From: The Lost Interviews, Part 1
So, who do you read that you have become such a writer? Surely, you’ll acknowledge influences.
Well, uh, uuuhhhhh…
Dostoevsky, Kafka, Maupassant, maybe Samuel Beckett…
Oh, no, no, I don’t go back that far, and certainly not to the Old World – ho, ho, ho… I’m more of an American-based, I mean, I’m a Kyiv-based writer, probably the only one who’s an expat here, but I’m American-based in the sense that’s where my writing comes from, and because I myself am an American – ho, ho, ho… But you did mention Samuel Beckett…
Yes, but he wasn’t American; he was Irish; came right after James Joyce, wrote, among other masterpieces, “Waiting for Godot”.
Oh, ho, ho, ho, that’s right! Sometimes you read so much you get where the authors came from all mixed up. Ho, ho, ho. But for what it’s worth, I really liked that particular story.
That’s really great. Except it wasn’t a story, it was a play.
Uuhhh, um, uuhhh, uuhhh, well, ah, you see, it’s also –
Mmm-hmmm… And so, so many of these American authors; from among them, could you name a few, whom you’ve undoubtedly read, who have been such an influence on your damn work. Surely among them are Raymond Carver, Donald Barthelme, John Cheever, Flannery O’Connor – I mean, real masters of the modern and postmodern American short story form.
Uuuhhhhh, um, uuuhhhhh, well, you see, uuuhhhhh…
Yes, I think I do see: Or maybe Robert Coover, John Barth, William Gaddis, William Gass, Wi –
Gass?!? You mean the one with the inflated ego?! Ho, ho, ho, ho, ho (raspy, dyspeptic throat gravel)
No, I mean the one who wrote “Omensetter’s Luck” –
The luck of the one who set the omens, nyu, nyu, ho, ho, ha…
“In the Heart of the Heart of the Country” –
Like New York – arg, arg, arg, ho… It sound so nice he name it twice – nyuuug-haaawww!!!
I see… William S. Burroughs –
Yes! The Tarzan writer, haaaaawww!!! He shot his wife by accident and drug overdosed his son. Me Tarzan, you Jane! And what do you do with a monkey who had the name of a predator cat – Cheetah? I mean, what do you do when a real cheetah comes along? Har, har, har-aaarrrghhh…!!! He probably wouldn’t want to be THAT monkey’s uncle then!!! Haaawwwaaarrrgnyaaa!!! Huh, huh, huh, huuujaaarrr…!!!
Indeed.
Aaaaahhh (voice like wire brush scraping rusted pipe), what’s that’s supposed to mean?
More later.
Filed by Jack Step, February 4, 2013