The Interviews

James Patterson Talks to Sherman Alexie

Sherman Alexie: Hey James.

James Patterson: Hi, how are you? Now where are you, in Washington?

Sherman: Yes, I’m in Seattle… I’m catching a ferry to go talk at a film festival tonight.

James: And you’ve made a couple of films, right?

Sherman: Yes, this is for one that was rediscovered, a film from the late 1950’s about urban Native Americans in Los Angeles. I’m helping the company that’s restoring it, introduce it in different places in the country.

James: You’re a busy guy.

Sherman: Yes.

James: I’m a busy guy, too.

Sherman: I was going to say, you do your share.

James: I saw that you read The Grapes of Wrath when you were five. Is that true?

Sherman: Yes, I didn’t understand it all.

James: But you read it.

Sherman: There were a lot of books in my house, and that was one of them. It was a big one. I remember being ambitious and I thought, I’m going to read this.

James: Do you remember any of the books that you actually enjoyed when you were younger?

Sherman: The first one where I really, really got into it was, I’m blanking on the author’s name, but it’s a young adult novel called Rifle for Wapie. It’s about a Cherokee gunrunner during the Civil War. It was the first book I read where Indians were a part of history and not just fighting in Indian wars or something, and it was the first one where an Indian was the hero and the villain.

James: How about your sons, Joseph and David? How are they at reading?

Sherman: Yes, they worship Harry Potter, of course, and then Rick Riordan’s Lightening Thief series they are way into.

James: I know them. I talked to Rick earlier for ReadKiddoRead.

Sherman: Yes, they worship him. Rick and I read at the BEA together, so I had Rick call my son and leave him a message. It was a sweet thing to do. The boys really like adventure and fantasy. I think I was more politically oriented. They are not nearly as… or they don’t feel as ostracized.

James: My son, he likes Riordan too, and he likes Alex Rider. He’s very politically oriented. He’ll be watching the debate tonight. And he can tell you everything in the world about Hillary Clinton. He’s a lunatic that way, which is pretty cool. He’s kind of all over the lot with books now, in a range from a lot of the adventure stuff to Wrinkle in Time and, actually, To Kill a Mockingbird, which he read recently.

Sherman: I keep handing that to them, but they haven’t gotten into it yet, the oldest.

James: Any tricks you have to play with the kids, or anything that you had to do, any things that helped them get into books? Did you pick out any books for them?

Sherman: No. I think my job, and I think my wife and my joy of books just translated naturally. In fact, quite the opposite, my oldest son is the kind of reader where we have to go up and tell him to turn off the light because he’ll wake up at two in the morning to read.

James: A tip that somebody gave us was that they’ll let the kids stay up as late as they want to, as long as they’re reading a book. Which is kind of cool, in a way, unless it is two in the morning.

Sherman: Yes, then it gets a little crazy.

James: Yes, it does get a little crazy.

Sherman: We have a rule in house, though, they can have a book any time they want. I’ll buy them a book any time they want a book. That’s the only thing. Everything else they have to work for and save for and earn, but, books, any time.

James: I think that’s a good notion too. One of the things that I’ve been thinking about, which led me to get this site up, was that for an awful lot of parents, and grandparents, they don’t see it as part of their job to help the kids get into reading. To find books for the kids, books that they’re going to like, or anything like that. There’s one friend of mine who brought up his boys alone, their mother died. They’re really nice young guys now, but he said it never occurred to him that that was something that he needed to do, so he didn’t do it.

Sherman: My dad was the reader in our family, but he read a lot, it was always genre stuff. He loved spy novels. So, it was Executioner and Punisher. He loved those. I read a lot of that. And westerns, he was a Zane Grey man, actually, not a Louis L’Amour man.

James: My mother and father read a lot, and I didn’t read all that much until college. I worked my way through college working at a mental hospital and I had a lot of late hours, so that’s when I started reading like a maniac. No popular stuff, just all crazy, off-the-wall books. That got me going. Now, with Absolutely True Diary, there is a fair amount of you in the book, right?

Sherman: Yes.

James: And then you took some liberties? But you were smart enough to call it a novel, right?

Sherman: Yes, exactly. I didn’t James Frey it. The sort of emotional journey is similar, but there are certainly details that are changed.

James: I did one of those but it never got published. My life wasn’t interesting enough! What’s next in terms of books for kids that you’re writing?

Sherman: I have a new young adult in April called Radioactive Love Song, a novel, and then I’m working on the sequel for True Diary as well. His sophomore, junior and senior years will be coming.

James: In one book?

Sherman: No, three different books.

James: Jack was complaining last night about 5th grade, and I thought of this title, Fifth Grade, the Worst Year of My Life. I thought it could be pretty good. Sherman: Mine would have been 6th grade.

James: I don’t even remember, but I thought that would be a cool title. I think kids would like that.

Sherman: That’s a great title.

James: How old are your boys now?

Sherman: 11 and 7.

James: 11 and 7, okay. Not to toot my own horn, but Daniel X is a pretty cool book.

Sherman: Yes, we have it. They haven’t yet gotten into the Alex Rider series and your stuff, they haven’t gotten to those particular books yet. I think those are coming, though, because they liked the Alex Rider movie.

James: Yes, that was not bad. It didn’t get promoted at all, but it wasn’t bad.

Sherman: But they haven’t moved to the books yet. And part of that is following the trends inside their classroom as well.

James: Well, Daniel X is about a kid who is an alien, actually, and they’re chasing aliens on Earth. Daniel has the greatest superpower of all, which is that he can create. Around the third chapter of the book or so, he’s on his own, he’s actually in Portland, and the neighbors have complained so the police are at the door. He’s just living by himself there. The neighbors have been complaining that there doesn’t seem to be any adults around and the kid is roaming around late at night. So, he lets them in, and then he brings his parents in. The parents are so cool, saying no, no, no problem, etc. The police leave and he disappears his parents. He just created them for the moment.

Sherman: Oh, wow!

James: So it’s all about creativity. It’s really interesting, he can solve all his problems. He has four friends, so any time he is lonely on the road he creates these friends and they’re really cool, they’re neat kids.

Sherman: Oh, right, wow.

James: So, anyway, good luck at the film talk tonight. Thanks for giving me some time.

Sherman: Oh, you bet, thank you, Jim.

James: Okay. Be good. Bye.