Lebanon - World Record - Child Prodigy Randy Nahle
Nishee
Michael Karam has a word or two with a Lebanese prodigy
At 13 years old, Randy Nahle will be if those nice people at The
Guinness Book of Records can verify his claims the world’s youngest
published author.
Like any writer he has had to learn to live with the attention of the
media. However, one gets the feeling that Randy rather enjoys it; it
gets him off homework every now and then.
But his career was nearly over before it started. Sitting in the family
chalet at the Samaya beach resort, he told me about the disaster that
struck his first foray into writing.
“I was fooling around with this girl at the computer and she just
pressed the ‘delete’ button, and then she pressed the ‘Are you sure you
want to delete?’ button. Can you believe that?”
How many words had he lost. “Oh I don’t work in words; I work in
chapters.”
“Sorry. How many chapters?”
“About nine chapters. I found it again in DOS but then some kid gave me
the wrong command and I lost the whole thing. I was really mad. So I sat
down and wrote another book which took nearly two years. The first one
had taken me nine months working two, three hours a day. I was only
midway through. You should have seen how furious I was.”
Randy has been writing since he was nine “When I got a computer.”
“Revenge” a murder mystery for kids is his third book (if you
include the one that disappeared into cyberspace) but the first to be
published. It is the first of the “Hawk Archives:” what is hoped to be a
series of detective novels featuring the crime-busting Hawk family, and
one that slots neatly into the junior sleuth genre made popular by the
Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew.
But surely the loss of his first manuscript would have demoralized even
the most hardened ‘grown up’ writer. What motivated the young scribe to
pick himself up and start again?
“I knew I could make it into the papers and be the youngest writer in
the world. I was trying to beat the record at the time I lost the first
book, so I had to get on with another one.”
And don’t be fooled into thinking that kids don’t experience the same
writer’s angst that their adult counterparts do. Randy explains his
frustrations with his initial efforts on the second book: “It was
difficult at first. In parts it was a bit weak; a bit too childish.”
Randy has so far been unlucky in his attempts to gain access to The
Guinness Book of Records, but is optimistic that the record will one day
be his.
“Well we’ve been in touch with Guinness and we’re …” He searches for a
suitable word, obviously feeling the matter has enough gravitas for a
modicum of discretion. “We’re talking. They want to see the book to make
sure I wrote it, but this year’s (Guinness) book is already out. We’re
trying to get it into the 2000 edition. That would be neat.”
Why writing? “Oh, I’ve already answered that for CNN, but … okay. You
see I read a lot and it got to the stage when I didn’t like the endings
in the books I was reading. So I started putting in my own endings. The
writing grew from there.”
Randy hopes to continue his writing but wants to get another profession
under his belt. “Maybe I’ll become a doctor or even a lawyer, which
would be neat for my detective novels. I’ve always believed in being a
Renaissance man. I don’t want to confine myself to one career or work
pattern.”
Fortunately his friends at school are “really supportive” about his
being a writer. “At first there was a bit of a fuss which got in the way
of my studies. Every time I arrived at school I would be surrounded by
people asking me if I’m ‘the writer.’ I liked that feeling. But now I
try to avoid all that. It’s an important time of year for studies. I
love the attention of the newspapers and all but it can get in the way.”
He confesses to being top of his class and no, he doesn’t have a
girlfriend. “I haven’t got to that age yet. I’m still only 13.”
Any hobbies then? “Oh hobbies. Well I like mythology and,” his eyes scan
the ceiling as he thinks, “swimming in the summer. When I don’t swim I
have a tendency to put on a few pounds,” he says patting his tummy like
a contented Pooh Bear. “Oh yeah, my dad and I play tennis.”
His mother joins us. “Randy your answers are incomplete. You haven’t
mentioned the fact that you are teaching yourself Latin or that you play
the piano.”
Randy gets back on track: “Do you know what I really love? I love to
play chess with my uncle It’s all about strategy, which really helps
when you write detective stories.”
Not surprisingly, he is a self-confessed bookworm, his favorite genre
being yep you guessed it detective novels.
