Oprah?

Q: I enjoyed Jesus Boy, like I said in my earlier question. It is a really good book, and I can tell that you wrote it from the heart and not for money or to satisfy any other agenda except to tell a really good story. But my question is about something else and you don't have to put it on your blog if you don't want to. Now that your work has been listed in "O Magazine," what does that mean to you? How has it impacted your life? Would you like to be on the Oprah Winfrey Show? And if you could be on her show, is there one question that you would definitely ask her?

A: Lololololololol. Heck yes, I would love to be on Oprah! What an honor that would be for me, my publisher, and the book.

When Akashic (my publisher) acquires a book, its primary mission is never to sell a million copies, but to give a platform to good books that are often overlooked by the bigger publishing houses. Akashic seeks in its catalogue excellence rather than mega-sales. Likewise, Akashic's writers seek to write the best books possible and therefore choose subject matter, content, and style that CONFIRM the integrity of the work of art rather than CONFORM to market tastes.

In other words, they are a lot like me. When I write, I never think about what you WANT to read; I think about what you NEED to read. I don't write for the pocketbook; I write for the soul. I grew up reading books like John Steinbeck's GRAPES OF WRATH and Richard Wright's NATIVE SON, which sent me the message that art doesn't soothe so much as it disturbs.

People tell me they like my books because I am humorous but deep. What's more important to me is the deep part.

If you watch Oprah's dealings with books in her bookclub and on her show, you will notice that she seeks that kind of disturbing excellence too: it's Oprah who turned me on to Sheri Reynolds (Rapture of Caanan), Jane Hamilton (Book of Ruth), A. Manette Ansay (Vineger Hill), and Edwidge Danticat (Breath, Eyes, Memory).

Since the book was reviewed by the New York Times and appeared in O the Oprah Magazine two weeks ago, good things have been happening:important type people from the book world have been contacting me, the book has been selling a bit more on Amazon and in bookstores, and kind people such as yourself have been emailing (three times--lol) to say good things and ask questions.

In other words, the impact of Oprah has already been felt by yours truly, and I thank her for it. To be on her show . . . wow! What an incredible honor that would be.

I am on my knees praying. Prayer changes things, and I know the lord's gonna work this one out for me.

Lol.

I am, after all, the Jesus Boy.

And if I could ask Oprah one question it would be this: Which character in Jesus Boy would you like to play when it becomes a movie?

Thanks,

Preston

Who Begat Whom

Q: At the Pen Festival, you mentioned that all writers are also great readers. What books did you read to help you to write this book in particular?

A: Thanks, for the question. I hope I understand you correctly. You don't want me to list books that have inspired me as a writer and authors whose styles I have admired and emulated. You want me to narrow it down to just this book, JESUS BOY. Okay. I'll try, though there is not always a direct line from influence to inspiration to creativity to the completed work. In reality it is usually a lot fuzzier than that, but here goes.

John Cheever's short story, "The Country Husband"

Garrison Keillor's novel, LAKE WOBEGONE DAYS (his radio show "Prairie Home Companion" in general)

Flannery O'Connor's WISE BLOOD (her southern gothic work in general)

Gordon Parks's novel, THE LEARNING TREE

William Faulkner's LIGHT IN AUGUST

Philip Roth's Novella and collection, GOODBYE, COLUMBUS AND OTHER STORIES (Roth's early work in general)

James Baldwin's GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN

THE KING JAMES BIBLE

And there are many others, I'm sure, but these days listing is very difficult for me. I forget so many things--thank god for Google. Did I mention Langston Hughes? Did I mention THE LORD OF THE RINGS? Elwyn's name, which means ELF FRIEND, is taken straight from Tolkien's masterwork trilogy. Kind of ironic that a holy ghost Judeo Christian would have a name derived from Pagan Germanic myth.

Kind of ironic how Protestants would get their start in Catholicism.

Kind of ironic how Christianity would get its start in Judaism.

Kind of ironic that Jews and Arabs (according to their religions's histories) are first cousins descended from Jacob and Essau (or Isaac and Ishmael, I forget right now--I guess I could Google it--maybe I will later).

Everything is ironic when you look BACKWARDS, which we are forced to do because we are born as children not as adults. But when you finally read your history and you are able to start back there and then look FORWARD to where you are now, it's not ironic at all. It just becomes sad and very, very human, and the quote "Those who forget their history are dooomed to repeat it," begins to make a heck of a lot of sense. We forget that we are all one family.

