Drift Reality

A few weeks back I reviewed Joe McGinniss Jr.’s debut novel The Delivery Man, now available from Amazon.com.

Today, I touched base with McGinniss Jr. and he was kind enough to spend some time answering a few question about his life, his perceptions of society, and his novel.

1. The Delivery Man takes a critical look at the so-called MySpace Generation. What are your impressions of this generation and the influences that have shaped their perceptions.

I wrote this book between 2002 and 2006. This was the age of Jessica Simpson, Paris Hilton, celebrity worship, breaking news on CNN when Lindsay Lohan or Britney Spears drove their car into a telephone pole on Sunset. This while we were invading and occupying Iraq, as thousands and thousands of young men and women, themselves members of the MySpace Generation were getting their limbs blown off half a world away while everyone and their mother seemed to be driving a new 11mpg Escalade or Hummer (some with yellow ribbon Support Our Troops magnets slapped on the back). This period, and the MySpace Generation that was coming of age in the midst of it, was plagued by the superficiality of celebrity worship, materialism, hyper-sexualization of young women while we waged war and the planet died. So America, and it’s attention-craving teenagers who all wanted to be America’s Next Top (fill in the blank), weren’t doing a whole lot that warranted a flattering portrayal. Besides, with a novel, one is free to exaggerate to make a point. In fact, if one doesn’t, it won’t make much of a novel. So are teenagers all empty, shallow, uninspired and unmotivated pop-culture addicts? Of course not. Are teenagers largely the products of their environment and society? Sure. Are parents, corporate media and politicians to blame for America’s Dark Years (2002-2006)? Mostly. Is there hope now for a more engaged and ambitious generation thinking beyond themselves and money and celebrity? We’ll see — but there are signs. Look at the youth vote in the Iowa caucuses. Times may be changing.

2. The Delivery Man is a pretty heavy novel. At times, I found myself struck by how stark your narrative was. Was the tone a conscientious decision or did it just unravel that way?

The tone was something I couldn’t seem to avoid. There was no way I could be true to the characters in their world — modern day Las Vegas and a teenage prostitution ring — and insert layers of character development and traditional character arcs. This isn’t that kind of story. To make the point I wanted to make, I wasn’t able to employ some of those traditional narrative devices. That would have undermined the story, watering down the point, taking the edge off. With too much irony or wry distance between the reader and the story, the effect is lost. It becomes something else entirely. I want it to be jarring, raw, uncomfortable at times. I want anyone who reads it to feel trapped, unable to escape until they finish it. I want it do be an experience. Too many novels and movies are a little this, remind you of that, but are forgotten the moment you put them down or leave the theater. Why bother? Then again, that’s what sells and if you want to make a living writing I guess that’s why you’d bother. I don’t know. Dark is what worked, it’s what fit best and what appealed to me as a writer at the time. So I ran with it.

3. You came to writing relatively late in life and found great success. What are your thoughts on making a jump like that?

I spent most of my young adult life interested in and involved in politics and policy. But I got burned out — lost my motivation sometime in the late nineties, when we were spending inordinate amounts of time on oral sex in the oval office discussions and very little time on things that mattered. At the time, I couldn’t see devoting my life to a world of triviality, compromise, and game-playing. So I started writing fiction, creating my own worlds with my own rules. I guess being in control felt pretty good after so much time working for other people and following their rules. Then again, as I discovered pretty quickly, fiction has it’s own elaborate set of rules and constrictions that can be equally maddening. And it was less a jump than a long, painful slog filled with self-doubt, no money and more stress than I can bear to think about. The first three years of it were endured because I didn’t know any better and always thought a finished publishable novel was around the corner. Kind of like success in Iraq. We’re always “turning the corner.” The last three years were only because I’d invested so much time and energy, had received enough objective encouragement that I was approaching something worthwhile and because my wife supported me emotionally and financially in ways that simply blow my mind when I think about it. There’s a quote from a great writer Roland Merullo that seems apt: “No one writes a novel alone.”

4. What are your thoughts on writing a novel? Do you have any advice for aspiring novelists?

Write. Edit. Read. Write. Edit. Read. Write. Edit. Read. Repeat. And don’t quit. And don’t write for some market you think is “hot.” Because by the time you’ve got something publishable, it won’t be hot anymore. Write something true. Real. Write clearly. Write visually. Write something you like to read. Write what comes easiest. Write not what you feel, not how you feel, because believe me, the reader doesn’t care how you feel. No offense, but everyone feels something unique. That’s not fiction. That’s not a story. I learned this the hard way after I spent about two plus years writing what I thought was a novel but was really just a bunch of autobiography badly disguised as fiction that was readable but really just a bunch of crap. So please, whatever you do, write actions, motivations, stories. People and characters are what they do — defined by their actions and reactions, not by what you think about them. And when you’ve written something you think is strong, after having reread it a few times, get an objective opinion or two. Listen to the feedback. Take in all constructive criticism and get back to work. For some, I’m sure it comes easier. For me, it was the hardest thing I’ve ever done.

