Some people pick a lane. Roie Oknin decided to pave several of them and see where they lead. He is a writer, an artist, and a medical student with degrees in neuroscience and psychology, an involvement in ophthalmology research, and a creative practice that stretches across fiction, ceramics, photography, and painting. And somehow, rather than keeping all those interests in their respective little boxes, he seems to have let them bleed into one another. His debut novel, Ramen, Existential Crises, is perhaps the most obvious evidence of that wonderfully eclectic brain at work: a literary novel about repetition, change, and the strange little absurdities of being human. Even its cover was designed by Roie himself! I recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Roie for a coffee chat about his debut, his many creative pursuits, and the curious intersection between the scientific and artistic sides of his life, which, as it turns out, may not be as strange a pairing as it sounds.
Nikki: I’m so excited to welcome Roie Oknin to my author spotlight series, as he just published his debut novel. But we’ll get to that! To kick things off, Roie, what milk are you adding to your coffee?
Roie: It depends on the coffee, which is probably an unnecessarily serious answer to a milk question.
For a cappuccino, regular milk. For iced coffee, usually oat.
No such thing as unnecessarily serious here! It’s great to be able to share this coffee chat with you, and I always love when we can make them fun. So, tell me about your debut novel!
My first published novel is Ramen, Existential Crises.
It follows Koji, who is twenty-seven and has spent six years working in a tiny ramen restaurant. The shop has eleven seats, one dish, noodles that cook for exactly eighty-five seconds and a broth whose flame has not gone out in thirty-two years. Koji has organized his life around repetition and precision.
Then the timer fails.
A stranger gives him a business card, someone from his past returns, and a series of very small disruptions begins forcing him to look at a life he has become extremely good at not changing.
It is literary fiction with slice-of-life and lightly absurdist elements.
Oh, I absolutely adore that pitch. Literary fiction has so many layers, and I always love digging into what makes each book unique. If anyone were to ask you what the most unexpectedly beautiful element in your book is, what would you say?
Boredom.
I think boredom is interesting, and fiction is often frightened of it.
There are deliberately repetitive moments in Ramen, Existential Crises, including a chapter that follows the restaurant’s routine in almost excessive detail. I knew while writing it that some of it might feel boring, but removing that completely would have felt dishonest.
Koji has spent six years doing largely the same things. If I turned that routine into something endlessly charming and picturesque for the reader, then the reader wouldn’t really experience the problem he has created for himself.
I think what someone is willing to repeat every day can tell you as much about them as what they do during the supposedly important moments.
There’s such an elegance that comes with allowing a story to really sit with its authentic structural identity, and I so agree that fiction tends to stray away from things conventionally viewed as boring. So, Koji… Do you ever find that he gets under your skin?
(Laughs) Koji can definitely frustrate me.
I often feel the same way about my characters. Where do you find the inspiration for your stories?
I like absurdity. It doesn’t have to be very absurd. But it should be absurd enough to be interesting and real enough to be relatable.
That’s a great philosophy. I have to ask, though I know the book is still brand new… What’s the best thing you’ve heard from a reader so far?
One reviewer told me that Ramen, Existential Crises was one of the top ten books she had ever read.
But I’ve also been very affected by the quieter responses. Someone telling me they kept thinking about Koji after the book ended, or noticing a tiny detail I wasn’t expecting anyone to mention, or finding an interpretation that wasn’t the one I had while writing it.
I love when readers call out those details we didn’t necessarily expect them to notice! That’s the best compliment. Now, I’d love to hear about your top books. Do you have a favorite?
Probably Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky.
I love how much of the book happens inside one person’s mind. The narrator can understand what he is doing, analyze it endlessly, know that he is behaving against his own interests, and then do it anyway. There is something very funny, uncomfortable, and recognisable about that.
My reading is fairly broad, though. I read a lot of contemporary Japanese fiction as well.
Oh, what a cool answer! You can’t beat the classics, especially when they brush up against philosophy. Now, when it comes to fiction… Is there one world you’d live in if you could?
Harry Potter, easily. “The wizarding world.”
Philosophy and magic, there are so many layers to you! I’d love to learn about your writing quirks. Is there anything unique that you bring to your particular writing process?
I edit while I write.
I know you’re often told not to do that, but I’ve accepted that I’m probably not going to change.
A sentence has a shape and a rhythm to me, so if something feels wrong, I find it difficult to just leave it there and promise to repair it three months later.
That’s so interesting! I edit while I write, too, but I absolutely adore that phase three months later where I get to rip my work to shreds. (Laughs) So what’s next for you, Roie?
There is a manuscript I am now editing after the initial writing. I have another manuscript completely different from the first two, in an earlier stage in the writing process.
I can’t wait to hear more about these projects as you get closer to launch! I just have one more question for you before I let you go. Did you always know you’d be a writer when you grew up?
I don’t really remember deciding.
I’ve always made things. Writing is one part of that, but so are ceramics, photography, painting and other visual work. At the same time, I studied psychology and neuroscience and now medicine, so my life has somehow developed along these two tracks that sound very different on paper.
To me, they don’t feel that separate.
So there was never one dramatic moment. I think I just kept writing until it became obvious.
A man of many talents! Fantastic, thank you so much for sharing your author story with us, Roie. We can’t wait to pick up your debut!
Roie Oknin is proof that you don’t necessarily have to choose between your creative and analytical sides — sometimes, the most interesting work happens when you let the two collide. Between medicine, neuroscience, visual art, and now a published novel, he’s certainly keeping himself busy, and I can’t wait to see where all those different paths take him next. If Ramen, Existential Crises sounds like your kind of literary oddity, be sure to check out Roie’s debut and follow him on Instagram to see what he creates next.
Want to discover more indie authors across fantasy, horror, romance, sci-fi, and beyond? Keep an eye on my Indie Author Spotlight Series for more conversations with creative minds worth celebrating.