I hate you because your religion is strange and conflicts with my beliefs. We forget that our religion came from yours. I hate you because your name is funny and your language is weird. We forget that our language came from yours, or one just like yours.

Elwyn hates the Holy Rollers, the rival religion of his group the Faithful, not realizing that a hundred years ago the Faithful and the Holy Rollers were the same faith, as evidenced by the inscriptions in the pews in the Big Church in Lakeland--both religions have the fame founding elders.

For more of the history of Elwyn's church, check out the short story "God Awaits the Church of Our Blessed Redeemer Who Walked Upon the Waters" in the wonderful online magazine ASILI:

http://asilithejournal.com/ASILI/VOLUMES/Vol%20V-1/PrestonAllen.htm

And that whole idea of the importance of history is one of the important recurrent themes in the novel. In fact, the novel has a list of BEGATS . . . just like the Bible does.

The Bible tells us in several places to respect our elders. One of the Ten Commandments famously tells us to "Honor thy mother and thy father that thy days may be long." Indeed you should respect those those things that brought you into the world, those things from which you are descended, those things that made you, those things that shaped you, those things that protected and nourished you before you could do it for yourself. Shame on you if you do not honor that which made you.

By the same token, I kinda like being a Protestant Christian . . . why then, should I not honor Catholicism? Judaism? Hmmmmmmm?

It's getting kinda deep, and I am tempted to extend the analogy to race and ethnicity and nationality, but I will leave that up to you to do.

It all brings me back to my favorite bible hero Jesus Christ, whose whole message was about love.

"Love Your neighbor as yourself."

Sitting in our churches on Sunday, we seem, for whatever reason, to forget this commandment all the time. Organized religion these days is about many things--and many of them good--but rarely are they about love.

Love is too hard. It is human nature to make enemies. It is human nature to focus on the destruction of that enemy.

But love is hard. Love leads to death, sometimes.

Christ came with a message of love, and he was willing to die for it.

We need not be so dramatic as all that, however. Just strive everyday to remember how we are all connected as part of this big human family and that will be enough.

Strive to remember that who ever begat your enemy is related to who ever begat you.

We're all in this together.

Thanks,

Preston

appears in conversation with Leonard Lopate (wnyc

Sunday, May 16, 2010, Was an Amazing Day

1) Got up early, left my hotel room, bought five copies of the New York Times from a street vendor.

2) Went to Battery Park, squatted on the grass among the pigeons and squirrels, read the book review on page 8--the book review of Jesus Boy--the New York Times review of Jesus Boy--the glowing review. Read the review 5 times. Maybe more. It was kinda hard to tell through the tears of joy.

3) Toured Ground Zero, took a few photos on my iPhone, got real somber, went back up to my hotel room, looked out the window at ground zero, took a few more photos. The hotel was the new Club Quarters World Trade Center. My wife's idea. We knew the NY Times review was coming. She didn't want it to swell my head. She wanted me to have some perspective. Ground Zero. Perspective. Okay. I got it. Had to hold back a different kinda tears trying to fall.

4) Packed my bag, got on the shuttle, arrived at Delta Airlines at Laguardia in plenty of time, bought 5 copies of "O the Oprah Magazine," flipped to page 114--to the section called "Ten More Titles to Read Now"--to title # 7, Jesus Boy and the words that follow: "Think African American Romeo and Juliet." Nice. Oprah. Oprah. My god, Oprah. Is there a sweeter sound to a starving artist's ear? I used to be a sick, degenerate gambler--actually, I'm still a sick degenerate gambler and will be for the rest of my life, it's just that I don't gamble anymore, taking it one day at a time(see my other book, ALL OR NOTHING)--so yeah, there was a time I used to gamble, but I would never have put good money on the odds of this happening to me all in one weekend--a NY Times book review and a kiss from my beloved Miss O.

5) Passed out copies of the Times review and "O the Oprah Magazine" to passengers waiting to board the plane, signed the copies with my stylishly looping P and my swollen pregnant A, told the woman with the Kindle I wish I could sign it for you, laughed at my own joke, laughed some more when she smiled and called me "what a character" and promised she'd buy my book and tell all her friends to buy it too, got on the plane, handed my last copy of the Times review to a passenger behind me, who read it and handed it back--good thing. It was my last copy.

6) The plane landed. I'm back in Miami. Thank you lord for your blessings great and small. Let the good times begin now.


Thanks,

Preston