MY LIFE IN BOOKS: WILLY VLAUTIN
Willy Vlautin has published six novels, among them The Motel Life and Lean on Pete, which were turned into feature films. Vlautin lives in Portland, Oregon, and is the founding member of the bands Richmond Fontaine and The Delines. His new novel The Horse is published by Faber and out now.
The books by your bedside?
You might think I’m crazy, but I sleep next to my favourite books. Ironweed by William Kennedy, Fat City by Leonard Gardner, Manual for Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin, Dirty Work by Larry Brown, Kestrel for a Knave by Barry Hines, Pick-Up by Charles Willeford, and The Woman Who Walked into Doors by Roddy Doyle.
Your book of the year so far?
Soldiers and Kings: Survival and Hope in the World of Human Smuggling by Jason De Leon. It’s hard for me not to get obsessed with what’s happening on the US’s southern border. Soldiers and Kings follows low-level human smugglers and the plight of people so desperate that they hire these often un-trustable guys. We see this first hand as De Leon travelled with smugglers and chronicled their lives.
Favourite literary character?
This morning it’s Paula Spencer, from the Roddy Doyle novels, The Woman Who Walked into Doors and [her own standalone novel] Paula Spencer. She’s a working-class woman who was violently abused by her husband and lived to tell the tale. She’s ragged and beat up, tough and funny, and broken and tragic.
The first book you remember?
My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George. It’s about a kid who runs away and lives with a falcon in a hollowed-out When I found that book it changed my life because I desperately wanted to live inside it. I just couldn’t figure out how. The book taught the real power of the novel and started my lifelong love of books.
The book that changed your life?
Sailor’s Holiday by Barry Giffore ford. It’s a collection of the short novels of Sailor and Lula. I found it in my early 20s. The book is dipped in noir and is all adventure, love, violence, madness, and hilarity. Those stories were so singularly sad that I got lost inside that world. Gifford taught me that books can also be rides, they can be crazed and funny, stylish and wild. Before that I was obsessed with Raymond Carver.
The book you couldn’t finish?
Ah man, sadly there’s been a few of those for me. I hate to admit this because it’s not a very long book, but I always struggled with The Sound and The Fury by William Faulkner. I’ve attempted it three or four times but always somewhere along the way I’ve run out of gas.
Your comfort read?
Jim Thompson. I always go back to those old Black Lizard press guys when I lose my way with novels. Jim Thompson, Charles Willeford, David Goodis. I guess that says something about me because those guys are all deranged.
The book you give as a gift?
Lucia Berlin’s Manual for Cleaning Women. I give that book to everyone I like.
The writer who shaped you?
In high school I was taught all of John Steinbeck’s major works. I have no idea why he was so popular in my school but he was. He wrote about damaged people, working class people. There’s so much love and sadness in his books. Growing up I had his picture next to a photo of The Jam, X, and The Pogues. He was a real hero.
The book you would like to be remembered for?
Man, that’s hard. Don’t Skip Out on Me. I loved that kid, Horace Hopper, so much. He was so troubled and so full of heart and courage. Like Billy from [Barry Hines’s] Kestrel for a Knave he was a guy I wanted to save and protect but couldn’t. I remember reading Kes and wanting to grab Billy out of that book. I felt that same way about Horace even though I was the one writing it.