Katagogi from Greece and when did your family emigrate from Greece :

I am the second of three brothers born in a small northern Wisconsin town called Tomahawk.  And although my birth certificate says my name is James Rouman, I should have been called Demetrios Roumanis, the name given me at baptism.  Our family surname had already been established by a relative who immigrated to America prior to my father’s arrival in 1905---a time when immigration officials indiscriminately anglicized the names of persons processed at Ellis Island, believing as they did, in the melting pot theory espoused by social activists of the time. Our katagogi is from the Peloponnesus, and more specifically from a village in Laconia called Katavothra (now Metamorphosis) located between Molaoi and Monemvasia.

Favorite Greek dish:

My favorite Greek foods are pastitso and anything avgolemono, from chicken soup, to dolmathes and celery and pork. What avgolemono is for us Peloponnesians, tomato sauce is for Sicilians.  And I love it!

Do you speak Greek:

We were the only Greek family living in Tomahawk when I was growing up, and the first words I spoke were Greek. Actually, I had difficulty negotiating the English language in kindergarten, but once there, lost no time catching up with my fellow students. Our parents home- schooled us in the Greek language, and I and my brothers learned to read and write the language of our forefathers, taking pride in doing so to this day.

When did you first start coming up with the concept for your book:

I have always enjoyed writing, and have done so from the moment I won a state essay contest in the eighth grade, through high school doing sports columns for the local newspaper, and on to college, when I tried my hand at writing short stories and poetry as part of an undergraduate creative writing course.  My ambition has always been to write a book, which I first attempted after finishing medical school, internship, and a year working on the high seas as a ship’s surgeon.  But the time and effort needed to develop a professional career left no opportunity for me to get out of my system that one book we know is in each of us.

Did anything/anyone inspire you to write the book:

Upon retiring as an anesthesiologist, working in the high intensity arena of a busy surgical hospital, I decided to tell my story. Looking back on a successful professional career, I felt I had something to say about the practice of medicine, while trying, at the same time, to capture some of the drama associated with a few of the lives and situations I was aware of that made my hospital the high intensity place I knew it to be. Moreover, I wanted to touch, as well, on several societal issues that impact our contemporary lives.

Why did you feel it was important to incorporate a Greek theme to your book:

Obviously, my book is to some extent semi-autobiographical, and as such, has in it a Greek theme.  And it does so because first and foremost, I am a Greek. But actual stories of other persons known to me are woven into the plot as well, and while some of my friends and family thought I was writing about them, upon close scrutiny they remained comfortable knowing I had not necessarily done so. Fortunately, a novelist has license to draw upon his life experiences and imagination to make his characters say and do whatever he, the author, chooses them to do.  And in many instances, I took advantage of that prerogative.

When did you start writing the book and when did you complete it?

Once I began writing, I completed my book in little over a year and dedicated it “to those who ventured over water in search of a dream.” Clearly, the reference is to those early immigrants, who crossed the Atlantic Ocean by ship, often under difficult circumstances, in hopes of a better life. Most importantly, however, I wanted my book to memorialize that unique cohort of people of the Greek Diaspora, who came to this country, settled in small isolated towns throughout the United States, and without the support of a larger ethnic community consisting of churches, schools, and clubs, managed to preserve within their families their Greek traditions and the Orthodox faith.

In the beginning of your book it seems that the book is dedicated “ to those who ventured over the water in search of a dream”.  Why then is your title of the book “Underwater Dreams”

The title of my book mystifies many who read it, and only those persons inured with a certain Freudian background “get it” at first blush. But it’s easy if one pauses to think about it. Not realizing she was pregnant after the birth of her first child, doctors attempted to regulate the menstrual periods of the mother of the story’s protagonist, who at the time was growing inside her body. In my novel, the underwater cave the principal character sometimes dreams of being in, represents his mother’s womb, which held him as a developing fetus.  And it is during moments of stress in his adult life that he subconsciously reverts in those dreams to the watery space he once occupied.

You have many ancient Greeks quoted throughout your book,  do you have a favorite author/poet/voice from the ancient Greek world?

Water has long served as a metaphor in literature, going back as early as in the famous first Olympian Ode of Pindar, my favorite Greek poet of antiquity, who wrote his familiar line, “ariston men hydor,” or, water is best, in a reference to the four basic elements of nature, namely, earth, water, fire and air. The contemporary novelist, John Gregory Brown, had this to say about water: “throughout literature, water serves as a representation not only of birth, but of death, not merely of placidity, but of violence. Water transports the hero to his great adventures and carries him home.  Water holds the promise both of freedom and of enslavement, its shimmering surface inviting, its depths mysterious and daunting.”

Your thoughts on DF?

What do I think about Daily Frappe? It’s simply the greatest way to start the day reading about Greece and things Greek----and in such a stylish way at that.  Keep up the good work.

DF: Thank you Mr. Rouman.  Best of luck and we wish you much success with the book.