The Novel Is About Time

Jan 22

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Tucker Lieberman Author Interview

Most Famous Short Film of All Time is an enlightening book with thoughtful observations on life and insight into being transgender. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?

Seeking ways to cut down my rough draft, I split the novel into 486 sections—one for each frame of the Zapruder film—and I limited each of those sections to 125 words. I marked each micro-section visually with a numbered frame from the film. Additional material didn’t fit within that structure. I found other ways to work in the rest of the material, so the novel remains long. That’s how the structure was set up.

Your characters were interesting and I enjoyed following them. What were some driving ideals behind your character’s development?

The narrator is treading water in his life when the story opens. Nothing much is happening for him. One day, he has a problem, and he realizes: The people in this system aren’t going to help me. This insight doesn’t merely open his eyes. His whole life accelerates. He has to find the way forward. Some ways back will have to close.

What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?

Replaying memories, ruminating on possibilities, dealing with ghosts, making decisions (or not), and what all of that tells us about our experience of time. The novel is about time.

What do you hope is one thing readers take away from your book?

It’s an opportunity to read a transgender character who’s dealing with things other than his gender transition. The narrator transitioned about 15 years before the main events of the story. Since he’s post-transition, the novel isn’t about his transition. It’s about other things he goes through as a result of being a person of transgender experience. I want to spark readers’ imaginations about certain life experiences and interpretations thereof that could be particular to transgender people and that we aren’t taught to see, appreciate, or respond to, partly because we tend to forget that post-transition is a real phase of life in which many people spend many years.

Author Links: GoodReads | Twitter | Facebook | Website

Ghosts and goddesses beckon Lev Ockenshaw. Oh, bother. Fortunately, he’s got a pill for that. In 2014, Lev is happily telling campfire stories in Boston with his longtime friend, Stanley, and his coworker, Aparna. One day, he receives an anonymous, threatening email referring to the company where he and Aparna work. He reports the threat to his boss, but is not believed. Most Famous Short Film of All Time is a non/fiction-hybrid philosophical novel about belief, prejudice, perception, ethical action/inaction, undoing/redoing decisions, trying harder, being excellent to your friends, being a fictional character, being trans, the nature of time, and burning things that do not serve.

About Literary Titan

The Literary Titan is an organization of professional editors, writers, and professors that have a passion for the written word. We review fiction and non-fiction books in many different genres, as well as conduct author interviews, and recognize talented authors with our Literary Book Award. We are privileged to work with so many creative authors around the globe.

Posted on January 22, 2023, in Interviews and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink. 1 Comment.

  1. Tucker Lieberman | January 27, 2023 at 4:58 am

    Reblogged this on Tucker Lieberman and commented:
    “The narrator is treading water in his life when the story opens. Nothing much is happening for him. One day, he has a problem, and he realizes: *The people in this system aren’t going to help me.* This insight doesn’t merely open his eyes. His whole life accelerates. He has to find the way forward. Some ways back will have to close.” — from my interview about Most Famous Short Film of All Time

    Reply

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