San Francisco, Black Holes & Chanel No 5

PEPPER HARDING is the pen name of a writer from San Francisco. The Heart of Henry Quantum, Pepper’s new novel, follows a scatterbrained husband’s erratic journey through the streets of San Francisco as he hunts down his wife’s Christmas present – a bottle of Chanel No. 5. Along the way he runs into his former lover, Daisy. We asked the author about his new novel and the eccentric thought journeys that appears throughout its pages.

How does San Francisco, the setting for The Heart of Henry Quantum, compare to a city like New York, and how does it shape the story?
This question is tough to answer; it’s like comparing two lovers. Not a great idea, at least while they’re listening. Let me just say something about SF and why it works so well for me in this story. San Francisco, for all its intricacies and cosmopolitanism, is a very intimate city. People come here from all over (as I did), and before long feel native; they feel they know every one of its nooks and crannies, not to mention its faults.They become very protective of it, perhaps because they sense that it gives them so much personal freedom and creative energy.They are bathed in its beauty, coddled by its weather, enlightened by its politics, charmed by its idiosyncrasies and nourished by its ever-changing cultural scene – not to mention the amazing food, coffee and wine, for which San Francisco is justly famous. In other words, people here have an intimate relationship with the city. It is this intimacy that allows Henry Quantum to take stock of the places he visits on his walk, which in turn allows him to take stock of himself. It is the city itself that opens him – and reveals Henry to himself. San Francisco is unique in America, and perhaps in the world, and The Heart of Henry Quantum, a Christmas love story, is also a love letter to my home. 

Which authors influence and inspire your work?
I tend to fall back on the 19th-century classics, but of modern authors I love Pat Barker, Kazuo Ishiguro, J M Coetzee and especially Ernest Gaines. Such wonderful storytellers who speak so simply and clearly and reveal so much depth and pathos. I’m also a fan of E M Forster and William Maxwell, great stylists on the opposite ends of the spectrum. These and many others are great teachers. The book that’s taught me most about writing, though, is the Old Testament in modern translation. Talk about a condensed style! Stories upon which we endlessly elaborate are told in a few broad, but very precise, strokes; it’s the most masterful prose I’ve ever come across. 

We read as Henry marvels at the impermeability of skin, recalls a sombrero-shaped galaxy pictured by the Hubble Telescope, ponders that the light we see from stars is millions of years old, and then finds himself grappling with Zen philosophy – all in a half of a second. Do you ever find yourself going off on similar mental tangents?
All the time. I suppose that was the origin of this book. I was taking a walk with a friend, just blah-blah-blahing, jumping from one topic to another,so I said to m yfriend, ‘I wonder if I could write a book about someone who was totally in his or her head and nothing much happens, just thinking one thought after another.’ As soon as I said it, I thought What a boring book that would be! But my friend dared me to do it. A dare is a dare, so I went home and started writing. Before I knew it, Henry emerged, so full of life, and I was off and running. 

Discussions of black holes and the nature of cosmos appear throughout your book, and the surname of your titular character is a reference to a branch of physics. What do you find fascinating or disturbing about quantum theory? 
I’m completely ignorant when it comes to math and science – maybe that’s why I love it so much. Happily my character is ignorant as well, so I didn’t have to be accurate or even vaguely correct about any of it. But it’s all so suggestive and mysterious. What could they possibly mean by the idea that we are all just ‘information’ on the edge of a giant black hole? String theory – what? Everything is just little vibrations? And somehow that leads to the notion that there are multiple universes? My goodness, it’s enough we have to worry about what came befor the Big Bang (answer :nothing; there was no such thing as time) and now we have to understand that a particle can beat two places at the same time? What I love is that none of this stuff is accessible to our senses or relates to ou rlived experience, and it eviscerates commonsense. Is that not he coolest thing ever? The only thing more complicated than quantum physics is marriage. 

What’s the appeal of Chanel No. 5? 
Let’s be honest. It’s a doofus gift. I mean, not in itself. It’s fabulous. But here it is, two days before Christmas, Henry’s gotten exactly nothing for his wife, Margaret, and all he can think of is a bottle of perfume. Perfunctory, I believe, is the word. And he knows it. He knows that if the perfume were a tradition between them, or just one part of a more personal gift, then absolutely, it’s great. But in this case it’s nothing but a stopgap, and that says everything you need to know about the relationship, at least about where Henry is at that particular moment. But it becomes a kind of talisman. The holy grail for which he searches. As if by getting the Chanel No. 5 all will be restored, his heart will be healed and their relationship will be whole.Why Chanel No. 5 specifically? Because it really is a wonderful thing – sensual, beautiful, desirable – the gold standard in a bottle. That’s what he’s after.