Author Michael H.

Rubin
on his debut novel,
The Cottoncrest Curse
Youve been a successful attorney for years; what
inspired you to take on the new challenge of writ-
ing a thriller deeply rooted in southern history?
MR: As a Louisiana native and history buf, Ive
always been fascinated by Louisianas unique mul-
ticultural society, from the early French and Span-
ish settlers who displaced and later oppressed the
native population to the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries freemen of color, the reprehensible slave
trade, the numerous immigrant groups, and those
who came south during Americas expansion. I
sought to create a compelling story that ties the
past to the present and deals with an evolving sense
of what constitutes justice.
How did you develop the main character of Jake
Gold, who becomes the subject of a massive man-
hunt?
MR: My great-grandfather, a Russian immigrant
who began his career as an itinerant peddler in the
Deep South and who had encounters with maraud-
ing bands of white supremacists, was the inspira-
tion for Jake. Although the setting is historically
accurate, Jake and his adventures are purely fc-
tional.
Why center this story around a southern planta-
tion?
MR: Both before the Civil War and during and
afer Reconstruction, plantations were the crucibles
for interaction between blacks and whites, between
the educated and the unschooled, between south-
ern aristocracy and the merchant class, between
those whose livelihood was tied to the land and
those whose only interest was commerce, and be-
tween those who enforced laws (both just and un-
just) and those whose power emanated from guns
and violence. All of these came together on Loui-
siana plantations and form the basis for the novel.
Why were you interested in making cultural di-
versity, racial tension, and the search for the truth
the novels underlying themes?
MR: Truth and identity are intertwined. Te Cot-
toncrest Curse is concerned with three universal
questions. Can we really know every signifcant as-
pect of our familys history? How are our relation-
ships afected by our preconceived stereotypes and
by our own sense of identity? And, do we have an
obligation to tell the unvarnished truth if it helps
some but injures others?
2 / LSU Press www.lsupress.org