Jesus Boy, Bounce, and All or Nothing

Q: I have read three of your novels now and I enjoyed them all, Bounce, All or Nothing, and now Jesus Boy. I cannot believe that the same person wrote all three books. In Bounce, you write from the point of view of a Dominican teenaged woman, in All or Nothing, you are an insane gambling addicted guy, and in Jesus Boy you are this little Christian piano player. What I enjoyed about them all is that each character tells their story honestly and passionately, but how do you write as a worldly very sexual woman in one book and then write as a young christian man in the next one and make them both believable? I think you would be a very interesting person to meet.

A: Good question. I think I can answer this one because I have been thinking a lot lately about how I do what I do.

I think that my strength as a writer is in my ability to depict or present character compellingly. At any rate, for the most part, my stories are character driven, rather than plot driven. This being said, I approach character in two ways--from the outside and from the inside.

Let's start with the outside, which I do less frequently. When I present character from the outside, I know how he/she looks, talks, feels, sounds. I know his/her thoughts. A character like this is one that I can easily deposit into a plot. So when I have a really dynamite plot, I generally put a character of this type into it. I have done this a few times with short stories, none of which I felt was strong enough to bother submitting for publication. Thus far, I have not done it with a novel.

When I present a character from the inside, I become the character. I am Elwyn in Jesus Boy. I am P in All or Nothing. I am Cindique in Bounce. I could write about them, or write AS them, even if I weren't telling a story.

It has happened several times after I have done a reading that someone has come up to me and asked, "Are you an actor?"

I'm not, but I am performing a script that is . . . me.

My characters, I think, tend to be passionate because I will not tell their story until I know what makes them tick, until I know what they are passionate about. In every story of that sort, I can point to the sections where the character just lets go and reveals who he/she is. For me, these are the easiest and most rewarding scenes to write. The character just lets her rip. I kinda like go into a zone at this point, typing like mad to get it all down on paper. I'm thinking of Cindique where she reveals that she still loves her husband despite the abuse. I'm thinking of P in All or Nothing when he goes to GA and the meeting goes crazy because he starts fantasizing loudly about gambling--actually, I'm thinking of P in too many places--P does it a lot. I'm thinking of Elwyn in Jesus Boy when he admits he has fallen in love with Rev. Jed's daughter but realizes that such a love is doomed because his true love is with Sister Morrisohn. Stuff like that.

What I think unites my characters in all of my books is that they are prisoners in their tragic little worlds and they are self aware enough and brave enough to admit it to the reader.

So once I have a character like that, a character that is so interesting or compelling that you would be willing to spend several hundred pages with him/her, all I have to do is ask the character, "What is your story? Tell me your story."

A character like that provides each story with its own particular style and voice. You pick up the book and it just oozes with the essence of Elwyn or Cindique or P. There is no generic kind of narrative going on. The book reads unique. The book feels unique. P has to tell the story the way he tells it because he is P. Elwyn is Elwyn. I like the way he talks. I like what he is talking about. The story tells itself in its own effective way. That's why I like books like A Clockwork Orange, Charlie (Flowers for Algernon), The Color Purple, and Push (by Sapphire). I like the way they talk, I like what they are talking about. And I mean, you don't have to be extreme like some of the examples I am giving. My characters are not illiterate, nor do they live in a distopian future and speak Russo-English. But the way they speak, once I have discovered it, is crucial to the story they are telling and how it will sound in the reader's ear. Like I said, the story tells itself. It's so beautiful. It's magical. Plot is the real work in a case like this. Plot comes later. Once the magic is in place, it's time to get to work. Plot takes work.

Thanks,

Preston

New York

I had a blast this weekend in New York, but had an odd encounter with a homeless person.

As many of you know, I am an avid walker--so instead of cabbing it to my gig at NYU, I walked. It was 2.2 miles away from my hotel, which for a brisk walker like yours truly worked out to be about 35 minutes.

Anyhow, as I was trodding down Avenue of the Americas (6th) I bought a Triple Seven scratch off ticket from a newspaper vendor. But I had no coin to scratch off with.

What to do? What to do?

Around 34th Street, I passed a homeless woman seated on the ground beside her cup of change that she had collected from the charitable of heart in the Big Apple.

I said to her, "Ma'am, do you have change for a dollar?" and I pulled out a greenback.

She grunted something that sounded like, "I don't give change."

I said, "I need a penny."

She grunted, "You're asking me for money?"

I waved the dollar at her. "If you give me a penny, I'll give you this dollar."

She grunted incredulously, "You're giving me ninety-nine cents?"

I showed her the scratch off ticket. "I need the penny."

She fired back angrily, "I'm not giving you any money!"

"To scratch off the ticket. That's all."

I waved the ticket.

"Oh." She dug into her cup and pulled out a quarter.

"No. I just need the penny."

"Oh." This time she dug in and found a penny.

She gave me the penny. I gave her the dollar. I scratched the ticket. It was close, but not a winner. I gave her back the penny, recycled the ticket, and plodded on.

New York. New York. A beggar won't give you a penny. I thought Miami was tough.

Funny and Touching

A: Professor Allen, I understand why Dennis Lehane (Shutter Island) said on the cover of JESUS BOY that it was hilarious and tender. You touch on all the serious issues, abuse, death, incest, race, faith, betrayal, true love, and even musical passion, in ways that make them resonate with seriousness and importance but without sacrificing your wit. It is amazing that you are able to pull this off. You write so well that you have me laughing at almost the same time you have me crying. I went back and read ALL OR NOTHING and found that you actually did the same thing there, but with an even darker subject, compulsive gambling. Do you do that trick in all of your novels? If so, you are now my favorite writer. And if you do the same thing in your class as a teacher, I am signing up for your ENC 1102 next semester. Thanks for coming to our class. I have to go buy your other books now.

B: Thanks for the comments. Like I said in response to a similar question earlier, I am a student of Ken Macrorie who wrote TELLING WRITING. Being humorous and serious at the same time is not so hard when you look for "fabulous realities," and then let normal human nature do the rest. Go get his book if you can find a copy of it. I think it is out of print, but you can get a copy on AMAZON probably.

Thanks,

Preston

Old Time Gospel Music

Q: I really enjoyed the book and your class presentation. Come back again. I have a few musical questions for you concerning some things from the book. First, is Chester Harbaugh based on a real musician and is the Chester Harbaugh with Mamie Girl the same Chester Harbaugh that Sister Morrisohn listens to? Second, Elwyn later on in the book complains about modern Christian music and hymns, he thinks modern hymns are too worldly. Televangelist Jimmy Swaggart said the same thing a few years ago, I think he said it about Christian Rock music. How would Elwyn feel about Christian Hip-Hop music?

A: Chester Harbaugh is based on several real country musicians of the forties and fifties who used to sing both secular and religious music. Yes, he is the same person.

Elwyn would not like Christian hip-hop, no, probably not. Changes in music are a minor problem for people who stay in church all of their lives--they of course prefer the older songs that they sang in their youth, not this worldly sounding stuff that the young people are singing. But such changes are a MAJOR problem for Elwyn, who like many people, gets his religion young, abandons it, and then comes back to it over the course of his life whenever he needs to feel centered. Part of the centering comes from returning to our childhood, a time when for many of us things felt solid, certain, and real--things are the way they are, and this is the way they are forever. A return to church is often a nostalgic journey for many of us, and our enjoyment is disrupted by those things in our journey that have changed. Music, like dress (which Elwyn also complains about), is by its very nature subject to change over time. When Elwyn goes to church and hears modern music, church is no longer the church of his childhood and therefore no longer satisfies his nostalgic needs.