GOSHGARIAN, Gary 1942-

(Gary Braver)

PERSONAL: Born August 20, 1942, in Hartford, CT; son of Serop (a laborer) and Rose (a secretary; maiden name, Avedisian) Goshgarian; married Kathleen Kreuger (a high school English teacher), August 26, 1978; children: Nathan, David. Education: Worcester Polytechnic Institute, B.S. 1964; University of Connecticut, M.A., 1966; University of Wisconsin—Madison, Ph.D., 1968. Politics: Democrat.

ADDRESSES: Office—Department of English, Northeastern University, 360 Huntington Ave., Boston, MA 02115. Agent—Esther Newberg, International Creative Management, 40 W. 57th St., New York, NY 10019. E-mail—g.goshgarian@neu.edu.

CAREER: Writer, physicist, and educator. Northeastern University, Boston, MA, instructor, 1969–72, assistant professor, 1972–76, professor of English, 1976–.

MEMBER: International PEN.

WRITINGS:

NOVELS

Atlantis Fire, Dial Press (New York, NY), 1980.

Rough Beast, Penguin (New York, NYO, 1995.

The Stone Circle, Penguin (New York, NY), 1997.

(Under pseudonym Gary Braver) Elixir, Forge (New York, NY), 2000.

(Under pseudonym Gary Braver) Gray Matter, Forge (New York, NY), 2002.

EDITOR

Exploring Language, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1977.

Contemporary Reader, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1984, 7th edition, Longman (New York, NY), 2001.

Horrorscape: An Anthology of Modern Horror Fiction, Kendall/Hunt (Dubuque, IA), 1993.

(With Kathleen Krueger) Crossfire: An Argument Rhetoric and Reader, HarperCollins College Publishers (New York, NY), 1994.

(With Kathleen Krueger and Janet Minc) Dialogues: An Argument Rhetoric and Reader, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2000, 4th edition, Longman (New York, NY), 2003.

SIDELIGHTS: Gary Goshgarian is a former physicist and current professor of English at Northeastern University in Boston, MA. Among Goshgarian's research interests are popular culture, fiction, and creative writing, and he teaches courses in genre fiction such as science fiction, horror fiction, and detective fiction, as well as creative writing.

He began his career in physics, studying at Worcester Polytechnic Institute under a full scholarship. But he soon found the appeal of words and ideas greater than the pull of atoms and elementary forces. "When I got there [to Worcester Polytechnic], I realized I was having more fun starting a humor magazine and doing writing for the newspaper and yearbook," Goshgarian said in an interview on the Wigglefish Web site. "I was getting much more out of that. I could see words and believe in them. I didn't believe in atoms, because I couldn't see them. And I didn't think I had a temperament to stay in a physics lab the rest of my life." Because of his scholarship, Goshgarian remained in the physics program, but began making plans for graduate work in English well before receiving his bachelor's degree. "I was much more at home talking about books and reading them than I was [with] quantum mechanics and acoustics labs and electronics," he said in the Wigglefish interview. "So, when I got out, I got a couple degrees in English, and after having seen the light or whatever, resigned myself to a life of books and poverty."

Goshgarian is the author of three novels under his own name: Rough Beast, about a family whose son mutates as the result of a government plot; The Stone Circle, in which an archaeologist's excavations at a Stonehenge-like site induce visions and threaten madness; and Atlantis Fire, about a group of divers who discover the lost city of Atlantis and the governments, thieves, and possibly supernatural forces that surface after the discovery.

Economic realities of the publishing industry forced Goshgarian to adopt a pseudonym for his later books, Elixir and Gray Matter. His previous book had sold a modest 7,000 copies. Other circumstances, such as the unexpected death of his publisher and the elimination of the publishing imprint and editorial board he had been dealing with, left Goshgarian's work under an imprint that, he said on the Wigglefish site, "had no interest in me, and when the book sold out very fast, they were not enthusiastic about reprints." His new publisher, Forge, was very excited about his new book, but asked Goshgarian to change his name, in part to create a distance from the previous books' sales. "It's cynical," Goshgarian said in the Wigglefish interview. But, "it's the nature of the trade, and there are many writers … who have had name changes mid-career," for precisely the same reason.

Elixir, the first of his novels written under the name Gary Braver, concerns the discovery of a plant in New Guinea, the Tabukari flower, that holds back aging when it is consumed. Medicinal chemist Chris Bacon discovers the plant with the help of Iwati, a friend from school who has allegedly been using the plant for 120 years. Back in his Boston Lab, Bacon learns that the Tabukari not only stops the aging process, but also reverses aging in the lab animals he has tested it on. However, if the treatment is skipped even once, an agonizing death by accelerated aging results. Bacon recognizes the potential of the drug and tries to impose some limits on its use, but the company's corrupt CFO instead tries to use the value of the drug to settle an old mob debt. When a vicious drug lord finds out about the drug and its effects, Bacon is framed for a murder and bombing he did not commit, and he and his family are forced to flee for their lives. While in hiding, Bacon continues his research on the drug, and finds himself unable to resist its powerful lure. Years later, a youthful Chris Bacon resurfaces for a final confrontation with the people who forced him underground.

A Kirkus Reviews critic wrote that "Too much happens to too many people over the course of too many years" in the book, and wondered why the elixir is so complicated to produce if Iwati has been getting the same effects by simply eating or smoking the flower. However, reviewer Linda M.G. Kats, writing in Library Journal, remarked that Elixir is "among the best of recent contributions to its genre because of its engaging plot and the issues it addresses." A Publishers Weekly critic commented on the author's "compelling plot twists" and "down-to-earth writing that brings his characters to life as ordinary yet complex people."

In Gray Matter Ukrainian neurologist Lucius Malenko has discovered a surgical method for enhancing intelligence in humans. Working first for the National Security Agency and then in his own clinic in New England, Malenko quietly builds a large client list, exploiting successful, well-educated, but competitive parents who want their children to have higher IQs. Martin and Rachel Whitman's son Dylan is an affable child who can function normally, but who shows signs of some developmental disability. Rachel, already nearly obsessive about her child's performance, feels tremendous guilt over her drug use in college, which may have contributed to Dylan's condition. The Whitmans are introduced to Malenko, who offers to perform the intelligence-boosting procedure on Dylan. As they struggle with the decision, other children who underwent the surgery are introduced, and the effectiveness of the procedure, as well as its disturbing and possibly lethal side-effects, become clear.

"Braver's intriguing tale never stumbles," remarked William Beatty in Booklist, observing that "everything in it, no matter how appalling, fits in believably" in a novel of well-meaning parents whose decisions go awry. A Publishers Weekly critic noted that "Visceral chills enliven the otherwise predictable path of Braver's second scientific thriller (after Elixir)." However, the same reviewer observed that Braver "paints a rich tableau of creepy medical details and middle-class status anxiety and pulls off an explosive finale."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, April 1, 2000, Ray Olson, review of Elixir p. 1432; September 1, 2002, William Beatty, review of Gray Matter, p. 54.

Kirkus Reviews, April 1, 2000, review of Elixir, p. 403; August 15, 2002, review of Gray Matter, pp. 1156-1157.

Library Journal, May 1, 2000, Linda M.G. Katz, review of Elixir, p. 151.

Publishers Weekly, March 6, 2000, review of Elixir, p. 81; August 19, 2002, review of Gray Matter, p. 67.

ONLINE

Gary Braver Home page, http://www.garybraver.com (November 10, 2003).

Wigglefish Web site, http://www.wigglefish.com/ (December 23, 2002), Killian Melloy, "Twenty Questions with Gary Braver."