Andrew Smith
About Author
Andrew Smith has always wanted to be a writer. After graduating college, he wrote for newspapers and radio stations, but found it wasn't the kind of writing he'd dreamed about doing. Born with an impulse to travel, Smith, the son of an immigrant, bounced around the world and from job to job, before settling down in Southern California. There, he got his first 'real job', as a teacher in an alternative educational program for at-risk teens, married, and moved to a ranch above Los Angeles where he now lives with his wife, two children, two horses, three dogs, three cats and one irritable lizard named Leo. In addition to writing, he teaches high school advanced placement classes and coaches rugby.
Interview
MARCH 2014 GRASSHOPPER JUNGLE, ELECTRIC MONKEY
US author Andrew Smith, whose previous novels include the critically-acclaimed Winger, writes about a run-down town in Iowa that is overtaken by six-foot giant preying mantises, and the end of the world. The novel is narrated by 16-year-old Austin who is in love with his neighbour, a girl called Shann, and confused about his feelings for his best friend, Robby, who is gay.
The book is Austin's account of the the end of the world in which he also explores humanity and our shared histories and gives an often painfully honest account of his own feelings and confusion as he heads into adulthood. It is by turn insightful and funny, and continuously surprises. The content, which includes swearing and sexuality, rules out Grasshopper Jungle for younger readers but mature teenagers aged 14 years plus will love it.
Andrew Smith answered our questions, below.
1. Why do you write about / for teenagers? Is it a period of your life that was particularly memorable for you?
I don't view my work as something I've written for teenagers, because I've honestly only written for myself. I do write about adolescents, though, for a number of reasons. First of all, I think that adolescence is the time in a person's life that is ultimately the most significant. For example, there are things that happened to me during my teens that I still think about pretty much every day. Also, I think that young characters - those going through this transitional period - are allowed to make mistakes; that readers can forgive them for doing something like telling an awkward lie or being somewhat unfaithful, so it gives me a lot of freedom to experiment with storytelling. Readers are far less likely to forgive a fully matured character for making some of those clumsy mistakes we all made as teens.
2. Why did you choose to write this narrative in the first person? How did Austin's 'voice' and the structure of the novel - interweaving notes on what happened with Austin's personal reflections - develop?
Writing in first person allows me to pull the reader into the experience in a much more sensual, immersed way. But Grasshopper Jungle is not, as you've noticed, entirely written in first person. At times, Austin can be quite clinical and far-removed from the narrative, especially when playing the role of historian to the end of the world. As far as the development of Austin's voice and the relationship to the structure of the novel, I have to say this: I don't know. Usually, when I write, I feel as though I'm a type of antenna, and I'm picking up signals from somewhere else, and these signals spill out onto the page.
3. Both structurally and in terms of the themes, was this a hard novel to write?
I loved writing this novel. The work was pure joy. And I'll tell you the truth: I neither outline nor draft. I start at the beginning and I just go with whatever comes out, and when I'm finished, that's it - it's done.
4. Austin is determined to be honest with his account and I wondered how hard it was to maintain that for your character when you are exploring things like sexual identity, sex, fantasies etc?
The character - Austin - tells me what to do, and I do it. I'm not afraid of handling anything he wants to talk about. Furthermore, there are an awful lot of awful books that throw sexual identity at their readers in such a gimmicky and tired manner.
I wanted to tell the story of a kid who was trying to zero in on his identity, especially in the environment of a society that puts so much stress on kids when it comes to such things as gender roles and what is the proper way for 'boys' to behave. I also wanted to let kids know - and given the context of all these powerful urges and fantasies Austin contends with - that there is nothing wrong with them; that they're completely normal and okay.
5. Why did you make Austin's Polish ancestry so prominent?
Here's another 'I don't know' moment. The story of Austin's name had so much to do with the book. I made the last name (Szerba) up. I thought it looked cool on paper - the S and the Z together like that. Then I did some research to see if there was anyone who actually had that name, and I found that, although the name is uncommon, it was most likely an Anglicized version of the Polish name Szczerba. This led me into Polish history, immigration patterns to the US, the patron saint of Poland and his history, and so on. Sometimes books write themselves, I guess.
