Stephen Amidon

Interviewed by Mark Campbell

The New City is the fourth of Stephen Amidon's novels, a novel of crime and retribution that should lift him from the relative obscurity of art-house literature and into the spotlight of mainstream success. An epic book on many levels, Amidon's deceptively easy prose comes from the autobiographical nature of the subject matter itself. He spent his formative years in Columbia, Maryland, a new city that mirrors the Newton of the book. He witnessed firsthand the uneasy mix of rich, poor, black and white that formed the brave but flawed social experiment. The New City takes place in the summer of 1973 - the year Amidon turned fourteen - and it's a story that's clearly close to his heart. It's one he says he wanted to write for twenty years.
As we settle down to talk, it's immediately obvious that Amidon is an intense man, confident and surefooted. Unfazed by my dubious reference to The Towering Inferno, he reveals the same intelligence and precision of thought he displays so eloquently in his prose.

First off, how do you respond to the alleged quote from a reader, "Like Tom Wolfe with an editor"?

You know, I haven't read A Man in Full yet, though I certainly plan to. But Bonfire of the Vanities is one of my all-time favourite books, so any comparisons to it are most welcome. I think Wolfe is right to think that American writers have become too inward-directed and modest in their vision. We need novels that engage contemporary society. But, for obvious reasons, the person most chuffed by the quote was Gerry Howard, my editor at Doubleday!

According to the blurb you wrote in the press release, this is very autobiographical. So where does fact stop and fiction begin?

Well, the general setting is quite factual. In the late 1960s a visionary urban planner built this new city in central Maryland called Columbia. It incorporated lots of the stuff I used to 'build' Newton - bike paths, ergonomic architecture, etc. But having used this as a jumping off point, I then began to add my own elements. The layout of Newton is not the same as Columbia, for instance, and I've made up a lot of street and village names. The main reason for this was that my city had to serve a fictional agenda rather than an historical one. Also, I didn't want to get into a situation where denizens of Columbia accused me of getting it wrong - though they have anyway.

The new city seems like a metaphor for a new country, like America. Is it?

That's right. America is called a new city by the early Puritan writers. With the exception of Indians and slaves, just about everybody, from the pilgrims to poor Elian Gonzalez's mother, came here for a new start, just as the Swopes and Wootens and Truaxes come to Newton.

Are you saying that even if you try to make a fresh start, the result will always be failure?

I suppose I am saying that such a utopian project is doomed, yes. But only because we are trying to be better than we are.

The unresolved ending - part of the grand plan, or the only way you could see to finish the novel?

It certainly wasn't part of the grand plan - I didn't have one! No, it was more that I reached that point and thought, "Okay, that's it". I like the idea that the book ends with the word 'future'. I mean, without being too didactic, I guess I'm saying the city is still being built, that the battle between Swope and Wooten is still ongoing.

For some reason I'm reminded of that 1974 disaster epic The Towering Inferno - this vast, man-made edifice, a population in miniature, two strong characters from different classes working together, the spread of fire at the end... Was this an influence, or am I seeing connections that aren't there?

That's my kids' favourite movie and definitely makes my list. It's funny, in an early draft I had a sentence about Swope and his wife watching the film, but had to take it out because the timing was wrong - the book is set in '73. You're probably too young to recall, but Irwin Allen's apocalyptic movies were very big back then, and I don't think it was an accident. I mean, they were apocalyptic times, when the world's whole bloody infrastructure was coming down. But in terms of being a specific influence, not that I'm aware of.

In the best possible way, the tangled human relationships are rather like a good soap opera - passion, envy, vengeance etc... Were classy soaps like ER an influence?

Well, I know what you mean. I love ER and more so Homicide and NYPD Blue. Even more, I love Altman films like M*A*S*H, The Player and Short Cuts, as well as the work of Richard Linklater who did Dazed and Confused, P T Anderson (Boogie Nights) and the great Todd Solenz (Happiness). What these works share with soaps and hopefully my own stuff is that they assign equal weight to a cast of characters rather than choosing out a protagonist. They follow a series of linked stories rather than one narrative. I think this adds breadth and depth to the story, making it seem like it's capturing a community.

Why did you use just a handful of characters in this vast, new cityscape?

