March 11, 2005
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Today is the day to skip Lent.
Today's interviewee is what Ed McMahon would call "hot property." Some people claim that his current book, Home Land, is getting short shrift in the States, as it's only coming out in paperback. Other people, like the Believer, are bestowing it with prizes and calling it a Big Important Book.
The Sam Lipsyte Interview: Slightly Less Than Twenty Questions
The Believer, in presenting to you its first annual book award, describes Home Land as “very American.” What do you think that means?
I’ve been playing around with some things, some stories, a new novel.
Don’t know what will come of it all yet.
Do you ever hold onto your emails to quote from when you write? Or hold
onto them in case anybody ever wants to publish your collected letters?
My laptop died a few months ago. I lost everything. I guess I could have
backed up all my emails but I didn’t. Most of them say, “Okay. See you
there at seven,” or, “Check out this link.” Not very illuminating.
I still write letters sometimes. Put stamps on envelopes, the whole deal.
Do you hear back now from former classmates saying
you’re going to make them all look like crap in upcoming alumni newsletters?
I heard from one old high school friend. He knew that the novel is not
autobiographical, but he was getting a kick out of recognizing where I got
some tiny details, like a minor character’s name and such. My high school
English teacher came to a reading I did in New York recently. He complimented
the prose, so I was pleased.
Are there any keys, you think, to writing a poignant
book about young adults in American versus one that’s too snarky or
self-congratulatory?
I guess you have to write from the heart, and have one. Does that sound corny?
Is it snarky to say it
sounds corny? I think it’s a matter of risk. As long as the writer (or the
voice the writer is inhabiting) knows enough to throw himself onto the same
heap as everybody else, it won’t be self-congratulatory.
Part of Home
Land’s mystique seems to be its underdog quality. Do you think
that’s starting to work for the book, that people are talking about it more
because it almost didn’t happen?
I hope people are talking about it because it’s good. Sure, I think there
was some initial curiosity because it had a hard time getting published here,
but the novel has had to stand on its merits. And, really, my story isn’t
interesting. There is a tendency on the part of marketing people to search for
a hook. He was a prostitute! She
really does love animals! He’s
heir to a chemical fortune! But in the end you just have the work.
Editors seem able easily now to say why Home
Land was passed on so much before it was picked up. Did they give you
these reasons or were they largely unbeknownst to you?
The most common response was “I really like it but we don’t know how to
sell it.” That was pretty infuriating. I almost preferred, “I don’t like
it, so I’ll pass.”
What do you think makes a good literary agent?
Tenacity. Faith in his or her taste.
Can you think of any real-life Lewises, high profile
versions of what what Lizzie
Skurnick describes as “too interesting a loser”?
Not high profile.
The
Subject Steve was published on Sept. 11, 2001 and you’ve said
that Home Land’s title made
some editors nervous due to current events.
Not to be blithe, but terrorism has directly interfered with your
writing career. Does this make you feel any differently, you think, regarding
our country’s policy and security than if you were not a writer?
I don’t know, Claire, that’s pretty damn blithe. No, I don’t think
the fact that I write informs what I believe about those things. Maybe what I
believe informs some of what I write.
You say in an
interview with Kevin Sampsell that you steal from your life and the lives
of your friends in your writing. Has this strained many relationships?
Well, the old joke is that the only thing that hurts people more than having
some aspect of their lives depicted in your book is not making the cut. My
wife is convinced she’s every major female character I’ve ever written. I
beg to differ. A friend, upon reading something I’d written, said, “You
stole my life!” What I’d stolen was a shitty job he’d had for about
three weeks. I gave the same job to a character. So, maybe there’s a little
strain, but it never lasts. And don’t believe what I say to Kevin
Sampsell. He’s a good fiction writer himself so I tend to lie to him to
throw him off his game.
Much has been made of the fact that the book is only
being published in paperback here in the States.
From a publishing point of view, why is this negative? I’m not very
clear on the processes of hardback and paperback.
I was happy the book came out as a paperback original. I don’t think it’s
negative at all. I’ve always liked the format and I think it’s a much more
reasonable price to ask somebody to pay to take a chance on a novel.
Do you have a feel as you write how good it will turn
out to be, or do you just write and figure it out as you go along? Do you
abandon much of your work?
I abandon most of what I write. I can tell when something’s just plain wrong
with the voice or the tone pretty quickly. What sucks is when you’re on a
tear but then you hit a wall. You have to back up and try another direction. I
don’t really plan that much ahead so I’m finding out what it is I’m
writing while I’m writing it. That’s the first draft. Then there is a lot
of heavy revision. But stuff gets tossed in all phases.
Do you hold onto any old grudges or crushes from high
school? And do you think back to those folks whenever you experience a success
like Home Land? (I personally
am almost done getting over my
high school beefs.)
Maybe some crushes, but no grudges. I’ve purged myself through art, man. And
I’m not sure what the definition of success is here, anyway. Maybe I’ll
get another book published. That’s about the extent of it.
What’s the best thing you’ve read lately?
I’ve been reading this history textbook D.H. Lawrence wrote for
“adolescents.” I’m fascinated by the way he compressed thousands of
years into these quite poetic (if entirely misguided) nuggets.
How does it feel to be the 118th person
interviewed for Zulkey.com?
I feel angry, used. 118? When will you settle down?
More interviews here!
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