it’s possible for you to thank three people for Jonathan LethemsThe Feral Detective: Raymond Chandler,J.R.R.
Tolkien, and Donald Trump.
Okay, lets backtrack.
Credit: Courtesy Amy Maloof
Or at least, its clear by the time Lethem explains why.
(Feralis also in development for a feature.)
Read on below.The Feral Detectivepublishes Tuesday yes, Election Day!
ECCO
and isavailable for pre-order.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: This novel evoked many great authors for me.
Ive had a lot of different East-West experiences and different versions of reactions to that kind of American space.
Its real for everyone right now.
That just seemed really alive to me.
And then of course theres the hardboiled twist.
I kind of learned to write by pretending to be Raymond Chandler.
Its why my first novel ended up being a very unembarrassed homage to that style.
Theres some part of me that was wanting to reconnect with that source, just on a language level.
Those two things moved me really strongly that way.
You capture a very specific, familiar feeling there.I was setting up to write this book before that election.
Its kind of typical for me: I ruminate for years on material.
The image of the feral child has always been interesting and attractive, like a puzzle to me.
[Laughs] I latched onto this.
I realized they could all be one kind of thing, I was really excited about that.
That included any prospect of writing anything thatd matter.
My novel suddenly looked kind of paltry.
I felt paralyzed with despair and confusion.
Even further, I thought, Phoebe is this sassy, unhappy, disgruntled runaway New Yorker.
Who better to say what I was feeling?
I just let her do the talking.
So my project sprang back to life.
What if I tried to take a snapshot?
That animated the whole project.
It turned out that my book made enough sense anyway to be written.
This is a novel about gender in a lot of ways, absolutely.
Im fixated on, Who is this person?
How does she feel, how does she think?
Who does she meet, how do they strike her?
I dont think of myself as answerable to some kind of theoretical or categorical concerns.
Thats to say: At some point, I noticed, Yeah, this is a lot about gender.
But it didnt make me think, Now I better back up and do some due diligence.
It made me think, Okay, what does Phoebe think?
Why are you this way and why are the bears that way?
It was an area of real exploration.
It wasnt about conceiving of things in terms of categories.
So, broadly, how did you conceive Phoebe?
It has these really precise moments and events that have to occur.
One of the fundamental ones is the female client has to walk into the office of the detective.
That instigates the whole story.
He goes off and does stuff.
I always thought, What would happen if you walked out of that meeting but stayed with the client?
It just seemed funny to me, and I realized Id never seen that done.
The more substantial answer: Its Phoebes story.
It could cover my own naivete.
I could wonder about everything along with her.
Lets turn to the desert landscape for a minute, which you write to so vividly.
Then we started reading Phillip Pullmans trilogy.
I know that doesnt seem like an obvious point of reference those trilogies are giant, enormous canvases.
Tolkien: Its like a long walk!
The whole book is just a trudge.
Its really exciting to just watch characters attempt to explore or chase one another across these enormous spaces.
Or, the message that I received from Tolkien and Pullman was: Keep it simple, stupid.
Its just really cool to find somebody in the desert.
Is that intentional on your part, to stay fresh?I guess Im just omnivorous.
My explanation for the meandering choices Ive made is that I do it out of love.
Im never going to stop writing about them.
Partly for the sport of seeing how you end up being yourself, no matter what you try.
[Laughs] Why not try the opposite?
Then you’re free to laugh at how youre always coming home anyway.
The same producers have acquiredThe Feral Detective.
Your work has notoriously eluded Hollywood.
Whats the feeling as that appears to finally be changing?The simplest answer is disbelief.
EvenMotherless Brooklynwas optioned almost 20 years ago.
And before that I had options on my earlier novels.
My first novel was optioned the way these two were: right as it was published, in 1994!
Ive been living with unmade movies as a fundamental state of my being.
The timing is weirdly exquisite.
Of course, the real answer is: Check back with me in a year.