“I like Arthur Conan Doyle. He wrote the Sherlock Holmes books; Agatha
Christie, Nancy Drew. He is also reading Machiavelli’s “The Prince”:
“It’s a beautiful book. It’s about government and how to rule.”
His mother again: “Other kids, you take them to the cinema and places
like that. Randy likes to go to the library and sit for two to three
hours with a bunch of books. He has already read 350 books.” She opens a
cabinet and hurls out piles of dog-eared paperbacks. “This is last
month’s batch.”
“For 24 hours the book never leaves his hand. He goes to bed with a book
and when he get up, the first thing he does is open a dictionary,” says
his father.
This is Randy’s cue to show me his dictionaries, past and present. “From
seven to 10 this was my dictionary. Now I have this one.” The former
looks like it has been in a car wreck the other, new and bigger, maybe
heading for the same fate. “I love dictionaries.” I’m also on my second
Latin book. The other one just fell apart.”
But Randy also has some strong opinions about education. When I mention,
that as a country, we don’t read, Randy takes off his writer’s hat and
launches into a surprisingly coherent monologue on the state of the
school system. I ask him whether Latin should be taught in schools.
“The kids can barely speak the three languages they’re learning now. Why
give them a fourth?” The logic is simplistic, but belies his deep
concern for where we are going wrong in the often over-zealous world of
Lebanese education. He recognizes that his friends see books his love
as a nightmare and represent nothing more than blots on the summer
holiday landscape. He hopes to remedy this by bringing out a “Revenge”
workbook to complement the novel. “To make English more fun.”
Randy Ghazi Nahle was born in America, spending the first eight years of
his life in Los Angeles before coming back to Lebanon. He likes it
better here but admits that, for opportunities, “we can’t deny that
America has more to offer.”
On this subject he becomes almost sermonic: “And as you all know,” he
says clasping his hands together, “America is a melting pot for cultures
and we can learn from them. But Lebanon has a certain thing in your
heart. The people are gentle.”
The conversation switches to the environment. “It’s sh*t oops.” He
feigns mock naughtiness, his hand over his mouth. “I mean it’s really
bad.”
“In America if you throw a cigarette on the pavement you will get a huge
fine. Here they throw a big trash bag onto the street and get away with
it. I’ll tell you something. The Lebanese don’t like to spend money, so
if you fine them the people would stop throwing even the smallest piece
of paper. You also need to couple this with education.” Are you
listening Mr. Nazarian?
His school, the Antonine Sisters in Ghazir, does have a solid
environmental policy, but Randy is still amazed that many of his peers
are still ignorant of the damage they are doing when they drop litter.
He shakes his head like a disappointed father. “They do not appreciate
the education they are getting.”
He skillfully moves the conversation out of the ‘forest’ and onto the
roads: “Thousands of people die on our roads each week.” This is a
fortunate and endearing exaggeration. One forgets that Randy is a boy
barely into his teens. When told that the current driving test leaves a
lot to be desired, it is too much for his ordered mind to grasp.
“They don’t have driving tests! Put that down in your story. We need
proper exams. Look what happened to that poor model Catarina Prince.
What a waste. And then there was Diana. I know she was killed in France,
but we have the same problems.”
And so naturally, seamlessly, almost inevitably, the conversation segues
into politics. Randy rubs his hands with glee. “Oh good. I love
politics.” If he had one question, what would he ask Mr. Hoss or General
Lahoud? “Let me tell you something: Both of them should play their part:
Do their jobs properly. Also I always say the people should take matters
into their own hands. I was so proud of the students who went to Arnoun.
They need to encourage the leaders who are not working to their full
capacities. There are a lot of things that we the people are not doing
and they (the government) are not doing. We should all work harder.”
Randy Nahle will be signing copies of his book “Revenge” in the main
hall of the St. Elias monastery in Antelias at 5 P.M. Thursday, March
11. The book will be on sale at the monastery until Sunday, March 14.
“Revenge” and the “Revenge Workbook” are published by Samaha publishing