5. If a movie were to be made about your life, who would direct and who would play the part of you?

Excellent question. No one would make it and if they did, they’d lose whatever money they invested because I’d be the only one in the theatre — and even I’d probably end up walking out, going home and watching South Park reruns. But I’ll use this space to tell you that the greatest living director is Paul Thomas Anderson. The writer of the script would have to be Creighton Vero — he wrote the movie SPUN that came out in 2002 and is currently adapting THE DELIVERY MAN for the big screen. Who would play me? Is Paul Giamatti available?

The painting Devon liked the most - the one Devon told Chase he thought should “anchor your wall” - was the one that Chase was the most reluctant about: a girl sits on a bed and stares blankly out a window. Early-morning sunlight fills the room, bathing her in yellow. The girl wears her hair in a ponytail and her tan skin seems smooth until you move in closer and then you see the sores around her mouth and the white scar on her forehead. Outside the window is a sea of pink tile roofs that bleed together so that it’s impossible to distinguish one from the next. The painting’s title: ‘Carly.’

His art and girlfriend Julia, finishing her MBA in New York, are representative of a new life for Chase once he moves to San Francisco. His childhood friend Michele, a prostitute attempting to launch an escort business with another one of his childhood friends Bailey, is his current reality in Las Vegas.

Joe McGinniss Jr.’s debut novel, The Delivery Man is a story about the struggle of the individual to achieve the promise of something better while mired in the the dystopia of his past and present. And what better place to set this struggle than the City of Sin.

Aesthetically, The Delivery Man is on-point. In fact, it is one of the few narratives I’ve managed to finish in a while.

McGinniss does a masterful job structuring his novel, alternating between the present narrative and stark flashbacks - many based on actual interviews that he conducted with teens in Vegas.

McGinniss peppers the narrative with periodic intimations to future events, which keeps the momentum moving squarely forward. In fact, I gobbled it up voraciously in about two days and I have mild ADD.

Not your average Joe

The prose reminds me a bit of Dave Eggers, except less poetic and more edgy and visual.

The texture of the novel is a bit stressful to say the least. I read the majority of the book with a sinking feeling of despair in the pit of my stomach not unlike the feeling I had while watching Leaving Las Vegas, based on a John O’Brien novel or more recently, the feeling I had while watching the first few minutes of Rules of Attraction (the 2002 version), based on a Bret Ellis novel. Come to think of it, I have a feeling it won’t be long until I’m experiencing that same feeling while watching the film adaptation of The Delivery Man.

Ultimately, The Delivery Man is not only a compelling story about a young man’s struggle in Las Vegas, but also a statement about the latent ideology of the ‘MySpace generation,’ one of moral ambiguity and superficial excess, and the growing divide between the MySpace generation and those preceding it.

Now I’m starting to sound disgustingly cliche and that is my cue to stop writing and do something else.

Bottom line - order this book from Amazon or wherever you go to buy your books and you will not be disappointed.

Back when I was living in San Diego I used to play basketball in Balboa Park about two or three times per week, mostly on the lesser court. Just for your edification, most gyms that contain two basketball courts will spontaneously sort into a greater and lesser courts. The greater court will normally contain the real ballers - the guys who come down every day, can dunk, and get into actual fights over ridiculously petty calls in a game.

Actually, playing basketball on the greater court pretty much objectively sucks but everyone wants to play there, but I digress - once upon a time, several friends of mine were playing on the lesser court and while the ballers on the greater court were dunking on one another and punching each other in the face, we somehow found ourselves playing against a team of girls.

Now mind you - I don’t recall who won that game and that means there is at least a 40% chance that the girls beat us and my selective memory is really going to work right now so I really am not trying to make light of the fact that we were playing against a team of girls.

One of those girls happened to be named Rachel and we would periodically run into one another at the gym and chat. We both shared a passion for writing and I showed her some of the writing I had done through Drift Reality and at one point even posted one of her stories to Drift Reality.

Fast-forward about four or five years and she is publishing a book through Schiffer Publishing called Chicago Ghosts (ISBN: 9780764327421) due out in October of this year. I just ordered a copy from the Schiffer Books Web site and have to say I’m really happy for Rachel that she turned her passion into a reality.