January 30, 2004

Today is the day to go looking for guys.

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Who do I have the biggest crush in the world on? Read all about it on the Black Table.

Odds are, if you're a fan of literature, you've read at least one of today's interviewees stories or books. His most recent work has been featured in the New Yorker, in The O. Henry Prize Stories 2003 and his latest book, Drop City. He's extremely prolific, however, so it's possible that you've read one of his other dozens of works, or happened to read or see the film version of The Road to Wellville. I was driven to write to him after reading his touching, sad and funny story in the O. Henry Prize Stories, and fortunately, he was willing to share his thoughts with me about his whole mountain of work.

The T. Coraghessan Boyle Interview: Slightly Less Than Twenty Questions

In discussing your “Swept Away” in the O. Henry Prize Stories of 2003, you express sympathy for your character Robbie. How often do you express sympathy for your characters? How often do you feel other emotions like love or revilement?
Well, any sympathy I might have expressed in public for poor Robbie is all just part of the act. Deep down, though, I do have a very soft--almost squishy--spot for the losers and disaffected of the world.

Meanwhile, often you give your characters have disastrous lives, like in your story "When I Woke Up This Morning, Everything I Had Was Gone." and often hideous endings, like in Water Music. Do you feel affection for your characters and a desire to save them from their horrible plot-driven ends? Or do you gleefully make them suffer?
As I have said before in response to this question: I find the parameters of life and consciousness in the universe deeply disturbing. Everything is subject to accident and all is out of my control. The only thing I do control is my art, and through my art, the fates of my characters. And by God they are going to suffer.

I liked your recaplet of “Swept Away.” Is it difficult for you to discuss your own work, or does it come pretty normally to you, since it is your work?
Each story has a different impetus. In the case of "Swept Away" it was fairly basic, and I wanted to communicate that so that readers could have a sense of where the final product begins.

What did you learn at the Iowa Writer’s Workshop that made you the writer you are today? Or was it nothing, were you always the writer you are today?
The Writers' Workshop gave me the time to become a writer (and a scholar: I worked simultaneously in the English Department on my Ph.D. in Nineteenth Century British). I learned to spend less time at Gabe & Walker's Bar and more time at my typewriter. I learned the fanaticism of art. I learned how to see cornfields as nature. I learned that all writers are madman and madwomen and to be strenuously avoided at all cost.

Is it strictly the education or is there something inspiring about Iowa City, Iowa?
It's the water.

Road to Wellville was made into a film. Have you ever considered a career is a screenwriter?
Nope. I have avoided the denizens of Hollywood even more strenuously than the writers mentioned above.

Is it a nervewracking or fun process to see the words you’ve written be turned into a film?
So far, all is well. It has been very exciting to see how various directors (and casting directors) have interpreted my characters. As I have said before, it as if you are hearing someone else sing a song you wrote and sang yourself.

What are some of your favorite films that were adapted from books?
A Clockwork Orange and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, two films that rival the books for brilliance.

I normally consider myself a fan of black comedy, but when I first read Flannery O’Connor’s "A Good Man is Hard to Find," I found it absolutely chilling, and it’s hard to shake that reaction. What about the story, to you, makes it a humorous tale as well as a dark one?
That story, as you know, is the one that set me off on the path I now follow, and for the very reasons you admire it.

How would you describe your hair style?
Desperate.

In an interview with Identity Theory, you say of writing, “It's my life. It's what I want to do. Everyday.” So does that mean you never procrastinate or get writer’s block or get sick of what you’re writing or even just lazy? And what’s your secret, for other writers out there who do?
I do think you misquote me. I must say, for my students' sake, that I would never conflate "every" and "day" unless I were to use the term as an adjective. As for the question: no, never lazy, always obsessed. But of course I have periods when I lack inspiration--like everyone else I try to work through them.

How did you come up with the selection for your textbook Double Takes?
The DoubleTakes anthology derives from my many years of teaching fiction writing at USC--these are stories that especially appealed to my students, stories that show a very catholic approach to literature, in every style imaginable. I want these stories to touch readers in a particular way--in the way that says, "This is mine."

It seems unusual to find much comic fiction that isn’t pigeonholed as being ‘comedy’ writing. What do you like about putting comedy in your fiction?
Don't know about that. People make a claim for Don Quixote being the first novel, and lordy, lordy, that sure is funny. There are many modes in which to work, not only through the body of our literature, but in comic writing itself. I do not like to confine myself to one mode or another, but like to give them all a fling, and while I'm most amenable to comedy, I do feel that certain stories suggest certain modes. For instance, one of the new stories for my next collection (Tooth and Claw, fall 2005, to follow The Inner Circle, my new novel due for fall 2004) is called "Up Against the Wall," and it is largely autobiographical, realistic and non-comic.

Do you read your reviews? Do you have thick skin when you come across an unflattering review?
I only read the raves.

You’re so prolific. Do you ever fear that you may repeat yourself, or spread yourself too thin?
Yes, of course. Every once in a while I have a great idea for a story--something that really lights me up--and then I realize I've already written it. But there's still a lot of territory out there. Readers will see that the stories of Tooth and Claw are, by and large, very different from those of After the Plague.

What music have you been listening to this week?
John Coltrane, my God and Hero, exclusively. It was just one of those weeks.

Are you an Elvis fan? Your initials do stand for “Taking Care of Business,” after all.
I came along too late for Elvis--he was just a bloated old has-been, though at the suggestion of the guitarist in the Ventilators, we did do one Elvis tune, "Jailhouse Rock."

Your website is very extensive, including a message board for your fans where you post. Why do you make yourself so accessible to your fans? Does it ever take up too much time? Have you ever encountered fans who you wish you could have kept at arm’s length?
There are plenty of nutball fans, but doesn't the magical web keep them at arm's length? As for the webpage, it does require work, but it is infinitely valuable to me because it puts me directly in touch with the readers. Whereas before no one would know I had a story out in a magazine, now the story is dissected and debated on tcboyle.com before I've even seen it. The fans know far more about my life than I do. That's great. It allows me to breathe easy and just live.

How does it feel to be the 99th person interviewed for Zulkey.com?
Killer. Wish I could have number 100. Or better yet, 10000.