Avital Gad-Cykman has been published in Glimmer Train, McSweeney’s, Prism International, Descant, Other Voices,
Michigan Quarterly Review, Stand and other magazines. Her work is forthcoming in The Literary Review and featured in anthologies such as Sex for America, Politically Inspired Fiction (Harper/Collins 01/2008) Stumbling and Raging, Politically Inspired Fiction Anthology (McAdam/Cage), You Have Time for This Anthology (Ooligan Press), The Flash (Disease Press), and more. She is a three-time Pushcart prize nominee. Her story collections Light Reflection over Blues and Perfect for This World were finalists for the Iowa Fiction award. She was born and raised in Israel, and now resides in Brazil.
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Avital Gad-Cykman interview with Meg Tuite
The structure of this story is exceptional. The story moves through the inner dialogue of the characters involved and reveals so much more about each one of them through the others. How did you come up with this angle for working the story?
I love writing stories where different sections contradict and overlap. They reflect how I feel about life: perspectives of people around me put together with my own different perspectives never add up to one coherent view, but this confusion is very telling about us and is important to me.
I’m intrigued by different perceptions of the same situation: from Kurosawa's film Rashomon to a silly discussion about fleas (could the cat have contaminated the room or has the room been contaminated over time?)
It’s unsettling to me to think that there’s no absolute truth, because I’d like mine to be the one. But it’s fascinating. It reminds me of the field theory where the observer and the observed are interrelated. With such a gap between people, there’s little hope for true identification, but at least we’ll always have differences to discuss.
“The Fifty Percent” is an unfurling of the story of a marriage that has shifted through the years. It was interesting to see how Joseph pictured Mira, and how she had changed and was also a catalyst in this demise.
I think that love and a certain intimacy in the habits can be mistaken for communication, but they don’t necessarily signify an understanding. People stop knowing each other if they fail to communicate constantly.
There are so many beautiful lines in here, Avital. “I’m as strong as suspended glass in that silent moment between falling and hitting the floor.” What a great simile! Have you written any poetry?
Thank you! I used to write poetry as a teenager. I’m still being teased about describing myself as “a sack full of cats’ hisses.” Right now, flashes and prose poetry satisfy my lyrical vein.
What books are you reading at this time?
I have a huge stack of books I intend to read from December to March, but until last week I wrote a proposal for a thesis that included Margaret Atwood and Siri Hustvedt’s books, so I’m still in the middle of several of them. They are wonderful writers.
Who would you say are your greatest influences in writing?
I suppose it’s the books I read in my early years. My father had a series of short story collections by many distinguished writers and I swallowed them time after time. (The bigger daily journal sold that series, and I think they were present in every household…)
Also, every writer I have ever read and liked gave me something.
What are you working on at this time?
I’m taking a break from fiction and writing about undergoing radical surgery in order to prevent breast and ovarian cancer, necessary due to a genetic profile that raises the risk of developing these sicknesses. It involves the physical aspect, but also stories and discoveries of trust, guilt, memories, secrets, family…
I’m continuously looking at my novel “Desert Symphony” as well, and I intend to revise another.
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In order to preserve the artistic arrangement of the writing, this piece has been created with Print2Flash Flashpaper.