The Jealous Kind
Page 37
Which character in The Jealous Kind was the most challenging to write? Which came the most easily?
The characters all seemed like old friends. Each took on his own face. This was a novel that seemed to write itself. During its progress I felt more like a spectator than a creator.
Historical context plays an integral role in The Jealous Kind. How much do you think Aaron is a product of his time and place? What aspects of his character are universal?
Aaron, like many of my protagonists, is the everyman of the medieval plays. He’s decent and good and feels unloved and alone until he finds the love of his life, Valerie Epstein. The story may seem historical, but actually it is not. The 1950s were an emanation of the 1920s, and the latter was the more American decade of our history. History doesn’t repeat itself; it is a continuation of itself. Super nation arrived a century ago. We’ve simply replaced the original cast.
When you write, do you picture a particular kind of reader? Do you write for a certain audience, or does an imagined reader not play a role in your writing process?
I think every good writer addresses himself to what is best in people. That way he is seldom disappointed by the reception of his work. Readers of books are loyal, decent, intelligent, and enjoyable to be with. Could one have a better constituency?
Who are your biggest literary influences?
John Neidhardt was my first creative writing teacher. I also had a creative writing teacher named William Hamlin, an admirable man to whom I owe a tremendous debt, although he was not a writer. The writers whom I read the most were Hemingway, Steinbeck, John Dos Passos, James T. Farrell, Thomas Wolfe, Jack Kerouac, Somerset Maugham, Flannery O’Connor, and Tennessee Williams. I was also heavily influenced stylistically by the Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins.
When planning your next novel, how do you decide which series, if any, you will work on?
I never plan a novel and never where it is going and never see more than two scenes into its development. When I finish a novel I sometimes have no memory of scenes I have written. This is the case with almost everything I have written.
What are you working on next?
I just finished copyediting the galleys of The Jealous Kind and have no idea what my next project will be.
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JAMES LEE BURKE, a rare winner of two Edgar Awards and named Grandmaster by the Mystery Writers of America, is the author of more than thirty previous novels and two collections of short stories, including such New York Times bestsellers as Creole Belle, Light of the World, The Glass Rainbow, Feast Day of Fools, and The Tin Roof Blowdown. He lives in Missoula, Montana.
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DAVE ROBICHEAUX NOVELS
Light of the World
Creole Belle
The Glass Rainbow
Swan Peak
The Tin Roof Blowdown
Pegasus Descending
Crusader’s Cross
Last Car to Elysian Fields
Jolie Blon’s Bounce
Purple Cane Road
Sunset Limited
Cadillac Jukebox
Burning Angel
Dixie City Jam
In the Electric Mist with Confederate Dead
A Stained White Radiance
A Morning for Flamingos
Black Cherry Blues
Heaven’s Prisoners
The Neon Rain
HACKBERRY HOLLAND NOVELS
House of the Rising Sun
Wayfaring Stranger
Feast Day of Fools
Rain Gods
Lay Down My Sword and Shield
BILLY BOB HOLLAND NOVELS
In the Moon of Red Ponies
Bitterroot
Heartwood
Cimarron Rose
OTHER FICTION
Jesus Out to Sea
White Doves at Morning
The Lost Get-Back Boogie
The Convict and Other Stories
Two for Texas
To the Bright and Shining Sun
Half of Paradise
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2016 by James Lee Burke
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First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition August 2016
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.
ISBN 978-1-5011-0720-7
ISBN 978-1-5011-0748-1 (ebook)