Passing The Three Gates

Known for his blending of philosophy, spirituality, humour, and a rollicking good story, Charles Johnson is one of the most important novelists writing today. From his magical first novel, Faith and the Good Thing, to his decidedly philosophical Oxherding Tale; from his swashbuckling indictment of the slave trade in the National Book Award-winning Middle Passage, to his more recent imaginative treatment of Martin Luther King Jr. in Dreamer, Johnson has continually surprised, instructed, and entertained his many avid readers. As this collection of interviews suggests, the novelist is as multifaceted and complex as his novels. Trained in cartooning and philosophy, martial arts and meditation, and producing teleplays, photobiographies, and literary criticism in addition to fiction, Charles Johnson represents a model of what he calls "life as art." Jim McWilliams has gathered here the most significant of Johnson's many interviews in a chronological progression, giving an invaluable account of Johnson's development from the late 1970s until the early years of the twenty-first century. Drawn from a neighbourhood newsletter and an alumni magazine as well as the most prestigious academic journals, these interviews bring up many essential elements of Johnson's life and work: his religious development from the AME Church to Buddhism; the importance to him of family; his emergence out of the civil rights and the black power movements, and how his writing responds to both; the importance of his relationship with his mentor John Gardner and his own work as a teacher of creative writing; his interest in phenomenology and philosophical fiction. Capping the collection are two previously unpublished interviews that reflect back upon Johnson's career, even as they look forward to what Johnson calls "Act Three" of his life. Alluding to the "Three Gates" of Buddhist "Right Speech," the title of this volume aptly captures the generous spirit that characterizes Charles Johnson's work. An indispensable resource for all of Johnson's many readers, Passing the Three Gates represents both the transformation of the artist over time and the continuity and endurance of his aesthetic and spiritual vision.

Jim McWilliams is associate professor of English at Dickinson State University, North Dakota