Margo
asked
Roman Dial:
I wonder how Jazz felt about the book? Did you intentionally leave her out of most of it per her request? Or was this more to memorialize Roman and your shared adventures?
Roman Dial
That’s an excellent set of questions, Margo.
The short answer is that my intention was to tell the story of looking for my son.
Part III does that, and since Jazz came only briefly to Costa Rica, her appearance is also brief, except at the end where her critical role in keeping our family together is clear.
Part II was intended to be the story of Roman’s own journey leading up to his disappearance, to let the reader know that he was competent and why he might be headed into the jungle alone.
So that leaves us with Part I.
Here my hope was that I could describe the life path that led Roman to Central America. I attempted to keep the narrative of that path as straight and narrow as possible: my early infatuation with Alaska and climbing leads me to a mountain there that gives me confidence to meet my future wife Peggy. I quit climbing. We get married, have kids, raise them with travel and adventure—I could probably have done that in a chapter or two!
Those chapters in Part I were meant—not to show that I was a *great* climber/adventurer/father—but why a young man might find himself drawn to the jungles of Central America.
So, while it is a memoir, I tried to tell the story of Roman and me, keeping the focus there.
It’s probably fair to say that the idea of a memoir appeals to many “adventurers.” But memoirs also seem self-congratulatory and narcissistic; I’d rather have written stories about my amazing adventure partners over the decades than about me and my family. Dealing with the terrible events that unfolded, however, forced me to confront my role, and writing helped me deal with that.
If Cody Roman had not disappeared, my memoir—if I’d ever make time to write one—would have been very different.
I love my daughter very much. But she is alive and well and married, and I want to afford her some privacy.
So yes, this book is meant to tell the story of looking for my son, how he came to be missing, and what led up to that disappearance from my point of view.
Jazz agrees with the NYT reviewer Blair Braverman: a better title might have been the “Adventurer’s Father,” as the book is about my search for my son, the adventurer.
The short answer is that my intention was to tell the story of looking for my son.
Part III does that, and since Jazz came only briefly to Costa Rica, her appearance is also brief, except at the end where her critical role in keeping our family together is clear.
Part II was intended to be the story of Roman’s own journey leading up to his disappearance, to let the reader know that he was competent and why he might be headed into the jungle alone.
So that leaves us with Part I.
Here my hope was that I could describe the life path that led Roman to Central America. I attempted to keep the narrative of that path as straight and narrow as possible: my early infatuation with Alaska and climbing leads me to a mountain there that gives me confidence to meet my future wife Peggy. I quit climbing. We get married, have kids, raise them with travel and adventure—I could probably have done that in a chapter or two!
Those chapters in Part I were meant—not to show that I was a *great* climber/adventurer/father—but why a young man might find himself drawn to the jungles of Central America.
So, while it is a memoir, I tried to tell the story of Roman and me, keeping the focus there.
It’s probably fair to say that the idea of a memoir appeals to many “adventurers.” But memoirs also seem self-congratulatory and narcissistic; I’d rather have written stories about my amazing adventure partners over the decades than about me and my family. Dealing with the terrible events that unfolded, however, forced me to confront my role, and writing helped me deal with that.
If Cody Roman had not disappeared, my memoir—if I’d ever make time to write one—would have been very different.
I love my daughter very much. But she is alive and well and married, and I want to afford her some privacy.
So yes, this book is meant to tell the story of looking for my son, how he came to be missing, and what led up to that disappearance from my point of view.
Jazz agrees with the NYT reviewer Blair Braverman: a better title might have been the “Adventurer’s Father,” as the book is about my search for my son, the adventurer.
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