Today at 4:00 p.m. at the New Dominion Bookshop, author Gary Kessler will tell the stories behind the story. Showcased as part of the Virginia Festival of the Book, Kessler's new book, On the Downtown Mall, features 36 short stories that weave together the history of Charlottesville's open-air mall with fictional stories of its patrons.
Set in mid-April, the book spans an entire day on the Downtown Mall. Beginning with what Kessler calls a "meta-story" of four 20-somethings gathered at the Hardware Store, the story follows their game of inventing backgrounds for the people who they watch pass by. After the friends take turns creating these stories, the book offers the "real" story of each passer-by.
"Sometimes they're way off and sometimes they're right on," Kessler said. "Their stories just add another dimension to the book, whose theme is that nothing is exactly what it seems to be, everything it just a little askew."
As the story moves between mall landmarks like the Hardware Store, the Paramount Theater and Timberlake's Drug Store, the reader is introduced to fictional characters who resemble actual Charlottesville residents. One character, a University professor who has recently uncovered a massive cheating ring in his class, happens to be on the Downtown Mall meeting with a student.
"The student is not doing well in the class and comes to talk with her professor," Kessler explained. "Though she doesn't pick up on it, the reader knows that the professor is hitting on her. This is just an example of how I take something that really happened and make it completely different."
Kessler, a University alumnus and long-time Charlottesville resident, also includes a historical essay on the mall with accompanying photographs. The book's year-long journey to this year's Festival of the Book began during last year's festival, while Kessler was working at the University Press.
"We were talking about new things to do for next year's festival and thought we could get area writers to write short stories about the Downtown Mall," Kessler said. "I started writing a few and then had far too many of my own to have room for others. The stories were relating well to one another so I decided to put them together."
The purpose of the book, as Kessler said, is to "highlight the variety of people that come to the mall and get along."
To this effect, Kessler's characters represent various nationalities, ethnicities, sexual orientations and ages.
"The book is trying to say that everyone comes down to the mall, that everyone enjoys being down there," he said.
The New Dominion Bookshop is located at 404 East Main Street in Charlottesville.
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