Fantastic Metropolis

Neddal Ayad: How much research do you do? It seems like quite a bit of research went into Wireless. What about your other novels?

Jack O’Connell: The simple answer is: Probably too much. I like research. I like wandering around in libraries. I like tracking down information. I like letting one book lead me to another book. I enjoy it all too much and I probably give it too much time. When you’re a young writer, you can forget that your job is to create a sense of verisimilitude. You can start to believe that you need to know everything there is to know about everything in your book. It’s possible to over-research and I’ve been guilty of that. Research can get in the way of the organic, instinctual unfolding of your story. You have to remember, at all times, that all you’ve got is your instinct. And you have to tend your instinct. You have to respect it by following your intuition, sometimes even when logic argues, violently, against doing so. That’s the great risk. You have to risk being a maniac who’s willing to savage his own story. That’s how you’ll make the breakthroughs and expand your capacity.

There have been moments when I’ve been unable to visualize a specific scene in a book. And so I’ve found a “real-world” analog in which to place my characters, a location, like, say, a diner, where they can play out their necessary interactions. And I’ve installed myself in that analog. I’ve eaten breakfast and lunch and dinner there. I’ve crudely sketched the locale. I’ve counted the number of light bulbs. I’ve transcribed the titles of the songs on the juke box. I’ve transcribed the graffiti on the men’s room walls. I’ve taken inventories, you know, trying to make that place live on the page. Trying to capture every square foot of its space. Sometimes, that kind of ridiculous effort is necessary. When your imagination stalls, sometimes you have to climb out and just walk. But it’s always better to ride.

Neddal Ayad: Is the gang situation in Quinsigamond based on a particular city or is it an amalgamation of the situations in other cites? Where do you get your information?

Jack O’Connell: The gangs of Quinsigamond are mythic and they come out of 1,000 paperback novels and b-movies and record albums about juvenile delinquents and turf rumbles and motorcycles and black leather. That said, I’ve read non-fiction books on inner city gangs, sociological studies on gang culture—there a lot of great stuff out there and on occasion I’ve lifted details from some of it. But my gangs are a baroque distillation, purposefully removed from the visceral tragedy of Crips and Bloods headlines.

My gangs are a romantic conceit, owing more to West Side Story and Hal Ellson novels than to the history of the Born to Kill gangsters of New York’s Canal St. or even the Latin Kings of my own hometown. In fact, I’ve recently hatched a notion for a gang book that I’m aching to write. I can see this book, can picture its people and places with a thrilling clarity. I can’t wait to get to it.

Neddal Ayad: Do you have much interaction with your readers? You don’t seem to have much of a Web presence.

Jack O’Connell: Beyond the occasional out-of-the-blue letter or e-mail, I really don’t have much contact with readers. Because of this I’m not always sure they exist. I don’t know if this is a good thing or a bad thing.

As for the Web, I wouldn’t know how to construct a site and I wouldn’t have time to maintain one. I’ve browsed the Web sites of some writers and I have to admit that I’ve gotten lost in a few blogs. It’s an interesting experience but I can’t help but feel I’m snooping in someone’s diary.