I was lucky enough to get another
fantastic writer to sit down and talk with me recently. This time it’s Adam
Sternbergh, author of the neo-noir novels Shovel Ready and Near Enemy.
Spademan, the protagonist of your first two novels, has
an interesting background: A garbageman-turned hitman after the death of his
wife during a terrorist attack in NYC. Did 9/11 inspire the creation of this
character and if not, what did?
The character of Spademan himself
has his genesis in a short story I wrote way (way) back in high school, which
was about a relentless hitman. I named him Spademan after an actual, real-life
garbage disposal company that existed back then in Toronto. The name stuck with
me, obviously, and I revived it when I started writing Shovel Ready a few years ago. But the rest of the novel was definitely
inspired in part by 9/11, and in part by the improbable boom years in New York
that followed afterwards—when previously downtrodden and abandoned
neighborhoods were suddenly full of million-dollar apartments. I spent ten
years as a journalist in New York covering this improbable resurgence—and I
started trying to imagine what kind of catastrophe it would take to send the
city back to the kind of crisis it endured in the 70s and 80s, when it was
inspiring movies like Death Wish and Escape from New York. Shovel Ready is, in part, about that
catastrophe and its aftermath.
Is there any truth to the rumor that you sold the movie
rights to Shovel Ready and that Denzel Washington is in negotiations to
play Spademan? If so, who would win in a fight, Spademan or Robert McCall from The
Equalizer?
There is truth to that— though,
as you probably know, Hollywood is not exactly famous as a place where things
happen quickly, decisively, and without any obstacles or delays. So we’ll see.
But the hope for a Spademan movie is still very much alive. As to a Robert
McCall vs Spademan battle royale, the answer is obvious: Robert McCall! That
dude is a bad-ass. Did you see what he did with power tools? And, frankly, one
of the things I personally love about Spademan is that he’s not a highly
trained, former Green Beret type of hero. He’s a more-or-less regular guy who was
driven to an unsavory line of work by some tragic circumstances, then discovered
he had a talent for it. He’s not an elite super-assassin. He’s basically a guy who,
for various dark and scarring reasons, woke up one day with no more fucks to
give. That said, you do not want to wind up on his bad side.
Both of your novels feature writing so lean and mean,
one might think physical trainer Jillian Michaels moonlights as your editor.
Have you always written fiction in this fashion or is this a stylistic choice
made specifically for this series of books?
I wish Jillian Michaels moonlighted
as my physical trainer, since all those hours in a writing chair take their
toll. But the voice of the Spademan novels definitely comes from the character
himself. When I started writing the opening chapter of Shovel Ready, I felt like my most important job was to listen—so I
could figure out how this voice should sound. Prior to Shovel Ready, I’d really hit a wall with my fiction-writing
efforts, so when I sat down and started that book I wanted to let the character
speak and just follow that voice. I’ve always loved very spare, efficient,
pared-down writing, particularly in the hard-boiled genre, so it was a really
fun exercise for me. But I think it’s a tricky voice to export to other novels. I have a new novel on the horizon, for example, called The Blinds that’s a standalone and is written
in a very different, but hopefully equally engaging, style.
What else can you tell me about The Blinds and is there a third Spademan novel in the works? If so,
can you give me a hint as to when it might come out?
The Blinds
is about an isolated town in remote Texas full of criminals with no memories of
their past misdeeds—and I think anyone who liked the Spademan novels will dig The Blinds as well. But I am definitely
invested in the next chapter of Spademan’s story, especially since I want to
draw the larger story that runs through the first two books to a satisfying conclusion.
So the third book will definitely come soon—though “soon” in publishing circles
is sometimes measured in years, not months.
You’ve done a lot of work for some well-known magazines
including The New York Times, Slate, and New York/Vulture. How does writing
articles compare to writing novels and what do you like and dislike about each?
I like them both, but for opposite
reasons. What’s fun for me about working on an article is amassing all this
information, doing a bunch of research, conducting interviews, and then sifting
through all of it in search of the storyline. It feels like a treasure
hunt—like you’re piecing together a number of disparate clues to solve a
mystery. With fiction, it’s the opposite: I love the boundless potential of the
blank page. With a few words, you can create a world. You can write, “The man
with the angel wings woke up in the cardboard box” and suddenly we’re in a
world where winged men exist and they wake up in cardboard boxes. Why? Who
knows! That’s why you keep reading. That feeling, to me, is wonderful, as a
reader and a writer.
You recently wrote a piece for Vulture about the
enduring, even resurgent, popularity of the TV show, Friends. Is there a
current show on television that you think might hold the same type of long-term
appeal? If so, which one and why? If not, any opinions on why that might be?
I seriously doubt it. I think we
just consume culture in such a different way now than we did 20 years ago. Friends was being watched by over 20
million people every week—and there was a lot less noise in the culture for it
to compete with. Today, a show like Game
of Thrones generates tons of discussion among its fans, but it’s not nearly
as universal a phenomenon. And we have such an ongoing smorgasbord of TV that it’s
hard to imagine a majority of people gravitating simultaneously to one show at
the same time. I think all this is a good thing, by the way, especially when it
comes to comedy. Once you don’t have to appeal to the largest possible
audience, you’re more free to make things that are idiosyncratic and personal
and weird, which I am always in favor of.
You’re a longtime New Yorker and it’s baseball season so
I’ve got to know which you prefer, the Yankees or the Mets, and why?
NONE OF THE ABOVE. I grew up in
Toronto so my allegiance remains forever with the Blue Jays. Also, that means I
grew up absolutely hating our division-rival, the Yankees, so when I moved to
New York, I joked with my boss (who is a New Yorker and huge Yankees fan) that,
for me, meeting actual Yankees fans was kind of like meeting members of the
KKK: I’d always known they existed in theory but had never met one in person. If
I have to root for a New York team, I choose the Mets, because I’m instinctually
drawn to their haplessness. But then, their history is so fraught that it’s very
hard to be a casual Mets fan. Also, since we’re on the topic of the Blue Jays:
I will forever be 100% pro-bat-flip.
OK, last question and it’s one I like to ask a lot of
people. I know you like to read. What’s your favorite recent book that you’ve
read and why?
There are two recent ones that
stand out: one of which is a new read for me and one is a re-read. I did a
panel last year with Stuart Neville, the brilliant Irish crime writer, which
was a perfect excuse to dive into his work. So I started (as you do) with his
debut, The Ghosts of Belfast, which
is haunting and chilling and great. It’s about the past and how we can never
really escape it, as well as being a ripping good revenge saga. The other book
I loved this year is one I originally read back in college, but decided to
reread: The Killer Angels by Michael
Shaara. It’s no great revelation to praise this book about the battle of
Gettysburg (it won the Pulitzer, after all), but as I reread it, I was reminded
that it delivers so many great, basic pleasures of storytelling. It’s just a
fantastic book from cover to cover—and a relevant one right now, given the
current political climate, since it’s all about the American experiment and the
cost, over our history, of fighting to keep it alive.
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