Bill,
First let me say that I've been very gratified and thankful
to read the mail about Dark Ride and some of my other books.
I will answer your question and Mr. Borgers question in a
moment, but I just have to say how gratifying it is to read
the nice things people have said today. Thank you. It's not
been easy, as the industry has not received my work with the
same enthusiasm to say the least. So these nice things are
like finding water in a desert. Keep in mind, I was told to
put "Dia De Los Muertos" in a drawer and forget about it.
I've never forgotten that.
OK, your question about Dark Ride first. (I'll answer Mr.
Borgers question in a separate email.)
I had read one of Thompson's novels, it was a Black
Lizard paperback. (The one about the fire insurance
investigator the title escapes me right now and perhaps it's
not important which one really). My brother left it at my
house by mistake. It was really an accident that I read
Thompson! I had not read much crime fiction and never heard
of Jim Thompson. I was thunder struck after reading it. And
very moved. It was a voice that I'd been looking for. A new
voice, for me anyway. I was writing novels but was
unpublished. I had been so influenced by Hemingway's voice
and others, Lawrence, a lot of the Brits they were seminal to
my style and still are. But I found a voice in Thompson that
I could really relate too at that moment. It was the right
voice at the right time. I was going through a bad patch
myself working in Oakland and getting shot at everyday. Broke
all the time etc etc. Then Gulf War One started and my
response was to write Dark Ride out of the blue really and
i!
n the
Thompson style. It was a kind of freedom to try to
conjure up that voice; I didn't plan the book. I just sat
down and wrote it. (I wrote that book on a clipboard during
the day, when I could at work, then would drink brandy and
transpose it to my computer at night, all very intense.[your
best work you seem to disappear into completely like a love
affair.) The book both reflects things I wanted to say about
society, frustration, youth, sex, about a lot of things; it
was spontaneous. In some ways I don't understand it's power.
There is something about Jimmy's anger that is very powerful
and frightening I know that.
It's interesting to note that a lot of bookstores wouldn't
carry it. I think women found it off putting in part because
it was so much about a young man's point of view (Something
that was not in vogue). His desire for power, gratification,
success.
The industry wanted me, I think, to be a junior Jim Thompson
after that book. Of course, I rebelled, as I found that idea
ridiculous and foreign as Dark Ride had been an honest
attempt to use Thompson's style of music to say something
Kent Harrington wanted to say.
One last thing. I've felt a great deal of respect for Mr. Jim
Thompson since. I think Lou Ford is one of the great American
literary characters, maybe also one of the great characters
in World Literature.
kent
William Denton <
wtd@pobox.com> wrote:Kent, how did you come to write
DARK RIDE? What made you write something in that vein, with
those inspirations, at that time? I'm afraid I don't know if
you'd done any other writing before that, such as short
stories or TV or movies. Can you fill us in?
Perhaps Mr. Taboada and others who read the book when it came
out could comment on how they found out about it. Did you
just see it in a store or the library and like the dust
jacket blurb? Taking a chance on a first-time writer can turn
out badly, but in this case it obviously turned out very
well.
Bill
-- William Denton : Toronto, Canada : www.miskatonic.org : www.frbr.org
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