Will Goodbow made a solemn promise to his dying wife. Though they had differing viewpoints on the issue of immigration, her last wish was that he agree to help reunite migrant children who had been separated from their parents at the U.S.–Mexico border.
As the novel begins, Goodbow, a well-to-do businessman, realized he had much to learn before he could act. Now, grieving and uncertain, he sets his reluctance aside and travels to El Paso, Texas, where he seeks out border patrol officers, aid workers and migrants. Ideology, reality and the complexities of the immigration system merge as he tries to fulfill his vow.
Such is the linchpin of Joseph Bauer’s fourth novel, Sailing for Grace (Running Wild Press), a story of a marriage, justice and personal illumination.
“The novel is very different from its predecessors, which were political-military-espionage tales with a lot of humor,” said the author, who divides his time between homes in Charleston and Cleveland, Ohio. “I wanted to write a story about loyalty and friendship, but wanted it to be wrapped around a current theme.”
While Bauer investigates how current political perspectives on the immigration crisis affect our society, he did not intend to stake out a highly politicized position.
“The book is about a marriage, and the fairly common occurrence of a husband and wife who don’t agree politically,” he said in an interview with the Charleston City Paper. “That said, I do think we have to come to a national understanding about what our country can handle in terms of new citizens from other places, the desirability of having them and the limits involved. There are many misconceptions, and through my characters I wanted to explain how many come to the U.S. as legal workers but become illegal.”
Bauer, the father of three daughters, draws a vital distinction between those seeking asylum and those trying to enter illegally — a fine point often lost in much of the fractious contemporary political debate.
“What bothers me as a person, and what I believe a reader will grasp, is precisely this distinction,” the author said. “Very few [people] attempt to get in illegally. As they set foot on American soil they are presenting themselves to authority figures, and everything they do up to that point is entirely legal. Almost half of the parents are granted asylum eventually. These are themes I explore in the book.”
Bauer said you can achieve a great deal in a mainstream novel by not dumbing it down.
The protagonist, Goodbow, he noted, isn’t a particularly sympathetic character but, having made a promise to his wife, commits to devising a scheme to reunite separated children with their parents. Will he succeed? Or will he run afoul of the authorities? Therein lies the suspense, a key device in Bauer’s literary toolbox.
Despite his initial concern that the novel might have a short shelf-life in terms of topicality, Bauer has written a timely book with enduring relevance. And though he knows that some readers may make knee-jerk accusations of cultural appropriation, or of his presenting Goodbow as a “white savior,” the author is prepared for it.
“So far it hasn’t [happened], but I fully expect it and will deal with it forthrightly. My book has been compared somewhat to Jeanine Cummins’s American Dirt, and the furor surrounding that book. The difference is that I’m an older white male writing in the third-person about an older male. It’s not just a tragic story. While I hope Sailing for Grace strikes some emotional chords, I also want people to laugh every 10 or 12 pages.”
Bauer was an international corporate attorney for 30 years before retiring in 2011 to write full-time. His writing process reflects a lawyer’s meticulous attention to detail, not to mention an old-school approach to editing and refining. Like many novelists, he finds it liberating to write the conclusion first. As the novel proceeds, Bauer prints out each day’s work and edits the text by hand on the page. When the manuscript is completed, he reads it aloud, word for word.
“I had a habit of reading aloud [with] legal briefs, so I suppose that translates to fiction. I want to have the sound right,” he said. “When you hear it, you know. I make many changes and edits and a lot of them are to dialogue.”
It’s an occupational hazard for a novelist to fall in love with their characters, but not in this case, Bauer said.
“It’s strictly my imagination spurred by real-life people and experiences. I hope that my book, in some small way, might open minds to creating a fairer system.”
The Charleston County Library (Calhoun St.) will host a book signing Nov. 23 at 1 p.m.
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