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Author Andrew Vachss Rob Holden: Andrew Vachss, welcome to ReadersRoom.Com. It's a pleasure to have you with us here today! Andrew Vachss: I appreciate the opportunity. Rob Holden: I would like to start this off by talking about your latest novel Two Trains Running. Can you tell our readers a bit about it? Andrew Vachss: A bit? Yeah, okay. Essentially, I take known historical facts, add historical facts which are undisputed but nowhere near as well known (or acknowledged) as they should be, and draw a slight "speculative bridge" to account for the (eventual) result of their confluence, and leave it to the reader to decide if I have sufficiently defended the proposition. This book was written without exposition -- no back story or catch-ups -- and without introspection -- no thought balloons -- so the only POV is the readers. Think of Two Trains as a series of surveillance opportunities for the reader (a lot of such opportunities, almost 500 pages cover but two continuous weeks), with the final judgment (even the ending) being the reader's individual decision. Rob Holden: I would like to discuss the design of the novel for a moment. While reading it, I was fascinated by the way you managed to tell a complete and complex story using an almost hour by hour timeframe, and covering only a couple of weeks. Why did you choose to tell this particular story in this particular way? Andrew Vachss: For me, every book is a wrestling match; I'm always seeking that unbreakable lock on the opponent (the manuscript). With this one, the struggle wasn't about the content, but the form. I battled it for, literally, years, before coming up with what some have described as a unique form ... of course, it is only fair to acknowledge that others have bitched endlessly about "two many characters" and the difficulty of "keeping up." I wanted to write two books ... a fast-paced "crime novel" that would earn the usual "noir" and "hardboiled" tags, but also a book that rewards a second reading. Two Trains is a fast-running river, but it's really all about the undercurrent. Bottom line: I felt that tool I (finally) devised was the best one for that job. Rob Holden: The novel is set in the fall of 1959, and yet touches upon a number of issues -- perhaps what you meant by undercurrent -- that are still with us today. Why pick that particular period to set what is, essentially, a "timeless" story?

Andrew Vachss: Exactly because I believe it to be timeless. I see 1959 as the "fulcrum year" in American socio-politics. If you go back a few years, and forward a few years, seeing the 1959 run-up to the election as the lever between them, you have the blueprint for exactly what has occurred since and continues to occur today. Names change; games don't. People are more familiar with the flowers than the roots, and I wanted to make some contribution toward changing that.

Rob Holden: I'd like to know a little about where the character of Royal Beaumont came from. Though certainly a villain, I found him to be possibly the most complex and fascinating character in the novel. Andrew Vachss: Royal Beaumont came from where all my characters come from ... my life experience. I am a far better listener/participant/observer than I am a "creator."

Natalie R. Collins: I read that you believe you are "too literary" for pulp fans and too "pulp" for literary fans. Where, in the publishing world, do you think this puts you?

Andrew Vachss: Damned if I know. You'd have to ask those who have been so incredibly loyal to my work throughout my career. I'm not sure what my ground should be called, but I known I'll always stand there. I'm not concerned with how I am perceived by whatever the "literary" world is – especially as reactions tend to be so polar that drawing conclusions from them would be ludicrous -- only how I am perceived by those who actually *read* the books for themselves. The admiration of sheep is worth about what it sounds like. I have been blessed with an enormous amount of direct feedback from my work. I know what it has done for some folks, and that is more than enough to sustain me.

Natalie R. Collins: You seem to have a multi-faceted career that mostly revolves around your writing, propelled by the fact you have become an ardent protector of the littlest victims -- children. Can you tell us how you got involved in fighting all forms of child abuse?

Andrew Vachss: Hold up! My career doesn't revolve around my writing. Never has; never will. The writing is an organic extension of my work. I cannot, in this forum, even begin to explain all the forces which compelled me toward the path I have followed for so many decades now, but I promise you this: I enlisted for the duration.

Rob Holden: I would like to move back to your Burke Series if we could. Could you tell our readers a bit about that series -- and particularly the main character, Burke?

Andrew Vachss: I can't do that in sound-bites. The best I can do is explain that Burke is the prototypical abused child" hyper-vigilant, distrustful, hates his "parent" (he is a State-raised orphan, reject, foster child, juvenile inmate, eventual convict, and a life-long career criminal), and is redeemed only by two factors: his intense love for his "family of choice," and his pathological hatred of those of prey upon children. He's no "hero," no "vigilante," but he's very good at what he does.

