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Between the Lines |
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Interview with DBC Pierre |
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Vernon God Little
DBC Pierre
Fifteen-year-old Vernon Little is in trouble. And it has something to do with the recent massacre of sixteen students at his high school. News of the tragedy serves as an open invitation to the media and soon the quirky backwater of Martirio, Texas, is flooded with wannabe reporters all too keen to lay the blame for the killings at Vernon's feet. Set in the barbecue-sauce capital of central Texas, the novel's depiction of innocence and simple humanity in an evil world is astonishing. Vernon God Little is a riotous adventure story that cuts a satirical swath through the heart of contemporary America. |
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Biography |
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| DBC Pierre is the pen name of Peter Finlay, who was born in 1961 in Australia, brought up in Mexico, and spent most of the first twenty-three years of his life in Texas and Mexico City. He has worked as a designer and is internationally published as a cartoonist. He currently lives in Ireland. |
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Interview |
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Q: First of all, congratulations on winning the 2003 Man Booker Prize for Vernon God Little—especially for your first novel. Critics have compared it to classics such as The Catcher in the Rye and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and they quickly add that it has the tone of South Park or an Eminem song written by Don DeLillo. Thus far what's your favorite critique—whether it be favorable or unfavorable?
A: The book has indeed attracted all sorts of different comparisons—many of them flattering for a first-timer like myself. To be honest, I haven't read all the reviews, and am not sure it would be helpful to do so, in the interests of trying to develop as a writer. Still, the review I found most interesting was John Carey, who said Vernon's language reminded him of Shakespeare's times: playful and inventive. He went on to say that America was where the English language was moving forward.
Q: In an interview with Michael Silverblatt on KCRW's "Bookworm", you said that Vernon God Little is a book about salvation. How do you use your characters and events in the story to symbolize that idea?
A: Vernon is a real kid in an unreal world made up of outrageous TV images. He has to learn to navigate the world of media stereotypes in order to survive, and in the end, he does this by casting off his individuality and putting the stereotypes to work for him.
Q: Eulalio Ledesma, or Lally, Lalo, and Lalito as he's affectionately known, embodies many perceptions of America. He's an opportunist, he has no problem cashing in on Vernon's misfortunes, and he abandons any values for the almighty dollar. He's so good at it that he even recruits other people to betray Vernon for their fifteen minutes of fame. He could be described as the American dream gone bad. While this behavior may have been born in the United States, do you think it has grown more prevalent worldwide?
A: Absolutely. And remember he [Eulalio] is a media impostor and a foreigner in America. One of the many forces intent on bending the American dream to fit his own twisted desires. He is the downside of freedom, and it may be the Free World's challenge to guard against such misinterpretation and abuse of its privileges.
Q: Why did you choose to set the story in Texas?
A: Two reasons: I had to make Vernon face every spectacular modern ill, including the death penalty, and Texas is where he would most likely face execution as a teenager. Also, having grown up in Mexico myself, Texas was the state I knew best, and I liked its locations.
Q: Vernon spends a lot of time concealing his family's secrets, the evidence that would set him free. Answer the question we all want to ask: Why?
A: Vernon lives in a genuine TV movie, and he's convinced that, like all TV movies, a happy ending is just around the corner. His lesson in life is that he has to make that ending for himself.
Q: Can you speak to the evolution of Vernon's self-appointed names: for instance, Vernon Godzilla Little, Vernon Gone-to-Hell Little, and Vernon God Little?
A: Vern is in a stage of life where his character is still being defined. He constantly recasts himself in the movie of his life, trying to get a handle on his place in the scheme of things.
Q: What's the significance of the Spanish phrase "me ves y sufres"—you see me and suffer? Vernon sees it painted on a Mexican truck and eventually tattoos it on his body.
A: The work has some religious overtones and symbolism, suggesting that Vern is going to die on a cross for all of our modern sins. When he sees the phrase painted on a Mexican truck (not an uncommon thing), it resonates for him in his persecuted frame of mind. "You see me and suffer" is a Catholic lament as might have been used by Christ on the cross.
Q: You're able to bring your characters to life with such ease. A great example: "Ella's just skinny, with some freckles, and this big ole head of tangly blond hair that's always blown to hell, like a Barbie doll your dog's been chewing on for a month." How do you draw upon this creativity?
A: It was one of the great surprises of writing, to find it was an emotional adventure more than an intellectual one. I found myself living the story for real and just had to find the words to describe what I saw and felt around me.
Q: Throughout the book you refer to fate tunes and use them as background music. The song "Sailing" by Christopher Cross, for example, appears at crucial times, and the memory of Taylor Figueroa floats around with "Better Man" by Pearl Jam. What's your fate tune for the experience of writing Vernon God Little? I've heard you say it was a "feverish affair."
A: Feverish is right. I lived in Martirio (in my mind) for the whole time I wrote Vernon. That time had a few fate songs, but I guess the biggie was "Galveston" by Glenn Campbell.
Q: You were born in Australia, raised in Mexico, and now live in Ireland. Your depictions of American culture are frighteningly accurate and equally as humorous. How much time did you spend in the United States?
A: My dad was employed in the states for much of my life, and I was first there at eighteen months of age. Hard to say in total, but I was there for some time at least every year for sixteen years. I loved it, I have to say, and would've stuck around if my dad had lived.
Q: Would you change anything about the novel?
A: I would've made Judge Judy president!
Q: Your friends gave you the nickname Dirty Pierre and, since then, you've added to it: Dirty But Clean Pierre. Can you give some insight as to why you use this pen name? And did it evolve with the writing of Vernon God Little?
A: Pierre is a genuine nickname, given to me many years ago. I put it on the manuscript without even thinking about it. When the work was going to be published, I decided to leave it, as it described the period of life that spawned the book. Also it's descriptive—you have been warned!
Q: What's your next writing project?
A: A work on globalization and immigration, set in Europe. It involves a pair of very soft middle-class Englishmen and a hard and hungry Internet bride. Needless to say, carnage ensues…
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