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A Q&A with the author about her debut novel, A Gorgeous Excitement.
Q: Since A Gorgeous Excitement was inspired by your upbringing in 1980s Manhattan and your personal connection to the Preppy Murders, what was the most difficult, or important, aspect for you when writing fictionally about this topic?
It was painful to immerse myself in the memory of a young woman my age, exuberant and brimming with excitement about her future, unaware that it was the final summer of her life or that she'd be treated so shamefully and viciously after she died, as if she'd brought her murder on herself. I have nieces, and am close with friends' daughters, around that age. I wish I could say with any confidence that nearly four decades later, none of them will ever face that kind of danger or judgment for the sole offense of being young and female. It breaks my heart that I can't.
That said, I hope I effectively captured the exhilaration and sense of invincibility of being 18, with a new friend and a new crush. I know firsthand how it feels at that age to be intrigued by a dangerous, handsome guy and ignore the red flags, believing that I (and I alone) could see through the haze of anger and delinquency to his sweet, sad heart.
Looking back on that summer of 1986, my and my friends' innocence and recklessness, I have no doubt that it truly could have been any one of us leaving Dorrian's that night and not coming back.
No one's invincible. Some of us are just luckier than others.
Q: How has NYC changed since the 80s? How is it the same?
The biggest change to me is the proliferation of cell phones and social media that pretty much tether young people to their parents. In the 80s, parents generally led separate lives from their kids, who ran rampant around New York with little to no supervision or means of tracking them. Parents knew a lot less about what their kids were up to. The drinking age was only eighteen, but you could get into bars and clubs at fourteen with the most obviously fake ID if they even bothered to check. You could smoke anywhere, including restaurants, taxis, and at the movies (I lived down the block from Lenox Hill Hospital and bought my cigarettes from the gift shop). The city was filthy and crime was rampant, but there was also more of a neighborhood feel because every block was lined with small businesses whose owners you knew by sight if not by name. Same with the doormen, who you'd probably waved hello to since you were a kid.
What hasn't changed is the energy, the constant current, and institutions that make the city unique and have resisted the tides of change: glamorous old buildings like the Dakota and the Ansonia, coffee shops like Three Guys on Madison, the best street style. I recently had a slice of pizza with my brothers at the same place on 78th and Lexington that we went to when we were kids. In case I'm starting to sound too sentimental: last week on the subway I saw one woman slam another in the head with a bagful of garbage. I guess the subways haven't changed much, either.
Q: What do you hope readers take away from A Gorgeous Excitement and Nina's story?
I hope readers will like Nina, appreciate her humor and love of language, and empathize with her feeling of being an outsider. Pretty much everyone I know, me included, has felt that way at some point, without realizing that everyone else was probably feeling the same.
I imagine readers being afraid for her, while also wanting to shake her, but I hope they'll also forgive her youthful incautiousness in her desire for meaningful connection, and perhaps relate to how a complex relationship with a parent can affect choices made outside the home.
Q: Which writers, living or dead, have had the greatest influence on you?
Joyce Carol Oates, Mary Gaitskill, Jen Beagin, Alice Adams, Tom Wolfe, Colson Whitehead (to name just a few!)
Q: Please describe your book in three words.
Friendship, cocaine, tragedy.
Unless otherwise stated, this interview was conducted at the time the book was first published, and is reproduced with permission of the publisher. This interview may not be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the copyright holder.
William Boyle is the author of eight books set in the southern Brooklyn neighborhood where he was born and raised, including his debut, Gravesend; the story collection Death Don't Have No Mercy; The Lonely Witness, nominated ... (more)
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