BAUMAN, Christian 1970-

PERSONAL: Born 1970, in Easton, PA; son of Bruce Foster and Susan (Young) Bauman; children: two daughters.

ADDRESSES: Agent—c/o Publicity Department, Simon & Schuster, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020. E-mail—christianbauman@pobox.com.

CAREER: Writer, musician, songwriter, cook, house painter, clerk, editor, and laborer. Military service: U.S. Army, 1991-95.

WRITINGS:

The Ice beneath You, Scribner (New York, NY), 2002.

WORK IN PROGRESS: A novel set in Haiti.

SIDELIGHTS: Christian Bauman claims that of the many roles he has played in his life so far, the one as student was the least successful. Despite this, he was determined to pursue his love of words, and when his grandfather gave him a typewriter as a birthday present, he sat down and began to write. He started by creating stories and songs, mostly about the people around him, people who were struggling with life, trying to stop the slide down into poverty. After deciding to join the U.S. Army when he turned twenty-one, Bauman packed his bags and grabbed his typewriter. Four years after his honorable discharge, Bauman's second daughter was born. This event helped him to decide to settle down and take his writing seriously. It was 1999, and when Bauman sat in front of his typewriter this time, he started what would become his first novel.

The Ice beneath You is a semi-autobiographical novel about war at the end of the twentieth century, or as a Publishers Weekly reviewer referred to it, "a war story for the new millennium." The writing style, which some critics described as terse, fits the subject matter. A young soldier, Ben Jones, leaves his wife and child and enlists in the Army. Jones is first sent to Fort Knox where he receives a brutal training in combat, then, along with his unit, is shipped out to Somalia and assigned to the Army's waterborne unit, a group that supports the United Nations' efforts to bring food to the warring African nation.

The essence of this first novel, noted a reviewer for Publishers Weekly, comes across as "a study in quiet tension and contemporary social malaise through the prism of post-modern military life." However, only part of the novel takes place while the protagonist is actually in the military. The other section delves into the protagonist's life after leaving the Army. Jones's experiences in Somalia continue to dramatically affect his life psychologically. He leaves the familiar landscape of the East Coast upon his return to the United States and heads toward California and later Washington State, trying to make sense of the tragic events he witnessed in Africa. There is one specific event that troubles him the most, the details of which are not fully disclosed until the end of the novel.

Bauman took real events that he either experienced or heard about while in Africa to create the backbone of his novel. He wrote the book while wandering around the West Coast, suffering from both poverty and loneliness. These circumstances helped to rekindle the feelings he suffered in the military, allowing his protagonist's experience to come across in a believable way; however, Bauman told David Howell of the Morning Call, readers should not confuse the author with his protagonist.

Although The Ice beneath You is about war, it is not a typical war story, wrote Mark Rozzo in the Los Angeles Times. It is a novel whose hero is "a hard-asnails character who's as fragile as peace itself." Rozzo went on to compare Bauman to writers Tim O'Brien and Thom Jones, who told stories about their Vietnam adventures and the subsequent emotional aftermath. A Kirkus Reviews writer called Bauman's novel "a fresh, straightforward debut that strikes just the right balance between action and recollection."

In an online interview with Mark Shofield for Fiction Forum, Bauman talked about his novel and his writing in general. Shofield asked the author if writer Jack Kerouac had any influence on the way Bauman composed his novel. Kerouac reportedly wrote fast and furiously. Bauman explained that sometimes he does the same, writing ten or more pages a day. Other times, however, he said he is lucky to get one sentence down on the page. He also stated that he knows how important story is to any piece of literature, but he writes the individual lines of his stories as he would for a song.

Also a lyricist and professional folk singer, Bauman has produced the CDs Out Here in the Perimeter, 1995, and Roaddogs, Assassins, and the Queen of Ohio,1998. He cited as his role model Woody Guthrie, and has performed with folksingers Pete Seeger, Dar Williams, Bill Morrissey, and John Gorka.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Kirkus Reviews, July 15, 2002, review of The Ice beneath You, p. 970.

Los Angeles Times, October 13, 2002, Mark Rozzo, review of The Ice beneath You, p. R14.

Morning Call, October 20, 2002, Dave Howell, "'The Ice beneath You' Is One Man's Thoughtful Look at War," p. E6.

Publishers Weekly, August 5, 2002, review of The Ice beneath You, p. 50.

ONLINE

Christian Bauman Web site,http://www.christianbauman.com (August 1, 2003).

Fiction Forum,http://www.fictionforum.net/ (January 7, 2003), Mark Shofield, "Interview with Author Christian Bauman."