#The fall guy lasdun full#

Not to say that he isnвЂ™t culpable, but heвЂ™s not fundamentally malicious. Obviously heвЂ™s somewhat screwed up, but I see him as someone who tries his best with the cards heвЂ™s been dealt by life, and would rather do good than harm. I liked following him in his fateful career. I happen to be drawn to characters who operate under intense internal pressure, which often comes from some deep psychological conflict, and Matthew is no exception. All that really matters for me is how human and interesting they are. To me sympathy for a character has little to do with how morally upstanding or wicked they are. LASDUN:В Well, I totally disagree about that. VASISHTA:В Writing this must have been a challenge because on one hand, you want the reader to sympathize with the narrator, but on the other, heвЂ™s a thoroughly unlikeable person and becomes more unlikeable as the novel progresses. This is a short novel but it took about two years to write.

#The fall guy lasdun full#

Not much pre-planning besides that-I have to actually write things out in full to know if theyвЂ™re going to work, which makes for a somewhat exhausting process of trial and error.

Also the bucolic, upstate summer setting with the heat and the pool and the cicadas. LASDUN:В All I really started with was the situation of a precariously stable emotional triangle that gets totally knocked out of kilter by the appearance of a fourth figure. Do you plan all this out before hand or does it come instinctively when youвЂ™re writing?

VASISHTA:В You pack in so many interesting details and subplots-the Rainbows, MatthewsвЂ™s dadвЂ™s disappearing act, the outspoken English dinner guests. I view his meals as a pretty good indicator of his darkening state of mind. But I tend to just throw things together as the mood takes me, and hope for the best, which is the opposite of MatthewвЂ™s meticulous, obsessive, and increasingly elaborate approach. I enjoy good food and, like Matthew, I find cooking a soothing activity. VASISHTA:В From reading this novel I would assume youвЂ™re something of a master chef. Matthew in The Fall GuyВ is so determined not to acknowledge his own justified rage against his cousin, that the suppression itself becomes a kind of blind surrogate force of destruction, helplessly creating situations of increasing danger to himself and everyone around him. Joseph in вЂњ An Anxious ManвЂќВ is so entrapped in his own stock market worries that everything else in his life becomes merely an extension of the hope and dread cycling relentlessly inside him. JAMES LASDUN:В Thanks! I think the suspense comes mainly out the volatile instability of the main character in each situation. ItвЂ™s not an easy skill to craft that unease. Your short story An Anxious ManВ had that. JEFF VASISHTA: One of your skills as a writer is augmenting the psychological tension by playing on the suspicions of your characters. Of course, nothing is what it seems moral lines are blurred and guilt, betrayal, and eroticism weave together to create a darkly compelling tapestry. Charlie invites Matthew to spend a few weeks with him and his attractive wife, Chloe, in their idyllic mountaintop home in upstate New York. Norton & Company), a wealthy Wall Street banker named Charlie feels indebted to his troubled cousin Matthew for helping him out as a child in England. It possesses so many hallmarks we have since grown to love in LadsunвЂ™s writing: impeccable language, dry humor, and an excruciating psychological tension.В That same year, his second novel, Seven Lies, was long-listed for the Man Booker prize. Titled вЂњAn Anxious Man,вЂќ the story in question is a riveting tale of a husband beset with financial woes on vacation with his wife and daughter. Ten years ago, British-born, American-based writer James Lasdun won the first BBC National Short Story Award.