I enjoyed Tom Perrotta’s novel, “Little Children,” so I was interested to hear that he has a new one out, “The Leftovers.” It’s a bit of a departure for him because at the core of the story is what might be classified as a magical realist event: the disappearance of millions of people in a Rapture-like phenomenon.
Instead of taking a big sci-fi view, he focuses on one suburban community and the aftermath of the event. As he told USA Today, he was not tempted to try to explain what caused the Sudden Departure:
“(Laughs) No. Never the least bit. To me that's always the worst part of any kind of sci-fi scenario, when you discover there was some shift in the Earth's magnetic field or some mysterious virus did something. I understand that desire. It's a very human, rational desire. But to me, the book is about not knowing. As somebody who considers himself an agnostic and feels that we're here on Earth without the answers to the most profound questions of our existence, that, to me, is the human condition.”
And despite being classified as a satirist, Perrotta doesn’t ridicule his characters. He explains:
"I have no interest in mocking them. This has been an interesting part of my literary identity because people think of me as a satirist, and satirists have more of a license to mock. Even the most ridiculous characters, as you say, I try to find a way to identify with them when I'm writing from their perspective. I usually feel implicated to some degree in a lot of what they do. I'm trying to understand why they do what they do and why they're the kind of people that they are."
(You'll find a lot more insights into writing your novel or nonfiction book in "Your Writing Coach," published by Nicholas Brealey and available now from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)