Rob Holden: He has also been called by one reviewer "one of the most enigmatic characters in fiction today". Will your readers be seeing more of him?

Andrew Vachss: You have just asked the question which predominated every book event I just finished. The answer is the next book will be the 16th chapter in the Burke story. I even have the title for you: Mask Market.

Natalie R. Collins: Some writers write to entertain, some to edify, some to inform. Do you put yourself in any of these arenas, or is it more a combination of them?

Andrew Vachss: The target should not be confused with the weapon. I understand that if the books don't contain sufficient narrative force to engage the reader, no "message" -- regardless of its value -- is ever going to be read.

Natalie R. Collins: But, obviously, you still want to make a difference with your writing. Do you think about that when you sit down to write a book, or is it automatic?

Andrew Vachss: I did think about it with the first book. Now, it is so inextricably intertwined in everything I do that if fans didn't see it, they would think it was written by an imposter.

Rob Holden: I would like to return to your legal work for a moment. You have expressed the belief that in many ways the American legal system is failing its children, Can you expound on that a bit?

Andrew Vachss: I could expound on it for hours and not begin to exhaust the documentation, never mind the topic itself. Go to www.protect.org and read about the "incest loophole" we are trying to close throughout America for one of hundreds of examples. But, more significantly, the legal system is not just failing children, it is endangering us all. Anyone who believes that a Ted Bundy or a Charles Manson is a bio-genetic misfire or the result of bad DNA is just plain hopeless, a person whose ignorance is a self-inflicted wound. We make our own monsters. We build our own beasts. The serial killers and pattern rapists and other monsters who terrify us (and titillate some degenerates) have a clear etiology. Failure to intervene in child abuse ... or, worse, to intervene in such a way as to condone the abuse -- children, after all, being the "property" of their owners (parents), we are contributing to the production line of predatory perversion. If we don't understand that child protection is crime prevention, we will continue to be haunted by the results of that misjudgment.

Natalie R. Collins: One of the things that has always impressed me most is that your undaunted fight encompasses all arenas of child abuse, whether it is sexual, physical or emotional. Are different types of abuse more prevalent in different societies, or does it seem to be equal opportunity?

Andrew Vachss: Different sub-societies seem to show a predominance of one type over another, as those subcultures which believe that beating children is religiously mandated," or (as one of *many* examples) subcultures which practice polygamy are more likely to call child sexual abuse by another name. But, in truth, abuse overlaps. The "mother" who chooses her boyfriend over her daughter (by siding with him against the daughter's outcries of abuse) is guilty not just of neglect, but of emotional abuse. The "father" who secretly obtains sexual gratification through "spanking" his children is also guilty of emotional abuse, because, you see, regardless of what the law calls things, children know the truth: love is not an emotion; love is behavior.

Rob Holden: Before we wrap this up, I would like to extend our thanks to Liz Calamari at Random House and your staff at The Zero for all their help in making this chat happen. I know you have just returned from an 18 city tour in support of Two Trains Running so -- after a rest (which it sounds like you might need) what is next, writing wise, for Andrew Vachss?

Andrew Vachss: Liz Calamari is the Gold Standard for publicists everywhere. And the Zero crew -- all volunteers -- is the best on the planet. As for next projects, first on the list is to get that new Burke finished, after which I owe a couple of non-fiction pieces, a short story or two, and another project I cannot, as yet, discuss.

Rob Holden: And as these come available to readers, they will be announced on your website?

Andrew Vachss: Kim -- a.k.a. The Dragon Lady -- our incredible webmaster will make sure anyone who tunes into www.vachss.com is on top of all our projects.

Rob Holden: Finally, is there anything you would like to say to your readers who might read this chat at ReadersRoom.com?

Andrew Vachss: Yes. If you're willing to give up dinner-and-a-movie once a year, you can be part of the most important effort to protect children in America: www.protect.org . And thanks for giving me the chance to say so.

Rob Holden: Andrew Vachss, thank you for joining us here today, and continued success in ALL your careers!

Andrew Vachss: Thank you!




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