CDP: In my view, Youth in Revolt is pure entertainment. It was written to amuse the reader. That's it in a nutshell. It's about an eccentric 14-year-old-boy, who's stymied at every turn and has kind of a scheming and devious mind, always willing to try something new to get his way. And he does.
He does. It's about a kid who's intelligent but a little, um... Diabolical?
Diabolical and rather amoral. He doesn't really examine the consequences of his actions before he starts winging it.
What inspired you to write it?
In the '70s I started writing short humor pieces.
For whom?
I sold a couple to Esquire. I eventually discovered there wasn't much of a market anymore for short humor pieces. But my goal was to sell things to the New Yorker. I sold them a couple of cartoon ideas but that was about it. But I wrote this short humor piece about a kid who was nine. On his birthday, he wrote a letter to his parents reflecting on his life up until that time written in kind of a flowery language of an adult would-be writer. I had a lot of fun writing that and it didn't sell. But it sort of planted a germ in my mind that this was kind of a cool idea. And then when I thought about writing a novel I figured I would expand on that theme. Originally Nick was going to be nine, but then I thought nine was just too young to have these kind of traumatic things happening to him, so I bumped him up a few years. I think it's probably more exciting being a kid today than it was in the fifties.
Do you see the book being distributed in high schools?
Certainly not knowingly by the authorities. It might be passed under the table. There are some kids of high school age that have read it. The youngest reader that I know of is a precocious 12-year-old in Pasadena who really liked it a lot. I heard of a mother who bought it for her high school son. He had written his name in it and took it to high school and misplaced it. He was really devastated. A teacher found it, read it, liked it, and it got passed around the teaching staff. Eventually it made it back to the kid. I didn't think I was writing for high school kids or even college kids when I wrote it. But I was kind of surprised that they liked it. Nick's out of it. He's not a very hip kid by today's terms.
What do you think of the youth of today in comparison to the youth of your day?
I think they have a much more difficult time of it. I grew up in the '50s and '60s and the world seemed to me to be a safer place. I think it's probably more exciting being a kid today than it was in the fifties. It seems like they're less inclined to do what they're told and a little more experimental. But it's definitely harder. The pressures of going to college, at least in California, with all the cutbacks and it's more expensive. It's typically five years instead of four. I think kids today have a much harder time of it. . . . I don't know too many [kid's today] but the ones I do know I like a lot. I think they're intelligent and they have very inquiring minds. They're interested in things I would have never thought of being interested in when I was their age. I have a lot of faith in their future.
Would you take anything away? Like Nintendo?
If I had dictatorial powers I would probably not have so many TV channels to watch. Maybe not be completely bombarded all the time by the materialistic culture that we live in. I don't like the image presented to kids that to rebel they should smoke cigarettes, things like that.
I noticed that you pretty much stayed away from alcohol and cigarettes in the book.
Yeah, these are presented to kids as glamorous things to do but it's presented by industries that have an economic incentive to take money out of their wallets. Nick's a little bit wise to that. He doesn't fall for those kinds of things.
Do you see any bright spots?
Well, being a humorous writer I'm pessimistic by nature. Bright spots for kids? Yeah. Um, well...some things only change when the generation changes. Take the Soviet Union. You had to wait for all the old time communists to die out before you had any change. The younger generation today, they're not accepting the values of the generation that's in charge now. On the bright side, I think there will be more of an environmental sense in future generations. Less perhaps, of pursuing the almighty dollar.
Do you think the pursuit of sexuality has changed at all over the decades?
The game is still the same as it was but the rules have changed. When I was a kid, nice girls didn't do it. I never entertained the fact that I would make love to a girl when I was Nick's age; or even in high school. Whereas today I think kids are experimenting with sex at a much younger age. In some ways they seem more casual about it, but I think there's just as much confusion under the surface as there was in my day.
How did you arrive at the character of Nick? Was he carefully thought out?