6. The novel explores the idea of history, who writes / creates it, the accidents of history, cycles etc and I wondered if you could explain your ideas behind this?
Well, as Austin does, I have this overwhelming feeling that somehow we've gotten something wrong in our approach to history, and that it's possible our history has condemned us to repeating our mistakes over and over, as opposed to learning from them and making more rational decisions in the here-and-now. It's why the book is so filled with monumentally bad, ridiculous ideas.
Also I wonder, as the obsessive chronicler of minutiae Austin does, that maybe it's the smallest matters that are omitted from history - like the fact that a fish is laying eggs in the creek under the bridge he's standing on near the end of the novel - that might possibly serve us in some grand capacity.
7. Why choose insects as your 'plague' and why the praying mantis?
Well, I chose the title first, before anything. Grasshopper Jungle is named after a stretch of mountain trail near my home where I go running. I thought it would be a cool name for a book, and I figured with a title like that I would have to have all kinds of references to bugs in it. Also, I like praying mantises, and I do firmly believe that if praying mantises and grizzly bears were the same size, the mantis would destroy the bear in a fight. Who could possibly argue with unstoppability?
8. Did you always know which way the 'end of the world' scenario was going to go? Without us giving away too much of the ending (although the narrator does tell us), how did you feel about the idea of wiping out most of mankind?
Well, I knew from the outset that I was going to chronicle the end of the world. Austin says this over and over from the beginning of the book, and yet I get so many messages from readers expressing surprise over the fact that the heroes don't save the world in the end.
But the idea of the end of the world in some ways is more distant to what's going on in the actual story - that is to say that the end of adolescence, the entry into adulthood is the more important 'end of the world scenario' taking place in Grasshopper Jungle. And, without giving away anything about the ending, I did not know exactly how I would end the novel; it just happened the way that it happened. And I didn't feel at all guilty about the whole wiping-out-humanity thing, because there aren't very many innocents at all among the vast list of characters and historical figures who play roles in the book.
9. Do you really not like Iowa?
I think Austin does not like Iowa very much. But me - I am crazy about Iowa. All my in-laws come from there.
10. You touch on a number of movies in this book - do you have a favourite?
Okay. I'll be honest. I struggled with this question for a long time. In fact, it became one of the longest comment-threads this month on my Facebook page. Because I obsess and worry about things too much; like, I was worried about answering this and using the word 'favorite' and coming off all douchey and Amero-centric because, as you know, America invented everything in the world, including spelling, sexual doubt, atomic bombs, and lying about inventing things we never invented. On the other hand, would it make me a sell-out if I used the word 'favourite'?
These are things I worry about. Now, what was the question? Oh yeah... movies. As a matter of fact, I was just telling a screenwriter friend how much Hollywood hates me. I think they're going to hate me more if they read what I wrote in Grasshopper Jungle about the film industry. I fly a lot, so I get the option of seeing a heck of a lot of contemporary motion pictures. I usually can't make it through more than five minutes on any movie I've started watching. That's probably a terrible thing to say, and it might just cost me a hell of a lot of money. I really liked Volker Schlondorff's adaptation of Gunther Grass's The Tin Drum, which is about 30 years old, I guess.
11. How does your writing day go? Any bad habits?
I start writing at 3:00 a.m. The worst habit I have is waking up at 2:30.
12. Favourite things to do when you're not writing?
There's that word again! Okay... I'm going in. My favourite things to do when not writing are these: I run every day, no matter what the weather is like, if I'm not feeling well, or even if I'm injured. Sometimes, if I have a plane to catch, this means I may have to go for a run at 2:00 a.m.
I also love music, and I love to go to concerts with my teenage son and daughter. We all have similar tastes in music, which is why Austin lists all these bands in Grasshopper Jungle. And I live in the countryside, so I enjoy all things outdoors - gardening, or taking care of our horses and chickens.
