Up and coming writer gets down and dirty Provincetown Banner November 10, 2005 A look at the gritty debut novel “Bolt Risk” and its equally gritty author, Ann Wood By Jillian Weise You will not find Ann Wood’s debut novel, “ Bolt Risk,” tucked in the back pew of a church or displayed in the front parlor of Grandma’s house. No savior here, and no scent of lavender. The novel takes its reader for a tailspin. It opens with a news byte about a rock star who has been seriously injured in a car crash. The rock star, Adam of the band “Z,” is the protagonist’s number one squeeze, and eventually her husband ordained by Satan. Thus begins the grittiest, most strung-out love story ever. The narrator sashays in and out of bed with a drink, smoke, or line of coke nearby. She wears the shortest, tightest skirts. She traverses the darkest alleys in L.A. and seeks out the dive bars. She screws like Bukowski without the cockroaches. Through all her adventures, she keeps coming back to Adam. Our heroine delivers her convictions in a seductive deadpan. She has an uncanny ability to let us in on her most private thoughts, from wishing a guy’s dick were bigger to resenting her father. Her voice comes across as f**k-off to others and to the world. She sleeps around on Adam and even skips out on their honeymoon. She cusses with the men and talks dirty. When one man takes her home, lights candles, and plays classical music, she responds, “How odd.” I spoke with Wood on a rainy Friday afternoon. I didn’t light any candles. Wood: The difference between this and other girl books, is that she’s angry like the guys are angry. And most girls want some kind of pity, want you to feel sorry for them, but she doesn’t. I was trying to write the book that dead people I admire write. Weise: Like who? Wood: Burroughs, Bukowski, Selby. Guys are way ahead of girls, just in terms of what they’re able to write about. Weise: Here’s my favorite line in “ Bolt Risk:” “Death is the ultimate story; but you can’t write it down.” Were you trying to write down death? Wood: No, wouldn’t you love to? That’s my huge dream thing to write. I’d want to have the most horrible death if I could write it down. Weise: Adam is a dog. Why does the narrator love him? Wood: So is she. I think they’re both the same really. Weise: Your work, with all its steam and rigor, reminds me a little of Zane’s “ Sex Chronicles.” Do you know her work? Wood: I don’t pick up a book if it’s a girl title, but I’m also stuck on who I’m stuck on. I don’t find new people. I’ve been re-obsessed over Hemingway lately. All my heroes keep shooting themselves in the head. Weise: What pisses you off about contemporary fiction? Wood: There’s nothing I want to read. I think everybody is getting too academic and worried about pretty sentences instead of telling a good story. But I’m jealous of the pretty sentence guys, I’d love to be Capote but I don’t write that way. Weise: What’s your favorite sex scene from a contemporary novel? Wood: There’s an awesome short story in this anthology called “ Drinking, Smoking and Screwing.” I love the idea that each person is getting something out of sex and the other person never knows what it is. [Wood picks up a book from the coffee table. She reads this line: “I want to make a praise of sleep.” The book is Anne Carson’s latest collection . “That makes me want to kill myself,” Wood says.] Weise: How does Provincetown inform your writing? Wood: The lack of straight guys gives you a lot of time to write. Weise: When can we read more from you? Wood: I’m writing a new novel. It takes place in Provincetown. It’s about two stalkers who meet in the Old Colony and start dating and stalking each other. It’s in third person. These guys are funny. They keep doing things I don’t expect. Weise: If Bukowski was alive and took you on a date, what would that be like? Wood: I probably wouldn’t go on a date, I’d meet him in a bar. I’d out-drink him. I’d hate to find out what happened in the morning. back to: |
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