TPQ: What are you currently reading?
MT: Cogan's Trade - George V. Higgins Along with Jim Thompson and Georges Simenon, Higgins was a primary influence on me. Cogan's Trade is his third novel and the basis of the 2012 Brad Pitt vehicle, which changes the location from Boston to New Orleans. As always, Higgins's dialogue is excellent. It's stylized in a way that makes it sound real, which is a perpetual goal of mine.
TPQ: Best and worst books you have ever read?
MT: Best: Madame Bovary – Flaubert. Madame Bovary is the closest thing to a perfect novel in any language.
Worst: A Million Little Pieces - James Frey. Terribly written and obviously fake, so it was no surprise what happened to Frey.
TPQ: Book most cherished as a child?
MT: D'Aulaires' Trolls 🔖 Book of Greek Myths 🔖 Norse Gods and Giants. Some of my favorite stories paired with some of my favorite illustrations. Few can compete with the D'Aulaires.
TPQ: Favourite Childhood author?
MT: Roald Dahl. As a kid, The Phantom Tollbooth was my favorite book but Dahl simply has too many classics. Matilda is his finest.
TPQ: First book to really own you.
MT: : Naked
Lunch - William S. Burroughs. Discovered on my dad's bookshelves sometime in
middle school. It opened up a new world of literature. Burroughs and Ballard
were the major authors of my teens.
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TPQ: Favourite male and female author?
MT: Favorite male writer: Dostoevsky. Flaubert wrote the best novel, Dostoevsky is the best novelist. Much of what I do as a writer can be traced back to him.
Favorite female writer: Patricia Highsmith. Atmosphere, black humor, pitch-perfect noir.
TPQ: A preference for fact or fiction?
MT: My main interest is the novel. I do, however, read a lot of non-fiction. Research is usually enjoyable and many ideas have come from it.
TPQ: Biography, autobiography or memoir that most impressed you.
MT: War Commentaries of Caesar. It seems unfair that Caesar should also be a superb stylist, but that's life. The sparseness, vividness, and directness of his prose were big inspirations when I was trying to develop my own style.
MT: Favorite male writer: Dostoevsky. Flaubert wrote the best novel, Dostoevsky is the best novelist. Much of what I do as a writer can be traced back to him.
Favorite female writer: Patricia Highsmith. Atmosphere, black humor, pitch-perfect noir.
TPQ: A preference for fact or fiction?
MT: My main interest is the novel. I do, however, read a lot of non-fiction. Research is usually enjoyable and many ideas have come from it.
TPQ: Biography, autobiography or memoir that most impressed you.
MT: War Commentaries of Caesar. It seems unfair that Caesar should also be a superb stylist, but that's life. The sparseness, vividness, and directness of his prose were big inspirations when I was trying to develop my own style.
TPQ: Any author or book you point blank refuse to read?
MT: No.
TPQ: A book to share with somebody so that they would more fully understand you.
MT: Perfume - Patrick Süskind. A distillation of what I enjoy reading and what motivates me.
TPQ: Last book you gave as a present?
MT: Dirty Snow - Georges Simenon. Underrated gangster novel. Hardboiled in tone and subject but also highly interiorized.
TPQ: Book you would most like to see turned into a movie?
MT: Dead City - Shane Stevens. Forgotten masterpiece about Jersey mobsters in the early 1970s. The realism makes it adjacent to horror, with one of the all-time great gangster finales.
TPQ: The just must - select one book you simply have to read before you close the final page on life.
MT: Finnegans Wake - James Joyce. Looks good. Requires more time than available at present.
📕 Max Thrax is an author and editor of Apocalypse Confidential. His new novel, God is a Killer, is out now.
MT: Dirty Snow - Georges Simenon. Underrated gangster novel. Hardboiled in tone and subject but also highly interiorized.
TPQ: Book you would most like to see turned into a movie?
MT: Dead City - Shane Stevens. Forgotten masterpiece about Jersey mobsters in the early 1970s. The realism makes it adjacent to horror, with one of the all-time great gangster finales.
TPQ: The just must - select one book you simply have to read before you close the final page on life.
MT: Finnegans Wake - James Joyce. Looks good. Requires more time than available at present.
📕 Max Thrax is an author and editor of Apocalypse Confidential. His new novel, God is a Killer, is out now.
Dostoyevsky is a great writer. I loved his Brothers Karamazov. although not so much Crime And Punishment. A friend gave me a biography of him a while back which I intend to read. Like Solzhenitsyn, also a great writer, his religiosity, can diminish the message.
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