Positive Life NSW

On 1 August 2009, a lone gunman walked into a Tel Aviv gay support centre and killed two teenagers, injured eight others and made a lasting impact on the gay community. In his debut novel, Australian Marc Andrews theorises on the killer’s motives in a witty tale of love, lust and heartbreak.

In July 2009, journalist Marc Andrews travelled to Israel to meet the man he thought would be the love of his life. Full of optimism, lust and love, he made his way to Tel Aviv only to realise his dreams would be unfulfilled. Determined to make the most of a bad situation, he stayed on to enjoy all that the burgeoning gay scene has to offer.

He was at a local club, when, quite suddenly and inexplicably, everything changed. Phones began ringing all around him and panic seemed to grip the dance floor. When Marc answered his own phone, he learned that there had been gun shoots in the local gay support centre. He would later learn that it was a lone gunman who killed two gay teens and injured eight others.

The Tel Aviv gay community was aghast and the news sent shockwaves around the world. Gay leaders described the shootings as the worst hate crime ever committed against the community. Hundreds took to the streets in protest. Gay clubs were temporarily shut down during the search for the gunman, who was never found.

The shootings left an indelible mark on the Israeli gay community. For Marc, it was a turning point; he re-evaluated his life and went on to write his break out first novel.

Revelations: 2 Weeks in Tel Aviv tackles this very serious subject with humour and wit. While the shooting is central to the plot, it is more a study in character. Part travelogue, part love story and part thriller, it explores how similar situations can affect people in very different ways.

David is a hedonist Australian visiting his Israeli lover and Yaniv is strict fundamentalist on a path of destruction. These men’s very different lives intersect and collide in a number of unexpected ways. We learn that they are both HIV positive and discover how this shapes their actions and beliefs.

The book is tinged with tragedy and bittersweet memories, but it also has laugh out loud sticky situations, passionate sex and redemption. There is a little something for everyone!

Talkabout approached Marc to learn a bit more about his inspiration for the book.

Marc: Well, I was there when it happened and it’s one of those things you certainly don’t expect. It really was one of those life-changing moments in a way.
I wrote a story for DNA and they had a really big response to it. When I came back [to Sydney] and told people, they said it sounds like a novel. The thought went through my mind.
I did a lot of following of the story because the person who committed this crime just got away and was never found, and in Israel they can pretty much find anyone if they need to. They have no problems getting passports of past people without you noticing so it seems very odd that they couldn’t find this one person.
There were all kinds of theories that everyone in Tel Aviv had about who had done it. Then there was the arrest of a Jewish terrorist late last year and people thought that person had done it. I did a lot of looking at what he had talked about, what he was into and his background. He formed the background for the Yaniv character.

Talkabout: The Yaniv character is quite interesting; he is complex and conflicted. He is a religious fundamentalist who denies his gay self and happens to be HIV positive. You allow him certain relapses where he reflects on his former life and it is an interesting psychological study. How did you develop this character?

Marc: You have to think of someone who is in the mindset that going into a gay youth club and shooting people to death is the right thing to do. I mean, on what basis would someone do that? What would lead someone to do that?
I also thought about people who had to deal with a huge tragedy. What would happen if you lived through the burial of an entire generation, your partner, and these kinds of things. It has to have some effect on you and some people it adversely affects.
This is what happens to this character, Yaniv, which I kind of took through that. But having said that, you get the feeling that he also realises towards the end that what he has done is a terrible thing and that’s the whole point of the book. There is redemption for people who have done terrible things and that’s not religious based redemption, that’s on a personal level.
A lot of these people are serial offenders and it often does build up to this point where they have gotten away with a few things and then they take it to the next level, which was the case with the Jewish terrorist.
I was also reading a lot on the ex-gay movement at the time. I thought it was an interesting way to put these two together. You know, is it possible for someone who has lived through the whole AIDS crisis and been so devastated and had lost everything and in some way feel that this was their saviour and this could lead them to do something like this?

Talkabout: The lead character of David is very easy to relate to and there are some quintessentially Sydney moments. Obviously there are parallels between him and yourself, but how much of the characters are based on your personal experiences and people you know? Can you tell us how the characters developed?

