Ron Currie is the award-winning author of five novels, including last year’s “The Savage, Noble Death of Babs Dionne.” His new book, out July 7, offers an early look at future crime boss Babs and the town of Waterville. Currie lives in Portland, Maine, and he teaches in the University of Southern Maine Stonecoast MFA program.
Q. Please tell readers about your new book, “We Will See You Bleed.” It’s a prequel to “The Savage, Noble Death of Babs Dionne,” right?
It is! “We Will See You Bleed” takes place in 1984, whereas the events of Babs Dionne occur in 2016. By that time, Babs is fully-formed as the female crime boss and de facto leader of her town of Waterville, Maine. “We Will See You Bleed” gives us a kind of Babs origin story, illustrating the events that lead to her becoming the iron lady we meet in the first book.
In 1984, Babs is the law-abiding leader of the paper mill workers’ union local, and they’re locked in a strike with the company that runs the paper mill in town. It’s not going well, and as the book continues, things only get worse.
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Q. How do you describe Babs from this book compared to your previous book?
Well, one big difference is that at the beginning of “We Will See You Bleed,” Babs has sworn off violence in any form, a fact that would come as a surprise to readers of the first book, in which Babs has no reluctance at all to use violence to achieve her aims. But a subtler – and more interesting – difference is that, for much of “We Will See You Bleed,” Babs is clinging to a belief in justice. She wants to believe that in the end, “the system” works, the good guys win, and the bad guys are punished. But that, of course, is not usually, or even often, the actual case, and as her idealism falls by the wayside, the use of violence in pursuit of justice begins to make sense to her.
Q. These books are rooted in a place and its people. Can you talk about what draws you to combining crime writing with a novel about the issues facing the country and its working class?
A good story will always outgrow the container you put it in. And specifically with regard to crime stories, the best ones are always really about what lies behind the decision, or the impetus, to commit crimes in the first place. In “We Will See You Bleed,” Babs is trying her damnedest to keep everyone in line and conduct the paper mill strike according to the letter of the law – until it becomes clear that the law tilts the playing field in favor of the company they’re fighting against. The decision to “commit crimes” in this case can be viewed as the only sensible decision, given how heavily the law favors Babs’s opponent.
Q. Are you able to discuss how you balance grounded reality with things not so easily explained?
To me, just as a human being, what we think of as reality and the stranger, inexplicable things that happen at the edges of that reality are not separate. I’m really interested, as a storyteller, in what happens just beyond our ability to perceive or explain. So it seems quite natural to me to have such things occur in my stories, because that’s how real life goes down, too. We’re so proud of ourselves and our big brains, and yet we really know so little and could benefit from some humility in that regard, seems to me.
Q. Is there a book or books you always recommend to other readers?
“The Sellout” by Paul Beatty.
Q. What are you reading now?
“Anti-Natalism: Rejectionist Philosophy from Buddhism to Benatar” by Ken Coates. For those not familiar with the term, anti-natalism is a philosophical stance that views life as unacceptably full of suffering and procreation as a morally indefensible thing. And yes, I am great fun at parties, in case you were wondering.
Q. Do you remember the first book that made an impact on you?
There are so many, and the definition of “impact” morphs depending on what age I was at the time, and what I was doing with my life. The books that had an impact on me in my twenties, for example, often hit me hard both as examinations of what it was to be alive, but also did something that was revelatory to me in terms of storytelling.
But to offer a specific example, just the other day I was talking with some other writers about the time I swiped my sister’s copy of “Forever” by Judy Blume when I was maybe nine or ten years old. THAT was revelatory, for sure.
Q. Is there a book or type of book you’re reluctant to read?
Not at all. Good stories are good stories, and the best often, maybe always, defy or transcend type and genre.
Q. Is there a genre or type of book you read the most – and what would you like to read more of?
It’s not a genre, but I would like, as a culture, to get back to expecting more from stories in all their forms. We’ve long been conditioned to believe – by Hollywood, by literary tastemakers with an ulterior interest in making literature seem exclusive – that a story can either show you a good, interesting time or have something important and bracing and fundamental to say about what it is to be human and alive. It’s my aim to write stories that do both.
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Q. Do you have a favorite character or quote from a book?
I’ve had a lot of unrequited love affairs with fictional characters. Madame Psychosis from “Infinite Jest” is an example that comes to mind immediately, but she’s hardly alone. It’s a weird phenomenon that goes way back, to at least when I was seven or eight and had a heart-rending crush on Penny from “Inspector Gadget.” Like, it actually caused me psychic pain. So strange.