Q&A with 2012 Featured Author Alex George
Alex George is the author of “A Good American,” a novel that is receiving rave reviews. Mr. George is an Englishman who lives, works, and writes in the middle of America. He studied law at Oxford University and worked for eight years as a corporate lawyer in London and Paris before moving to the United States in 2003. He is the author of four previous novels published in the UK and several European countries. Before moving to America, he was named one of Britain’s top ten “thirty-something” novelists by the Times of London, and was also named by the Independent on Sunday as a “face to watch” for fiction in its Fresh Talent feature. He now runs his own law firm in Columbia, Missouri and has applied for U.S. citizenship.
Where do you find inspiration?
I often say that writers are like magpies. We are always on the look out for shiny things – an idea, an image, a turn of phrase. When we find these treasures, we hoard them, waiting for the right moment to use them in a story. Where do I go looking? All over the place. Idle conversations, magazine articles, essays – the world is a fascinating place, and there is an unending supply of material if you look hard enough.
What advice do you have for aspiring authors?
Read as much as you can. Write every day. Find a time and a place that works for you and then defend its sanctity ferociously. Be brave. Take chances. Tell the story you want to tell, not the story you think someone else might want to read. And read as much as you can.
What are you reading right now?
I’m reading Peter Geye’s new book, “The Lighthouse Road.” I absolutely loved his first novel, “Safe from the Sea,” and I was anxious to get my hands on this one. Luckily, Peter’s editor is a friend of mine and he gave me an advanced reading copy, which I am tearing through. It’s a wonderfully accomplished novel, and so beautifully written. I’m also reading John Jeremiah Sullivan’s “Pulphead,” his collection of brilliant essays about everything from Christian music festivals to Michael Jackson. It’s a stimulating, fascinating read, and I am eking it out as long as I can. Sullivan has one of the most original voices I’ve read in ages and seems incapable of writing a dull sentence.
What’s your favorite opening line from a book?
“I am an American, Chicago born – Chicago, that somber city – and go at things as I have taught myself, free-style, and will make the record in my own way: first to knock, first admitted; sometimes an innocent knock; sometimes a not so innocent.” – The Adventures of Augie March, Saul Bellow
What book has inspired or affected you in some way?
Too many to choose from, really, but I’ll go for “The Magus” by John Fowles. It’s been over 20 years since I’ve read it, but I remember very clearly being so immersed in the story (a bewildering, intoxicating plot which constantly wrong-foots the reader) that I failed to notice that the coach I was traveling in had broken down by the side of the road in the pouring rain for 45 minutes. That taught me a lot about the ability of strong writing to transport the reader to a wholly different place. Every time I closed the book and (reluctantly) re-entered the real world, it would always take a few moments to find my bearings and realize that I wasn’t actually on the Greek island where the story takes place. As a writer, that’s always struck me as something to aspire to.