Interview Roundup

Robert Ferrigno, one of my favorite "crime novelists" ever since The Horse Latitudes, has been filling in for Sarah the last few days, but before he started blogging he found time to chat with the National Review about his latest, The Wake-Up. There, he explains one of the reasons I've always gravitated to his stories:

None of my protagonists are cops, and there is little official police presence. This began instinctively and has since become quite deliberate, as a reflection of the moral imperative of my fictional universe. I don't like characters who are required to do the right thing as part of their job descriptions — so no cops, no firefighters, no crusading attorneys. I prefer the individual who is confronted with a moral choice and, out of his own free will, does the right thing. The fact that the consequences of such action are that things are frequently made worse is part of the moral conundrum.

Meanwhile, John Wray makes me very jealous by getting to speak with another of my favorite writers, Haruki Murakami, for The Paris Review. And, perhaps oddly enough but then again perhaps not, hard-boiled fiction is again a central topic of discussion. Robert Birnbaum's at it again, too, this time with Andrei Codrescu, but they don't have anything to say about pulp or noir or any of that good stuff.