me, nor, I suppose to him; nor, for that matter to his mother. I think she just appreciated seeing her sister's place vacated without having to spend time getting attached to it herself. <SCENE>
If I weren’t an author, I’d be a:
I'd probably be a commercial banker, who becomes a venture capitalist, who then becomes a private equity investor that develops a specialty in, and becomes an entrepreneur of, the helicopter industry. This is, in fact, a synopsis of the last thirty-three years of my professional life.
Favorite decade in fashion history:
Circa 1960. Think Breakfast at Tiffany's with Audrey Hepburn. Men in suits and hats. Sleek new architecture. And, in due time, mini-skirts and the Beatles. Smoking inside.
Place I’d most like to travel:
Australia. Have heard it is beautiful!
My signature drink:
Gin & Tonic
Favorite artist:
As a drummer, I am partial to drumming prowess within the musical arts. Can only narrow it down to two: Neil Peart (Rush) and John Bonham (Led Zeppelin)
Number one on my bucket list:
The Good Lord willing, I am looking forward to one day having grandchildren.
Anything else you'd like to add:
Just to offer my gratitude and appreciation at your interest. Thank you!
Find more from the author:
https://www.facebook.com/joseph.a.hawke/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/joehawke/
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About Joseph Hawke:
Born Yousuf Haq, Joe Hawke has been a lifelong writer, but in 2023, he began writing in earnest again. His debut novel, American Justice, a contemporary satire parodying
the justice system and political environment, came out in 2024, and its sequel, Redemption, is in development. Joe is also working on a cookbook, The Man Cave Cooking Guide: How to Feed Your Family – and Yourself – with Love. When he isn’t writing, Joe’s thirtyyear career has been primarily focused on the helicopter industry. He has been involved in commercial banking, leasing, venture capital, private equity investing, and M&A. He received his BA from Haverford College and his MBA from Temple University.
