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Author
Interview
Gregory
F. DeLaurier
Renewals
What inspired you to write Renewals, and how did the idea for
Richard’s journey come to life?
I grew up in a small working-class city in Northern New York. When
I was young, it had a thriving downtown. On any Saturday it would be packed
with shoppers and teenagers, like myself. But in the early 1970s the downtown
died, a victim of ‘urban renewal,’ Everything was torn down, replaced by ugly
look-alike buildings and, for some reason, the whole area was surrounded by a
brick wall. It was meant to be a pedestrian mall, but noone went there and so
the downtown died. I was always saddened by the death of something that one was
so alive. I didn’t want to write a dry factual investigation of what happened,
which as a Political Scientist I could have. Rather, I thought a fictionalized
account blending real places and events with characters and actions I made up,
might capture better the ‘essence’ of my home town. And so I have Richard,
actually to a degree me, return home to find out what happened.
The novel deals with corruption, loss, and redemption in a
decaying town. How much of this is drawn from real-life observations or
personal experiences?
While the book is fiction, I did observe the town die. I did
observe the construction of a prison change the nature of the place, making it
harder and meaner. I did observe old friends lose hope. I understood what
people were like there, their kindness and anger, how they talked and acted. For
some reason, everyone had a nickname, just about everyone drank a lot, and
there was peculiar accent, sort of a North Country patois, one could only
capture by having lived and grown up there. Many, but not all, the characters
are an amalgam of several old friends and people I have known in the City.
Giacomo Duchamps is a complex antagonist—dangerous yet aging. What
motivated you to create such a layered villain, and what does he represent in
the story?
There’s not a lot of deep meaning to the Duchamps character. The
novel, while serious, is meant to have a good deal of humor, and that starts
with names. I sometimes hear names and remember them, such as Vivelamore (another
villain) and Duchamps. Thus Giacomo Duchamps and his son Bambi
(who names their kid Bambi?). These bad guys and their henchman, while
indeed violent, are all dumb as bricks. Kind of, to quote Jimmy Breslin, “the
gang that couldn't shoot straight.” The banality of evil, I suppose.
As a writer, how do you balance storytelling with social
commentary, especially in a narrative that’s rooted in crime and justice?
This is not easy to do. My approach is to let the storytelling be
the social commentary; otherwise you end up with a dry diatribe. This is a
novel, and so descriptions of the City, the dialogue among characters, their
back stories, are the social commentary.
What do you hope readers take away from Renewals, especially
those who may come from similar towns facing economic or social decline?
The novel’s title was purposely chosen, to emphasize two renewals.
The first is of the City, which Richard and his gang hopefully renew for real.
The second is of the gang itself. For instance, a young woman, sexually abused
and exploited, who finds her autonomy; a young ex-con who discovers his
intelligence and competence. So the story is not just of a town, but of people
as well. Places like my hometown don’t often find their way in literature, but
I do try to show these places matter, with tough lives but also the courage to face
what exploits them. The same is true of many of my characters, hard lives that
can change for the better. Not easy, but again, takes courage but also someone
who believes in you. I truly believe in the ability of people to change their
lives. That is what I hope readers take away from Renewals.