No, I pretty much just sat down and started writing the book. So Nick just evolved out of somewhere. It was kind of fun writing the book. Originally I thought it was just writing a conventional length novel. Then I got up to about 350 pages and there was no sign of an ending. I started book two and I thought it was going to be a two part book.
And then it became Book 3?
Yeah, I thought it's definitely going to end at book three. The fun part of writing it was working Nick into predicaments and seeing what he was going to come up with to scheme his way out of it. Nick was a fairly consistent character right from the beginning.
What made you decide to make Nick and Sheeni so incredibly well-read? Is that a reflection of yourself?
No, it's just an exaggeration. One thing I remember from high school is that there was an intellectual competition going on, a continuing one-upmanship. I just thought I would exaggerate that to the ultimate level. I don't think there is anyone as intelligent or as well read as Sheeni, let alone at age 14.
Would you say you were Nick Twisp?
In some respects I was Twisp-like. If you could go back and relive high school all over again, based on what you know now, would you?
Sure, but I think I would definitely be dating more cheerleaders than I did. Was there ever a Sheeni Saunders in your life?
Sheeni Saunders was kind of an amalgamation of various women I've known in my life. I wouldn't say there was any one Sheeni Saunders but I did have a high school sweetheart who may have had (clears throat) some similarities.
Made high school more bearable?
Oh, definitely.
Who would you say the book is written for? Adults who survived high school?
That's what my original thinking was. I thought I was writing for aging baby boomers. I'm surprised that's not the case. The appeal seems to go beyond them.
Was it difficult for you to be funny?
I'm not very funny to talk to. People are always disappointed when they talk to me. (Laughs) I suppose I'm probably too earnest, because I had to do all this myself. I'm not used to people actually paying attention to it. It's a completely different mindset that I have to get used to. Well, as Garrison Keilor said, if you want to be a writer it's like being a doctor having your first five hundred patients die.
How do you mean?
Being a writer, for a lot of people, is just a continuous series of rejections and then suddenly you're accepted.
Was there any deep-rooted revenge fantasy being played out in Youth in Revolt?
Oh, probably. I probably (clears throat) was trying to get revenge against all the people in high school who used to tell me I was totally out of it.
I notice you also make a lot of fun of hack writers, such as Nick's father. Where did that come from?
That came out of my advertising writing. Nick can be the idealist because he's only 14 and really doesn't have to work in the world. But Nick's dad could be taken as a preview of the world that Nick might have to face. In some ways they both have very similar characteristics.
How so?
Well, they're both a little tight with the buck. They're both respectful of wealth. Nick has the potential of turning into a ladies man when he's older.
Was it difficult writing Twisp, and all the main characters, as larger than life?
It really wasn't difficult. Mostly it was kind of fun. It took me about a year for each book. I didn't really do very much rewriting. It just sort of came out all at once. In Book Three I introduced a character that wasn't working out, so I went back and eliminated that character. But there wasn't any particular character that was difficult to write. I tried to make things fun. The characters would play off each other and have a certain amount of conflict. The characters would surprise me all the time. Book Two, I had no idea how it was going to end until Sheeni's brother Paul invited Nick for Thanksgiving dinner. I thought, oh, well, there's the ending. They had a life of their own after a while.
What's the best book you've ever read?
Lolita by Nabokov.
That would explain the 14-year-olds.
If you read Youth in Revolt closely there are some allusions to Lolita. Nobody noticed that, but I was sort of sneaking them in to see if anybody would notice. But it's the only book I've ever read that you can sit down and reread forever and always find something new. He's probably my favorite writer.
What do you do besides write?
What do I do? I just got a metal lathe so I'm teaching myself to be a machinist in case literature doesn't work out. That's kind of a switch. I like to work with my hands. I have a wood shop and I make furniture. I collect toy trailers. I'm kind of a dull guy. What's your profession?
I do catalog copy writing.
That wasn't what I was expecting.
What were you expecting?
I was expecting you to be a contemporary journalist. I did that for a while. I was newspaper editor for a small town weekly. But journalism...I'm too polite. I didn't like to ask people obnoxious questions to pursue stories.
