A Conversation With
Robert Ferrigno
Interview by Pantheon Staff
“After earning a
college degree in philosophy and a Masters degree in creative writing, I thought
that I would be happy being a college professor, writing dense, literary novels
which I would assign to my students. I found, however, that being a professor
was mostly a matter of going to meetings, and instead went back to my first
love, poker,” he says.
Robert gambled full-time for five
years, then started a punk rock magazine, then got a job as a journalist—but
he wasn’t satisfied. He wanted to
write novels.
And so he did.
Robert is now the author of seven novels, including Flinch, Heartbreaker,
and The Horse Latitudes. His latest, Scavenger Hunt, was released by Pantheon
Books in January, 2003. He lives
with his family in the Pacific Northwest.
First, a
little background: you earned a degree in philosophy. It would seem like a
fairly radical shift to start writing noir thrillers.
Not that radical. I studied philosophy out of a desire to make sense of the
world and of myself. SCAVENGER HUNT deals with the same moral questions that
interested me the most in school, i.e., what is our responsibility to our
friends? Can doing good be doing harm? When is violence justified? Jimmy Gage,
my protagonist, is morally tainted, uncertain of the location of the higher
ground; his street smarts and sense of humor are all that stands between him and
the abyss.
You were a feature writer at the Orange County
Register for seven years, working what you described as the
"adventure-and-new-money beat." What inspiration did that provide for
your novel writing?
Being a feature writer was the next best thing to being rich and crazy. I flew
with the Blue Angels, drove race cars, went on paramilitary training with gun
nuts, and interviewed everyone from strip-club hot-oil wrestlers to retired
Joint Chief of Staff Curtis Lemay. I learned to absorb these experiences and
personalities, the sounds and sensations, the speech patterns and dress, the way
they held their cup of coffee, all the bits and pieces that reveal character. I
once accompanied an auto repo man on a 3 a.m. run in a bad part of town-- one
minute he was casually breaking into locked garage for a hookup, the next we
were racing away while he sang me his latest country and western composition.
For all I know, he could be the toast of Nashville by now, or long dead, shot by
an angry Porsche owner who missed a couple payments and still wanted his ride.
Good guys and bad guys, I used them all.
Speaking of bad guys, Sugar Brimley in SCAVENGER
HUNT is one of your most unusual villains.
Yeah, Sugar really got under my skin. The idea of a character who apologizes to
people as he kills them, and genuinely means it, was fascinating to me.
The first thing I wrote for the book was a prologue, a vaguely threatening scene
in which a big man named Sugar danced with a woman named April in her office,
swayed softly against her, overcoming her reticence. April is a pillowy matron,
a little embarrassed at Sugar’s advances. The scene ends with Sugar deftly
tossing her out the open window to the pavement five stories below. Rather than
being a sadist, or a sociopath, I saw Sugar as a likable, easy-going behemoth
who did terrible things when he had to, but still felt guilt. I couldn’t wait
for him and Jimmy to meet up.
The two female characters in SCAVENGER HUNT-- Jane Holt
and Helen Katz-- are not just strong characters, but are crucial elements of the
book. Jane is the lover of your protagonist, Jimmy Gage, while Helen Katz is a
police detective who confronts Jimmy on every occasion. How do these women, and
women in general, fit into your conception of a crime thriller?
Both Jane Holt and Helen Katz are police detectives, and although they have very
differing personalities, they both represent order and integrity, and as such
are a perfect counterpoint to Jimmy, a moral freelancer more interested in doing
what is right, rather than what is legal. My books always feature an unfolding
love interest-- this amps up the tension, and it’s also a great way to make my
male protagonist, no matter how capable in terms of crime and punishment, feel
that he’s in over his head.
What makes Southern California such rich territory for
your imagination?
Southern California is the epicenter of a certain sleek, cutting-edge cool, a
place of vast ambition and a willingness to do whatever it takes to achieve it.
I also like the linguistic mix of Southern California, the amalgam of surf lingo
with Black street slang, Hollywood hype and homeboy Spanish, all clashing and
clanging together. My kind of town. Just as the most dangerous creatures in the
ocean are the brightest and most gaudy, L.A. provides a panoply of equally
beautiful, amoral types-- valet parkers offering the latest designer drug or
their latest screenplay to their Range Rover clientele, cocktail waitresses
debating whether starring in a soft-core porn movie or dating a cable-TV
development executive would be more useful, “speaking, like career-wise.”
Southern California is a state of mind, not a geographical location... the land
of the great hustle, a place where anything is possible, reinvention is
constant, and no one believes anyone.
No one believes anyone. Is that why you like poker? You
played professionally, didn’t you?
Yeah, I started playing serious poker when I was twelve, and never needed
another after-school job. Poker financed a trip to Europe when I was nineteen,
where I quickly lost all my money at the roulette tables at Monte Carlo and
spent the next four months sleeping on the streets of the French Riviera. After
graduate school I quickly decided that I had no aptitude for teaching community
college English, and decided to go back to my first love, gambling. I spent the
next five years playing poker full time, sometimes in Las Vegas, mostly in
small, illegal backroom games in Seattle. My normal schedule was to play all
night, catch the 7 a.m. swim at the Y, sleep all day and start the process
again. I lived in a forty-dollar-a-month apartment-- protect your bankroll is
the first rule of the gambler-- but every year I would decorate my Christmas
tree with hundred-dollar bills, and the sight of all those Ben Franklins nestled
among the twinkling lights never failed to cheer me. My best Christmas there was
over ten-thousand dollars decking the tree. Most of the time I won, but there
were times I went directly from the game to the 5 a.m. call at the day labor
office. I was always hired-- I was the only one who wasn’t drunk. I’m not a
full-timer anymore, but I still go to Vegas regularly. I always stay downtown,
where the local hardballs play. Its a tough game and there isn’t a drop of
compassion, but I love it.
Your previous novels have all been optioned by film
studios, yet the portrait of Hollywood in SCAVENGER HUNT is one of rampant
egomania, hypocrisy, and corruption. Is that why the studios passed on this
book?
Perhaps I was being naïve, but I just wanted to write a funny suspense novel,
using Hollywood as a prism to highlight the soaring ambition of the California
dream, and the danger and desperation that is part of that dream. My
entertainment agent was more clear-eyed. She thought the sardonic tone of the
book was going to cause as much trouble as the subject matter itself. She was
pleasantly surprised after sending out the galleys, calling me up to tell me she
had gotten a strong and immediate response to the pages. Three major producers
had contacted the studios they had deals with, and asked them to option the
novel. Over the course of the next two weeks, all of the studios declined. One
of the studio reps informed my agent that her boss had told her, “Why should I
spend money making a movie that makes fun of people like me?” The happy
ending, and in Hollywood there’s usually a happy ending, is that SCAVENGER
HUNT is currently being considered as a made-for-TV movie or series. Television
execs love making fun of studio heads.
CLICK
HERE TO ORDER SCAVENGER HUNT.
Visit Robert's
website at http://www.robertferrigno.com/.
