An
Interview with Steve Almond By
Pitchaya Sudbanthad Steve Almond used to be a journalist, but he
decided to forfeit the chance to earn a living wage and became a fiction
writer instead. His latest book, My Life in Heavy Metal, is a short
story collection that will break you into pieces with tales that might just
be all too familiar. His next book is tentatively titled Candyfreak: A
Journey Through the Chocolate Underbelly of America. It will be published
by Algonquin in Spring 2004. So people like
to say, that Steve, he's always writing about ze sex, ze sex, ze sex. Do you
mind that labeling? How much does that categorization miss the point of what
you've written? A: I hate the labeling, but there's nothing I can do, except to be thankful for the folks who felt the heartbreak that lives beneath the sex in my work. Also, I mean, I am interested in sex. But not just as a physical experience, but as an emotional one. That’s what all good erotic literature is doing: just telling the whole goddamn truth. I mean, 5000 years ago some gorgeous human wrote the Song of Songs, the sexiest piece of poetry on earth. All that person did was tell the truth -- about how it feels to desire, to touch and be touched, to taste and smell and hear and see all the ecstatic and terrible sensations of physical congress. It's all about laying your characters bare on the page -- honoring the tremendous bravery required to get naked with another person. Or people. This
entire culture's attitudes toward sex are stuck at about age thirteen.
Anytime sex is attached to actual feeling -- and, God forbid, deep feeling --
people just freak. It hits too close to home. So we use sex to sell perfume
or tennis shoes, whatever. In that sense, I’m delighted to be known as a sex
writer, because I get to portray sex for what it truly is: an incredibly
vulnerable human experience. I always manage to get my heart broken. Maybe that's why I like the people in your stories. What are the qualifications one might need to become a character in a Steve Almond story? A: But everyone gets their hearts broken. I don’t
even trust people who haven’t had their hearts broken. That’s what hearts are
for, so far as I can tell. As to what a character needs, I’d say a healthy
libido certainly helps. Certain crucial emotional blind spots. A willingness
to revel in the pleasures of physical congress, and to honor them. And, maybe
most of all, an ability to identify and articulate one’s own bullshit. I need
to love all my characters, and it’s hard for me to love someone who can’t see
(and forgive) their own bullshit. If you have a character that you can bring into life, who would it be? Describe him/her, and what happens next. A: To be honest, I’d like to bring Abraham
Lincoln to life and just let him take a look at what America has become and
hear what he has to say about it. I know this sounds sort of cheesy, but he
was the one American who had what I call the “moral eloquence” to cure the
country of its greed and hatred. He was murdered for our sins. Let's take a break here and look at the sun. It's
getting hot this summer. Do you like the sun? A: I’m from California, so me and the sun go way
back. But it took moving to Boston for me to understand just how hard the sun
rocks. Every spring, there’s this one day when the sun shines in earnest for
the first time and I always take my shirt off and lie on my porch and just
thank God that I’m alive. I don’t, however, look at the sun. It makes you go
blind, like masturbation. Top three moments from your recent book
tour. Tell us everything we'd want to hear. A: Book tours are so incredibly unglamorous,
particularly the way I kick it, which is without money, having to stay on
people’s couches and stuff. But I had a rocking time in Portland, where this
hot woman asked me to sign a book for the guy she was with and what she
wanted was for me to tell her guy to hurry up and fuck her already. That was
cool. I was pretty drunk when I read in Portland, Maine, and the first thing
I did when I got on-stage was spill wine on myself. That was pretty smooth.
And then there was the orgy in Atlanta. But I promised the Dean of Students I
wouldn’t say anything about that. You are in an elevator. The door opens and the President steps in. You look around; the Secret Service is nowhere in sight. What do you say to the guy? A: Why do you hate poor people so much? Can you really love a Republican? A: Yeah. You can love anyone. That’s what Christ
did. The deal with Republicans is that you have to understand how much anger
they’re carrying around. They hate gay people, they hate women, they hate
people of color, they hate poor people, and most of all, they hate
themselves. A part of me is almost like: jeez, these people are so insecure
and pissed off, why not just let them steal elections? But the left is going
to have to realize what they’re up against and start making some moral
differentiations between themselves and the Republicans. One of these sissy
candidates is going to have to have the guts to say: Bush hates poor people.
Look at his tax plan. He hates them. Bush hates gays. Look at his judicial
appointees. Bush hates environmentalists. Look at his record. But they won’t
do it. They’re chicken-hearted. You are working on a non-fiction book
about candy. Mmmm....candy. Tell us more about this project. A: Next one is called "Candyfreak: A Journey
Through the Chocolate Underbelly of America." It's a non-fiction book
about the history of candy in this country, and especially these crazy little
niche candybars that exists on the margins of the mass market. The Twin Bing.
The Idaho Spud. The Goo Goo Cluster. I wrote the book because I’m a complete
candyfreak. I eat about half a pound of candy on an average day, sometimes
three times that. And I’m constantly thinking about (read: obsessing over)
candy. I basically wrote the book because I wanted to go to a bunch of
factories and watch candy bars being mass produced. That’s like porno to me.
Anyway, the book comes out in Spring. It’s completely nuts. But the novel. Is it on its way? What do
you think about publishers' attitudes toward short stories? What do you think
about readers' attitudes toward short stories? A: There’s an incredible bias against short
stories amongst the New York publishing bigshots, because novels stand a
better chance of being big hits. That’s a well-known idiocy to any short
story writer. There are also plenty of readers who don’t really trust short
stories, or get them, who only want novels. I myself have written two novels,
both of them awful, and will soon set about writing a third one (likely to
also be awful). What's a lifelong fear of yours? A: Death. Since age 5: terrified of death. You have nice hair. Do you spend much time on it?
A: No. Just the standard wash every two weeks.
You should have seen when I had a mullet. No lie. A very sad sight. Candy question: Almond Joy or M&M's Almonds? A: Actually, Hershey’s bar with almonds.
Sensational bar. Roasted almonds have that smoky tang that accents chocolate
so well. I also happen to be coconut-phobic. My hope is to start posting some
excerpts from Candyfreak on www.stevenalmond.com
soon. ![]() Archived at http://lit.konundrum.com/features/almonds_intv.htm |