Monday Interview: Lawrence Block

Lawrence Block is a heavyweight among mystery authors. Anyone who has even a passing interest in the genre needs no introduction to the man and his work. He has more than 50 novels to his credit, has won every major mystery fiction award – including the coveted Cartier Diamond Dagger from the British Crime Writers Association – and continues to hook fans with his many and varied series.

These, however, have been exciting times for Block fans – those of us without unlimited disposable income and connections in the collectible book world, anyway. Over the past decade, he has been slowly bringing his earliest work back in to print. There are the long out-of-print Evan Tanner books that were returned to the shelves in lovely hardback editions from Subterranean Press, quirk collections like The Lost Cases of Ed London courtesy of Crippen and Landru and the recent arrival of three early works as part of the Hard Case Crime series.

The latest of these, Lucky at Cards, is his most recent new (old) book. It follows The Girl with the Long Green Heart and Grifter’s Game, two other early books that are now back in print. That most recent reprint, originally titled The Sex Shuffle and published under the name Sheldon Lord, is “a classic story of a card cheat who falls for the wrong woman,” according to the folks at Hard Case.

Block reveals here that another of his early books from the ’60s will be issued by Hard Case Crime next year. A Diet of Treacle might be the last of those early works to see the light of day. Operative word there? “Might.”

The author also has dipped a toe back into film. He hasn’t had great luck with Hollywood, who managed to turn the gripping tale Eight Million Ways to Die into a snoozer, but he’s willing to try again. He penned the script for the upcoming film “My Blueberry Nights,” and says here he anticipates a winner. One of his short stories also was recently filmed, and the result, the low-budget short “Cleveland in My Dreams,” is for sale on his web site.

It is always a pleasure to speak with (or, in this case, type at) Block, who indulges even the most asinine questions. Stick around the end to see what I mean.

TIRBD: How many of your books are still out of print, and how many of those do you plan to bring back through folks like Hard Case Crime or Subterranean Press?

LB: Hard to say. There’s another early book which Hard Case will be publishing next year. It’s set in Greenwich Village in the early 60s, and the restored title is A Diet Of Treacle. I don’t think there are any others I’d be happy to see reprinted, but greed does have a way of triumphing over principles, so we’ll have to see.

Is there a temptation to clean them up or modernize them in any way, or are you content to leave them alone?

I tend to leave them alone, but just yesterday a reader pointed out an uncharacteristic grammatical lapse in Lucky At Cards, and I’d certainly have fixed that if I’d seen it. But as for more substantive fixes, well, I’m reminded of William Goldman’s definition of rewriting: “Washing garbage.”

Does reading through some of these older works (assuming you do before they’re republished) trigger anything in terms of giving you ideas for current work, or inform your writing today in any way?

I’m afraid I don’t read them very carefully. I find it very difficult to look at very early work.

You’ve had hit or miss luck with Hollywood; in which of those columns would you place “My Blueberry Nights”? Any word about the other many possible projects out there, such as films about Scudder and Keller?

I expect “My Blueberry Nights” will be a brilliant film; Wong Kar-wai’s a brilliant filmmaker. I don’t know how much it will have to do with the screenplay I wrote; WKW tends to let things develop as he goes along. As for film appearances for Scudder and Keller, I’m not holding my breath.

Speaking of film, what did you think of “Cleveland in My Dreams,” and can you see more of that sort of treatment for your short fiction?

I liked it a lot, and have been selling DVDs on my web site. I get inquiries from young filmmakers all the time regarding my short stories, and am happy when films get made.

Crazy thought, perhaps, but have you ever thought of bringing your different characters together: Scudder could investigate one of Keller’s hits, with Chip Harrison running around in the background somewhere and Bernie tying it all up with a neat bow at the end?

What a horrible idea.