Monday Interview: J. Robert Lennon

J. Robert Lennon has a new novel out, and it’s about time. About time that someone finally stepped up to publish him, that is. You see, he has written books since 2003′s Mailman. Four of them, in fact. But for those of us in the U.S. — you know, his home country — it has been difficult to read any of it.

First came Pieces for the Left Hand, a brilliant collection of 100 very short stories, each written while his child took a 45-minute nap. Granta in the UK saw fit to publish it in 2005, and those of us lucky enough at the time to score an imported copy reveled in its incisive, hilarious prose. Next came Happyland, a novel deemed too dangerous by Lennon’s publisher due to the similarity between its subject and the founder of the American Girl doll company. That was shortened and serialized in Harper’s magazine. I’ve yet to read it, because I want to read the entire book when someone wises up and puts it out. After that came a crime novel that Lennon had yet to publish. Finally, he brought forth Castle, officially his fifth novel, published this spring by Graywolf Press. Graywolf also brought out a U.S. edition of Pieces for the Left Hand, which brings us up to date.

I interviewed Lennon for a piece on CorridorBuzz.com to preview his reading in Iowa City on Tuesday. As usual, I asked about more than could possibly fit in the piece, and planned to run the rest here. But I love Lennon’s work, and wanted to give him as much publicity as possible, so I sent a few more questions his way and turned this into a full-blown Monday Interview.

Before we get to that, however, a bit more from the original interview. We touch on many of these points more fully in the Q&A that follows. For example, I asked him about the idea of self-publishing, particularly the crime novel. He said he has considered it, even considered putting it out as an ebook only. But he said he wants to hold out for the possibility of it coming out in physical form from a real publisher.

“I really like working with a publisher,” he said. “There’s probably some kind of taint to self publishing, if you do that you have succumbed and are perceived as a low-class operation. However, I don’t think most readers give a crap where the book is coming from. They just want it to be good. Still, I want to stay in the good graces of the people I work with in publishing.”

We also talked about politics. His novel, Castle, makes reference to the Iraq war, and he has said that Happyland was his take on “Rovian” politics. I asked if the Obama administration would cool the fires that fueled these works. He said politics isn’t obsessing him the way it once was, but added that “it’s a danger to thinking that the Obama administration is going to be a cure-all. I haven’t totally approved of everything Obama has done, but when I disagreed with Bush, I felt there was a maliciousness, I felt like they were sticking it to me, felt there was malicious intent. With Obama, I really do think he’s trying to act in the best interest of the citizens he’s serving.”

Castle is set in upstate New York, where Lennon lives. So was Mailman. Other of his books were set in Montana, where he earned his MFA. I asked if setting books in the places he has lived was a matter of convenience, or if the stories he wanted to tell needed to be set there.

“It’s not so much a convenience, but I enjoy finding inspiration in the place that I’m at. Upstate New York is not not remote, but it is fairly isolated. If you go for a walk in the woods and you feel like you’re in the middle of nowhere, but you’ll find the remains of a barn foundation. There was someone there before you.”

That led to a discussion of the way he proscribes a world for his stories, and whether that makes it easier or more difficult to then tell the tale. He said he loves to create worlds in his work, and mentioned the subculture he created in The Funnies. His second novel was about the son of a famous cartoonist who inherits his father’s strip after his death. Lennon said he did some research, but the subculture he writes about was largely invented. “I kind of like that. You narrow the possibilities. It’s like writing a sonnet. The fact that you’ve hemmed yourself in a little, you’re free in that space.”

Lastly, I asked a question I’ve never seen asked of Lennon. His name, as it is probably not too difficult to guess is John, meaning he grew up with the name of one of pop culture’s most revered artists. I asked if it was difficult to be an artist (and, as we talk about below, a musician) with such an iconic name.

“Not anymore really. The worst thing was that I really liked him and liked the Beatles. I used to have little round glasses. I told myself it had nothing to do with John Lennon, I just liked the glasses.” he said. “For the most part I just caught a lot of crap from other kids when I was growing up. I don’t think it’s made any difference at all.”

I asked if his parents every talked about giving him such a charged name. He was born in 1970, at the height of Lennon’s fame. He was named, he said, for his grandfather, also named John Lennon. Another grandfather was Robert, which means his pen name allows him to honor that grandfather in the same way the name everyone calls him, John, does.

“Later they told me they thought it might be kind of fun for me, which was a sad miscalculation,” he said. “But I’m proud to be named after my grandfather.”

On to the Q&A…

TIRBD: We talked a bit about self-publishing before. You have self-released a handful of CDs of your music. Has that experience made you more or less likely to do the same with your writing at some point?

JRL: Perhaps someday, but I prefer working with a publisher. Promotion and distribution are hard, and I would rather spend my time writing. I did put a bunch of obscure writing up on my website recently — quite a lot of articles and stories, few of which are likely to ever find their way into book form. Maybe I should gin up an e-book. But the last thing I need right now is another geeky project.

You said that you were not very politically active before the Bush administration, but that you’ve since addressed it, however obliquely at times, in your writing.
How else has that activism manifested itself?

The usual ways – -donating money, complaining on the Internet, getting into tense conversations with relatives. I’ve had to find a way to channel my anger and dismay into useful activities, and writing has been the main thing. I’m a little more comfortable now that Obama’s at the helm, though, so perhaps I can relax a bit.

You wrote the pieces in Pieces for the Left Hand during your child’s short naps, a lemonade-from-lemons endeavor if ever there was one. Now that your kids are older and presumably have indentured you, how has that affected your writing schedule? Does having kids affect the way you look at the world through your writing?

Oh, sure, the world is very different once you’ve had kids, or gone through any major life change, for that matter. My kids don’t disrupt my writing schedule at all anymore — they go to school, and are pretty self-sufficient, and have their own interests to work on. Luckily we share some interests, otherwise we’d never see each other! Our family is rather preoccupied most of the time.

How has it been working with a smaller publisher like Graywolf Press as opposed to a larger publisher like W.W. Norton?

Great! They publish fewer books and so have the luxury of caring more about each. Graywolf has been extremely attentive to me, my editor is a superb reader, and the books have gotten more attention than anything I’ve written in years — I like this situation a lot.

You clearly get into music recording on a micro level, from creating your own instruments to writing about recording techniques in Tape Op magazine. Is there a parallel between that and the micro level of looking at writing afforded by the teaching you do at Cornell?

Absolutely — I am a major nerd in all respects, both in my hobbies and of course my writing and teaching. I love getting a new stack of manuscripts and digging in, discovering what kind of conversations I’m going to get to have the next day. I can be a little too proscriptive with my advice, though, as a result — I have to learn to hint! There aren’t many bad student stories that can’t be turned into something good; it’s like trying to solve a puzzle with the class.

Do you write short fiction at the same time you’re immersed in a novel, or do you need to complete one thing before starting another?

Usually I keep them separate, but sometimes I get a story idea when I’m in novel mode and I have to put everything aside and go for it. This just happened recently. It’s a good feeling, actually finishing something when you’re in the middle of a two-year project… I should probably do it more often.