Colm Tóibín on Living in Trump's America and the Seeds of Fiction
Colm Tóibín, the celebrated Brooklyn-based author, has revealed how his experiences in the United States during Donald Trump's presidency have profoundly influenced his latest collection of short stories. In a candid reflection, Tóibín shares how the political climate under Trump, particularly regarding immigration, served as a direct inspiration for his narratives, blending personal observation with creative imagination.
The Genesis of a Story: From Hike to Homeland
In 2008, while hiking near Muir Woods in San Francisco with friends, Tóibín began to envision a character: an Irish plumber living illegally in the Bay Area, contemplating a return to his homeland. Over the years, this idea evolved, but it was the prospect of Trump's potential second term that crystallised the plot. Tóibín explains that the character's decision to leave America on 20 January 2025, the date of Trump's hypothetical inauguration, became a central theme, driven by fears of intensified crackdowns on undocumented immigrants.
He meticulously timed the writing of the story, Five Bridges, to coincide with the fictional events, creating a sense of urgency as ICE raids loomed and Trump's rhetoric grew more ominous. This superstitious approach, Tóibín admits, felt serious at the time, aiming to capture the tension before political realities shifted irrevocably.
The Power of Suggestion: Henry James and the 'Germ' of Ideas
Tóibín draws on Henry James's concept of a 'germ'—a fleeting moment or detail that sparks a story. He illustrates this with an anecdote from the Catalan Pyrenees, where a historian recounted a chance encounter between a local woman and a retired Francoist general. From this brief interaction, Tóibín crafted a tale exploring unspoken tensions and missed connections, emphasising that often, what is left unsaid holds more drama than explicit confrontation.
Similarly, in his story A Sum of Money, Tóibín chose to omit a direct confrontation between a boy and his parents, instead focusing on the subtle shifts in sensibility that occur in silence. This technique, he argues, allows for greater nuance and emotional impact, echoing James's advice to 'guess the unseen from the seen.'
Memory and Imagination: From Barcelona to Buenos Aires
Tóibín's process often involves weaving real-life spaces and memories into his fiction. For instance, after a brief meeting with three Catalan sisters in Barcelona in 1988, he waited 30 years to write The Catalan Girls, imagining their lives in Argentina and their return to Spain. He infuses the story with personal details, such as a room in Buenos Aires where he once lived, blurring the lines between recollection and invention.
He notes that abandoned places—like a dormitory in Wexford or apartments in Austin and San Francisco—provide creative energy, allowing him to revisit them in stories long after they are gone. This haunting of spaces, Tóibín suggests, enriches his narratives with a sense of history and loss.
Confronting Evil: The Ordinary Horrors of Trump's Era
Reflecting on his current life in New York, Tóibín describes the unsettling normality of living under Trump, where once-unimaginable evils become tolerated. He connects this to real-world cases, such as Seamus Culleton, an Irish immigrant arrested by ICE, whose ordeal mirrored elements of Tóibín's fiction. While his character in Five Bridges avoids such a fate, Tóibín warns that future stories may not offer such escapes, highlighting the grim realities facing undocumented individuals.
Ultimately, Tóibín's work serves as a poignant commentary on how art can confront political darkness, using the tools of fiction to explore themes of immigration, memory, and the subtle tolerances of evil in contemporary America.
