‘A lot of writing is confronting your own failure, again and again and again’
Granta Magazine’s Luke Neima speaks to Greg Jackson, author of Prodigals, about being one of Granta’s 2017 Best of Young American Novelists. They discuss the plight of aging Maoist revolutionaries in the US, why Jackson writes from scenarios rather than ideas, and the search for validation that comes with being a writer
‘I think there should be a National Service of Hospitality. The best way to see the true face of humanity is to serve it a plate of chips.’
Camilla Grudova on bad-mannered customers.
‘Anyone who has ever worked night shifts will understand the vertiginous feeling that comes with staring down the day from the wrong end.’
A.K. Blakemore on working nights.
‘I was constantly reading job ads, trying to find my holy grail – a job I could stand to do, and someone foolish enough to hire me.’
Sandra Newman on learning how to play professional blackjack.
‘I loved being a receptionist. What I loved about it was playing the part of being a receptionist.’
Emily Berry on being a temporary office worker.
‘Every part of you would swell, including your eyeballs, and no matter how much water you drank, you were always dehydrated.’
Junot Díaz on working for a steel mill.
‘It is hard to devote yourself to something that makes you feel constantly like an amateur.’
Greg Jackson on writing and teaching fiction.
‘Anyone could find courage when the World-Historical Spirit had selected you to enact your martyrdom on the Six O’Clock News. But in the shadows, in secret, unrecognized?’
‘You only have time to live your own life, and mine was falling apart.’
‘I am being, I believe, about as forthright as I am being coy.’
‘Hara had stumbled on a kind of play, as if they were sisters left alone by their parents for the first time to explore the different ways a day could be deconstructed.‘
Markéta Luskačová’s photographs of women and children for Granta 37: The Family.
