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Sunday, Nov 22, 2009
What were you reading at 15?
Me? I wasn't reading much at 15. I only read, maybe two books that year. I got into reading books when I was 15 because I wanted to impress this really smart girl. She said -- and I'll always remember this -- she said the man she marries will know who Helmut Newton is. Helmut Newton?! Is he a photographer? Like, who the fuck is Helmut Newton? And at the time? When you're 15?
So, I read a couple of books then. I read "Story of My Life," by Jay McInerney -- because she loved it. It's the only book of his I've ever read. I don't even know if it's any good, but I totally enjoyed it when I was 15. It has this scene, where this woman really wants to fuck this guy, but she thinks it's too early, so she goes home and masturbates with the faucet. And it sort of drags it out, and it's this really funny scene. And I remember that it taught me so much about women! (Laughing) I've seen McInerney at a couple of book parties. And I've never met him. I've wanted to. I've wanted to be like, "Dude, you have no idea how ..."
I used it as a line when I was 16. I'd say, "I know this seems crazy, but read this book and do what it says," and they'd be like, "Noooo! that's gross!" Then two weeks later they'd be like, (grinning) "Aaaawesome."
I didn't like reading very much at 15. Books didn't do it for me. I was much more into smoking pot.
What about now?
I really like Denis Johnson. "Jesus's Son" was one of the first books that got me as an adult. It's that thin line -- it's like being 17 and really loving "The Sun Also Rises," and then not being able to touch it after 19. I like some of Martin Amis. "The Rachel Papers," I liked a lot; I think that was probably pretty influential for this book. Who else? I like William Faulkner a whole lot. I like Jonathan Franzen's first book, "The Twenty-Seventh City" and "Strong Motion." I read those recently and they fucking blew me away. I mean, I was floored -- totally floored. I like Rick Moody quite a bit. That's how I found my agent, because I loved him, and she represented him. Who else? Junot Diaz, I think is phenomenal. I look forward to another book because I've read "Drown" maybe 10 times now, and I need to read something else. Lorrie Moore ... she's brilliant. There are others I read that I don't like so much. I can't remember them. I read like three books a week so ...
Do you think living in New York enhances your writing or distracts you?
I think it really is ... if you can handle being so close to the bullshit but not being affected by it, it enhances it. Actually, Jonathan Franzen -- I interviewed him -- he told me this. And I agree more now that I've experienced it to a tiny degree. The best thing about being in New York is that it really demystifies the publishing industry. Like, if you get a real bitchy review somewhere, or a bitchy piece about you, or a rejection -- all of that -- you understand that it's sort of par for the course. You sort of understand the mechanics of it and know the personalities involved and it doesn't hurt you very much.
Some people get really distracted in New York and want to pursue being famous more than writing. That could really happen. But really, the thing with writing is that you never get, you know, really famous. I mean, even if you are, you're still like ...
No one's walking up to you on the street and asking for your autograph.
Yeah. I mean, I've always liked that about it. These things like getting into the New Yorker, publishing a book, seem as palpable as one day going to the moon. And once you're here, you're like, "Oh, I know -- that idiot used to work at X publishing house; now he works at Y. He hates me because I wrote this one thing two years ago," and you understand that it's like 85 people who have all, to one degree or another, fucked each other over and made love to each other. So shit's gonna come up.
So you're not, as a first-time novelist, sensitive to criticism, bad reviews?
I don't have that problem because a lot of the books I love, I haven't heard about through reviews. Maybe I'm fortunate because I just haven't been reading the New York Times Book Review for that many years.
If I got a really bad review by someone who seemed to understand the book and didn't like it, I'd be more hurt. The Onion did this review; they just attacked it. I know how this works because I've seen it happen: This woman read the press release and read certain things about me -- probably read that New York Times piece -- decided she hated me, decided I was just the enemy. She spent the whole review talking about all of that. "He's done this and that when he's young, so of course he's getting compared to all these people." But seriously, I don't even know who compared me to them. Nick Hornby? I haven't seen that anywhere. Dave Eggers? I haven't seen that anywhere. And at the end of the piece it was like, "It was well-written and queasily compelling." Isn't that what a book's supposed to be? Compelling? Aren't you supposed to want to keep reading it? So you read a review like that and it's just that kind of funny.
Would you prefer that a lot of people read it even if they don't entirely understand it or have a small number of people get it and fewer reading it?
Well, I always loved books that ... the books I've really loved, many of them, if they were really big books, I never knew about them. I just sort of stumbled upon them like I was part of some small little group that maybe liked this book. That's sort of ideally what you want, but at the same time, you want to make a living doing it. I want to be able to keep doing it and not have to go to law school.
On one level you want the only people who like your book to be the people you'd want to hang out with in some fictitious house party. I've been fortunate so far, where the reviewers haven't really missed it too much. And I don't think there's some false idea of the book being propagated out there. I think that does happen. I think that's happening, maybe, with James Frey's book -- which I haven't read -- but it's really getting these weird diatribes.
Yeah, I think he's got this Norman Mailer thing going on ...
His whole shtick is out of hand. But I believe it's genuine; it's just annoying. He just sounds annoying. [But] I don't think that's manipulated. I don't think he's like, "I'm going to get so much damn press." He's probably just this dipshit, this asshole. It's probably like, not a lot of people like him when they meet him. I've known plenty of people like that.
