The Paris Review - Fall 2016

attic of our house in Buffalo and play a recording of John Ciardi’s Inferno
while I followed along with the book. I read Dante and realized how much
power a writer could have. A writer could put people in hell who weren’t
even dead yet. I loved James Joyce, too, and really studied his work—at the
library I would listen to proceedings of the James Joyce Society. I especially
loved Dubliners. Nathanael West was another favorite, A Cool Million. I
had never seen satire and nonlinear writing like West did—he was creating
Age two.
collages—and that influenced me. I still write that way. I wrote a short story
in night school that was a mix of Joyce and Nathanael West. My teacher
responded very strongly to the story, and they offered me a full scholarship
to day school at the University of Buffalo. I didn’t receive the full scholarship
because my stepfather wouldn’t sign a statement of his assets.
Why not?
INTERVIEWER
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