American author Don Winslow has written 21 acclaimed and award-winning international bestsellers, including The Power of the Dog and Savages. Photo / Getty Images
American author Don Winslow has written 21 acclaimed and award-winning international bestsellers, including The Power of the Dog and Savages. Photo / Getty Images
American author Don Winslow has written 21 acclaimed and award-winning international bestsellers, including The Power of the Dog and Savages, which was made into a feature film by Oscar-winning Oliver Stone. He talks with Greg Fleming about leaving crime fiction on a high note.
When we meet Danny Ryan in City of Dreams, the second book in a trilogy, he’s on that most iconic of American journeys - heading West for a new start. Actually he and his men are running for their lives after a drug deal gone wrong; Ryan’s also lost his wife to cancer, has a rival mob and the Feds chasing him and his infant son and ageing father to look after.
It makes for a wild ride.
After this trilogy Winslow has announced he’s retiring to concentrate on his political activism - mostly focused around his Twitter account, which is the bane of many Republicans.
Readers will lament that after this, there’s only one Winslow novel to come.
You’d started this trilogy decades ago. What drew you back to it now?
Opportunity. You know, I’ve written a number of books since I first started this trilogy. I’d pick it up and put it down again as I wrote a big trilogy on the drug trade, a lengthy book about the police and several other projects. But I always wanted to get back to this project. Finally, the time seemed right. And also, I thought I’d evolved enough as a writer to have a shot at tackling it successfully.
You’ve based it on The Iliad; do readers need to swot up on their Homer to get the most out of this?
Not at all. One of my goals was that a reader could enjoy these books without even knowing that they’re based on Homer, Virgil and the Greek tragic dramatists. I wanted to make sure that they stood alone as modern crime novels. That was the challenge and the fun of it, and probably why it took me several decades to do it. Now, if a reader does have some nodding acquaintance with the Greek and Roman classics, I think he or she will get a kick out of making the connections.
You’ve said you were an overnight success in your 50s after decades of publishing - what kept you writing in those early days?
Just stubborn, I guess. This is what I always wanted to do, since I was a kid, so giving up that dream wasn’t on the menu. I did a number of different jobs to support myself and my family in the meantime, and I enjoyed them all. But I kept writing throughout. I didn’t know that it would ever happen for me, but it finally did. That’s why I always tell aspiring writers to never, never, never give up.
You’ve announced your retirement from writing to concentrate on political activism. Have you said all you wanted to say in fiction?
I think so. And I don’t want to publish just for the sake of publishing. Also, as you alluded to in the question, there are issues out there that are too urgent for the time frame of a novel. They demand a more immediate response, and I think my energies are better spent doing that.
How did it feel turning in the last book you’ll ever write [the upcoming final part of the City in Ruins trilogy]?
I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel a little sad. And a little strange. I mean, I’ve been getting up before dawn most mornings for decades in order to write fiction, to turn out pages - and then suddenly I wasn’t. At the same time, I feel a great deal of satisfaction in the body of work I produced over those years, and I’ve had a much bigger and better career than I ever dreamed. So it’s bittersweet.
You’ve just started a book club on Twitter - I’m in! - is reading becoming an endangered pastime?
No. The platforms are evolving, but people are still reading and they always will. From the paintings on the Lascaux caves to Kindle, people have always wanted the story, and they’ve always wanted to consult their own imaginations. I’ve read so many obituaries on the book, and it always refuses to go into the grave.
Did Elon Musk buying Twitter give you pause re your use of the platform?
Danny winds up in Hollywood, you’ve had many dealings with the movie industry - is it still the “city of dreams” today?
In literature and folklore, the West is where people always go to reinvent themselves, and nowhere is that more true than in America, embodied by Hollywood, the “dream factory”. Similar to books, the delivery platforms are evolving, but Hollywood is still turning out the dreams. Me, I still love going to a movie theatre for that experience. Maybe that makes me a dinosaur, but I love sinking into a seat as the theatre gets dark and the screen lights up. Nothing like it.
You’ve been very supportive of fellow crime fiction writers like Adrian McKinty and T.J. Newman; who mentored you when you were a writer starting out?
Nobody personally, because I didn’t have that opportunity. But so many writers were so influential and taught me so much. I think, of course, about Raymond Chandler, but also, in major ways, Elmore Leonard, Lawrence Block, John D. MacDonald, Charles Willeford, Jim Thompson, Robert B. Parker, Joseph Wambaugh, James Ellroy … don’t worry, I won’t go on forever, but I could. These people were my teachers, and I owe them a great debt.
What book of yours reveals the most about you?
No offence, it’s a great question, but none of them, I hope. I’ve never been interested in “self-expression”. I’m not interesting. What I hope to have done, though, is tell interesting stories with interesting characters and reveal those characters, not myself, to the reader.
And finally, say hello to New Zealand for me. I only spent few days there, but loved it, and the people. Hope to come back sometime.
Blake Lively and Salma Hayek star as drug dealers in Savages.
