All In His Imagination - Page 4
© Paula E. Kirman
David: No, not at all. To me, I don't really look on it like that. To me, it's like: is the architecture of the narrative solid? Is the voice of the character credible? Those are the only things that concern me. I never care about whether the guy is nice or whether the actual events in the novel themselves are pleasant. I'm only concerned if it is a successful narrative or if the guy is plausible. And if the answer to those two things is yes, then the book goes out. I actually never really think about it. I like it because I like the execution. For me, the execution is the best of any novel I have ever written, by which I mean the architecture. The narrative architecture of Sparrow Nights is head and shoulders over any other book I've written in terms of just structure. So that's really all I care about.
I can't tell . . . my first ex-wife reads it and says it's her favorite of the bunch and my girlfriend reads it and says, "Jesus, I'm not sure I even like this book; I don't think I am going to give it to my parents for Christmas." I don't understand that at all, but she's an intelligent young woman and she reads a lot and I guess she felt that she didn't really like the guy in the book. And I said, "Well what is it that you don't like about the guy, because I find him very good company." She said, "Well, I just find that his head is full of violent and sexual fantasies." And I said, "Oh, well, right [laughing] . Well, you're actually right there." And she said, "I found it just a bit of a disturbing personality." So, you may well be right; I just never thought about it.
Paula: I wouldn't say I didn't like the book because of that; it's just something that I noticed as I read it.
David: You didn't like the guy a whole bunch.
Paula: I liked the novel, but I didn't like him that much but that's part of why I liked the novel, because I wanted to see what happened. [David laughs]