Marc: Well, it started from a point where I was very close to the characters. But, by the second and third drafts, when I actually went back to Israel for a month in January, that’s when the whole thing really started to evolve.
The character of Yaniv became a much more central character and a lot of other things changed very much.
David being HIV positive changed because I had read a story in the Sydney Star Observer that said that a third of the inner city Sydney gay population is HIV positive. [Ed’s note: Recent statistics place this figure around 15%.] I just thought that’s astounding and that’s a figure that no one really talks about – the great unspoken or the elephant in the room in the gay community. I thought there doesn’t seem to be anywhere that I have seen a positive HIV role model.
I thought, wouldn’t it be interesting if this person, who could be the hero in a way, who certainly is the leading character, who is HIV positive, and that’s just part of his life. He sort of deals with it and he has some struggles obviously and they are detailed in the book, but, you know, he moves on with his life.
You know, there is so much negativity, and when you read about HIV in the mainstream media it always seems to have a negative connotation. I thought wouldn’t it be interesting to turn it on its head to show that someone can be HIV positive, can live their life, can go through these things but also have that resilience and that is an important part of the book. Resilience is such an important quality and can get you through these sorts of traumas, these awful things.

Talkabout: Well, it is certainly interesting how very differently these two men have been affected by HIV. David is very confident and matter of fact about his status and then you have Yaniv, who you sense was so traumatised that he now compartmentalises his life. The excerpt from the book is something I think many people will relate to.

Marc: I certainly hope that people who are HIV positive can relate to this character and they can see this is not just a character plucked out of the air. David is based on people I know who are positive and particularly one person who is very unapologetically HIV positive and really has no understanding of why other people have no understanding. For example, he doesn’t understand the negative reaction he gets from people when he reveals his status. He said, “Why should that matter? I take a few pills. It’s the same as if I had some other illness. The next morning I’m fine.”

Talkabout: Well, it is interesting. Often we are expected to be apologetic for our HIV status and we probably deal with rejection a lot more often. So, there is a need for resilience and David’s approach is refreshing.

Marc: There is a message around having to deal with HIV and not letting it knock you back. This is an issue that maybe these people have and for David it is the idea that maybe I can educate them but I have to get on with my life and enjoy my life and that person has to accept that this is part of who I am and I cannot change that.

Talkabout: I think many readers will be able to relate to David. It is sometimes difficult to understand gay men’s issue with HIV status.

Marc: Well, that’s the thing. It’s such a part of the gay world and yet it is so unspoken. And that’s the theme of the book as well. There are so many different levels where it comes into play. The Yaniv character has obviously gone through the AIDS epidemic and he’s positive and takes his medication, but, it’s almost like you said, he compartmentalises it and doesn’t want it to interact with any part of his new life.

Talkabout: It is interesting how these two characters live so differently and yet their lives intersect in unexpected ways.

Marc: Yes, they are parallel but especially towards the end you realise that they are more and more interweaving. There are so many more connections there.

Talkabout: Despite the serious subject, I found the book to have great moments of levity, where you sit and smile to yourself. The music references can transport you and it seems you made a very deliberate attempt to mention artists and songs.

Marc: Well, that’s nice to hear. Actually, there are a lot of music references. So, I’ve done a 90-minute mix of songs that are mentioned in the book. If you buy the book, then you get a free link to download this and hear the songs that are either mentioned in the book or might relate to it. I’ve done a track by track to explain how it would fit in. It’s sort of a soundtrack to the book, if you like.

Talkabout: Is there anything else you would like to tell our readers?

Marc: (laughing) Visit my blog and buy the book. All the proceeds go to the ORAM organisation, which advocates for gay refugees globally. I thought how could I get people to read the story and talk about it and then, if you like, do some good as well. So the sale is to cover the costs and the proceeds go to ORAM to make a difference.

About the author
Marc Andrews is a Sydney-based journalist and writer. He was previously a news/film editor for Smash Hits magazine in the UK and editor of Smash Hits in Australia. Marc is currently assistant editor of Mediaweek magazine in Australia and also a contributing editor for DNA magazine. He is compiling his best celebrity interviews from the past 20 years for his next book project.
Marc’s blog is at http://marcandrewsblog.blogspot.com/