They didn't seem like a handful to me at the time! But looking back, I see what you mean. I guess since the ones I do use represent different parts of the city I felt like I had it covered.

None of the characters seem wholly likeable.

Well, with the exception of my own wife and children, I don't know anyone who is wholly likeable - myself included. So it would be hard to make warm and cuddly characters and at the same time be honest. With the exception of Diggory Venn (and he has red shit all over him), who's totally likeable in Hardy? I think that explicitly likeable characters are the curse of modern fiction.

Did you plot very carefully the escalating violence in the latter half of the book?

I did and I didn't. I wanted there to be an apocalyptic ending, but the actual choreography of the violence didn't suggest itself until after the characters and their conflicts had been fully developed. I must confess that near the end of the writing the story was sort of rampaging at its own pace and logic.

The theme of jealousy comes over strongly - especially between the two main characters and their sons. And like Othello, most of it would have been resolved by a casual remark early on.

Yes. I'm always fascinated by stories of siblings who haven't spoken for twenty years because of an imagined insult, or of couples who break up over a tiny misunderstanding. So much human conflict boils up from nothing. Have you seen Michael Mann's brilliant The Insider? What's amazing is that it details this huge event - the uncovering of a massive conspiracy by Big Tobacco - and yet the whole thing derives from the fact the tobacco company chairman needlessly insulted his researcher, and then got the FBI to pettily harass the man, which piqued the curiosity of a CBS producer. And look at WWI, for God's sake! But in The New City I also wanted to show how the veneer of civility that exists between the races in America is very thin and fragile, and can be shredded by only the slightest of disturbances.

There are some memorable flashbacks in the novel, such as when Vietnam vet John Truax discovers a maggot-filled cave, and Earl Wooten starves almost to death because of a simple oversight - were these based on truth?

Both were fictitious. But hopefully plausible.

I'm very impressed with your clear, unmuddied prose - are you a self-taught writer?

Yes - I'm not a big believer in writing schools.

How did you get started on the rocky road to journalism?

By serving as a theatre critic in a small North Carolina city, which is a form of torture the North Koreans would do well to study. After I moved to London I got my real start by writing a bunch of letters, the only one of which was answered was by Auberon Waugh at the Literary Review.

As well as writing fiction, you've been involved in some radio work, haven't you?

Yes, I've been on the BBC World Service reviewing books, and also on Radio 4, most notably doing a feature about Huck Finn for Kaleidoscope Extra

Until recently, you lived in an 'old city' - London. Did you enjoy the experience?

I loved living in London; it's my favourite city in the world by a wide margin. Unfortunately, it is not part of the United States and therefore it's an untenable place for an American writer concerned with American themes to spend his entire life!

Who are your literary heroes?

Just one - Thomas Hardy.

Which of your previous three novels are you most happy with?

I think it has to be Thirst, but don't ask me why. I guess I just think about it more than the others. The reason may be that I wrote it very quickly and unconsciously. Not that I think it couldn't have been better; it's just that it was very deeply felt.

Tell me about your working day - do you have a routine?

Well, I work on fiction in the morning then spend the afternoon doing freelance work, if there is any. But it's not like I spend eight hours a day at the computer. I'm a compulsive break-taker and school-runner.

What are your feelings about a possible film version of The New City? I understand film rights are currently under negotiation.

I suppose it would be interesting to see, though I don't imagine anyone would spend all that money without lightening the book's dark cynicism.

Would you want to be involved?

I'd love to be, although I've been around long enough to know that my input wouldn't be quite as venerated as I'd wish. But, hey, money's money.

What are your favourite books and films? (Apart from The Towering Inferno!)

That's easy. Starting with books, it has to be Return of the Native (Thomas Hardy), Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky), White Noise (Don DeLillo) and The Moviegoer (Walker Percy). As for movies, well they tend to be crime orientated - The Godfather I and II, To Live and Die in LA, Wages of Fear and Goodfellas would be my favourites.

How did your publicity tour go?

It was good and bad. I like talking about the book on radio, but I hate reading in public. And hotel rooms are fun in a weird sort of way.

Do you enjoy self-publicity?

Well, it beats self-anonymity.

And what are you planning next?

I'm working on another big novel.