About Tempest in a Teacup: My Homage to Milan Kundera and Leonard Cohen
How does one exist in the world: do you live your life according to a single ideal or by trial-and-error, seeking a diverse spiral of experiences? This dichotomy plays out everywhere and especially in human relationships. In “Tempest in a Teacup” six characters, each with a different way of being—Destiny, Great Love, Power, Obligation, Pleasure, Beauty—come together in a series of events revolving around a corporate function. As the characters collide, the viability of each way is questioned in their alternating viewpoints. Each narrator is unreliable – but then which one of us is ever a reliable narrator?
The idea for this story was born out of “Dictionary of Misunderstood Words” in Milan Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being. From the day I first read him, I was fascinated with Kundera’s characters representing different how-to-exist-in-the-world ideas. But as I tried to fill these existential characters with flesh and blood and guilt and longing and all the internal cracks that make us human, another influence crept in. I love Leonard Cohen’s songs and poetry. I don’t know anyone who expressed the pain and the healing power of our relationships as well as he did. On the surface, these two men couldn’t be more different: a cool, humorous, almost rational dissection vs. broken, passionate, spiritual longing. And yet I saw more similarities than differences: from separate viewpoints, they shone a light on both our alienation and the grace of connections that eclipse our selves. They don’t need my homage, but I wanted to thank these remarkable artists for giving me shelter and light when all other lights went out.
From the BlueInk review: “Bell’s characters are genuinely enjoyable, and the themes – love, art, passion, identity – are thoughtfully and provocatively explored in a work that offers many rewards.”
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Learn More About The Author
I didn’t plan to write, I had kind of “fallen” into it. In a way, I feel fortunate to take up writing late in life: since I don’t depend on it for my livelihood, I’m free to write what I want. I don’t target mass audience; if you’re looking for a light read after a hard day at work, you have better options. I want to follow Milan Kundera, one of my favorite writers, in that a “novel is a meditation on existence.” I try to find something meaningful to say and I hope my stories speak to you. To all of you who read my books and left reviews – thank you for your wonderful feedback!
My latest work, Eleos, is a historic fiction set primarily during the time of the Eichmann’s trial. In a way, it’s a personal investigation into how events like the Holocaust and the Armenian Genocide become possible.
Marshland is a detective story set in modern Los Angeles, focused on the impact that internet and social media can have on our lives and their potential for unscrupulous abuse by those in power.
The first three books – The Metronome, The Great Game, and The Outer Circle – form a trilogy, where the lives of seemingly unconnected characters intersect against the backdrop of a turbulent power game between United States, China, and Russia. Unfortunately, some of the events described there are now happening in real life.