Read Online Jeremy Stone by Lesley Choyce - Free Book Online Page B

bodies so we can perceive the true reality behind the veil of illusions that is our physical world.
    Some Mi’kmaq writers I’ve known speak of the ability to “move between worlds.” That includes living in a Mi’kmaq world but also being able to function in the white world. It also allows them to embrace more than one religion: traditional Mi’kmaq beliefs and Christian beliefs together. Truly spiritual individuals also become adept at the bigger challenge of moving between the physical world and the spiritual world. Jeremy has this ability and is able to bridge both worlds on a daily basis, making his life much more interesting and richer than those which most of us experience.
    Old Man is an Aboriginal archetype, but Jenson and Jimmy are contemporary young men who have spiritual dimensions. To Jeremy, they are all as real to him as anyone else. This makes for a fascinating character who must realize that most other people don’t have his perceptions and his skills. Maybe we all inhabit a world where we are surrounded by individual spirits. Most of us can’t see or hear them, but it doesn’t mean they aren’t there. We’re just not trained to notice them or have conversations with them as Jeremy does.
    Strangely, as I was writing this book, Jeremy himself was as real to me as any person I was encountering outside the story. Whatever this book, this collection of thoughts, ideas, images, and dialogue was about, there was a “spirit” of some sort that emerged during the creation of the novel. And that spirit, Jeremy Stone , became even more tangible as the book progressed. I’d sit down and wonder, What will Jeremy do next? Then his quiet, poetic voice in the back of my head would speak and say, “Just wait and see what I have for you.”
    So, does that make me crazy? Could be. But lucky me. I am no great spiritual guru or visionary like my protagonist but I have the license to be a fiction writer spending part of my day making up the company I keep as I go. And Jeremy Stone was a great companion to spend my days with.
    E.M. Forster put it thus: In the creative state, a man is taken out of himself. He lets down a bucket into his subconscious, and draws up something which is normally beyond his reach. He mixes this thing with his normal experiences and out of the mixture he makes a work of art.
    In writing Jeremy Stone , I soon realized I was way out of my depth (in that well) and I loved the process immensely as a result.
    The intriguing thing is that, while Old Man is the spirit of Jeremy’s grandfather, Jenson and Jimmy are spirits of people who never existed in the “real” world. Yet they give Jeremy guidance in that real world. Can you explain that?
    This is where I was beginning to experiment with boundaries. What if things of the spirit and of the imagination are very much connected ? And I think they are. I don’t have any firm belief system here, but then I’m a fiction writer. As in Living Outside the Lines , I can experiment with possibilities. Jimmy was very real to Jeremy. Jenson was very real to Caitlan. Both had profound influences on the living, just as my fictional characters have some strange influence me. Jeremy taught me to keep my mind open to various possibilities of what is real and not real and to respect the personal belief system of others. Of course, once the book is published and I unleash my characters on the unsuspecting public, these fictional “spirits” may have an impact on the thoughts, beliefs and actions of “real” people.
    Though Jeremy is a teenager, he is dealing with a lot more than most teens face giving emotional support to his mother and to Caitlan, “reeling” his father home, and helping to change the behavior of Paper Clip. What gives Jeremy his strength?
    Jeremy’s strength comes from a number of things. He has grown up with a base of powerful spiritual and cultural