* * * * *
In Kat Spears’s hilarious and often poignant debut, high
school senior Jesse Alderman, or "Sway," as he’s known, could sell
hell to a bishop. He also specializes in getting things people want---term
papers, a date with the prom queen, fake IDs. He has few close friends and he
never EVER lets emotions get in the way. For Jesse, life is simply a series of
business transactions.
But when Ken Foster, captain of the football team, leading
candidate for homecoming king, and all-around jerk, hires Jesse to help him win
the heart of the angelic Bridget Smalley, Jesse finds himself feeling all sorts
of things. While following Bridget and learning the intimate details of her
life, he falls helplessly in love for the very first time. He also finds
himself in an accidental friendship with Bridget’s belligerent and self-pitying
younger brother who has cerebral palsy. Suddenly, Jesse is visiting old folks
at a nursing home in order to run into Bridget, and offering his time to help
the less fortunate, all the while developing a bond with this young man who
idolizes him. Could the tin man really have a heart after all?
A Cyrano de Bergerac story with a modern twist, Sway is told
from Jesse’s point of view with unapologetic truth and biting humor, his
observations about the world around him untempered by empathy or
compassion---until Bridget’s presence in his life forces him to confront his
quiet devastation over a life-changing event a year earlier and maybe, just
maybe, feel something again.
This premise was plenty enough to persuade me to give this a
go and what I discovered was not only far from expected but also exactly what I
needed.
The story starts off with Jesse aka Sway getting beat up by
Ken, the big man on campus, who has issues with Jesse being a little close to
his girlfriend. From there we see how things came to this point. See, the term
“I’ve got a guy” was tailor-made made for him. Jesse can get you anything you
want and make arrangements for anything you need. Nothing is off limits. Jesse doesn’t question
the moral rightness of what’s requested. So when Ken asks him to help him get close to
a certain popular but quiet girl at school, Bridget, he doesn’t think
twice. His only rule is that he doesn’t
allow anything to get close to him. The
Bridget assignment turns out to be a game changer. Not only does she get close
to him, things also get personal.
There’s so much that goes on in Sway, from Jesse’s dealings
with his peers at school to other questionable sorts away from it. Some of it
is downright uncomfortable, morally questionable and well, illegal too. But here’s the deal with Jesse – while he may
be the biggest jerk who’s lacking a much needed filter, he has a keen
understanding of human nature and how people think. I found myself being impressed by his observations that are dead on and very
matter-of-fact. For example, he has a particular business relationship with a
certain dealer who is essentially a loser. However, Jesse glimpses a different
side to the guy that wouldn’t have been as obvious to the rest of us.
What makes Sway intriguing is the fact
that Jesse's this dichotomous personality that you can’t quite pin down. There are
instances when he does things because they are self-serving yet you can't help but
admire his business mind and ingenious plans. The guy is resourceful! Later,
thanks to Bridget’s influence, he employs a different attitude. It’s a gradual
evolution into becoming a different kind of man that’s as surprising to him as
it is comical to the reader. By the end of the book, I liked Jesse so much that I was in complete wonderment as to how Spears pulled it off!
Another delightful aspect of the book is his budding
friendship with two other characters – Pete, Bridget’s younger brother who’s
about as anti-social as Jesse and Mr. Dunkelman, a gentleman at an senior community who pretends to be Jesse’s grandfather. Jesse and Pete have an antagonistic
relationship that’s actually good for Pete, while Mr. Dunkelman gives Jesse
just as much crap as he gives out. These two hit it off immediately and had me
laughing so hard. Here’s an example of the humor and straightforward banter
their unlikely friendship develops:
“It’s been a week. You’re not even going to try to talk to him?”
Mr. D asked.
“What for?”
“I don’t know, “ he said. “You could try apologizing.”
“Apologize for what?” I asked as I looked up at him with a
scowl.
“For being an asshole, “ he said impatiently. “That’s not in
dispute, is it? The part about you being an asshole?”
See what I mean? This book is a fantastic read even if it has some somber and dubious
moments. Jesse with his complicated but intriguing persona surprised me by becoming
one of my favourite characters this year. Sway is simply refreshing with its honesty and brusque language making it one of the best debuts I've read in a long time!
~ Bel
Now for an added bonus, Kat Spears graciously agreed to an interview to talk about Sway. Some of her answers will surprise you. And she'll also share her thoughts on bacon. Keep reading - it's so worth it!
What
inspired Sway and the various personalities in the book?
Hoo
boy, how much time do you have?
Sway
is really the story of a friendship between two boys, Jesse and Pete. I studied
a lot of Biblical history in college and found it endlessly fascinating.
So,these two characters were inspired by Jesus and St. Peter and the
relationship between them as portrayed through the Gospels.
I
know. I know. I know what you are going to say. Jesse is a terrible person and
Jesus was the son of God and a really cool dude who just wanted us all to be
nice to each other. How could I even begin to compare these two people? But
there are times when Jesus could be very hard on the people who were close to
him, and St. Peter bore the brunt of that on more than one occasion.
Eventually, though St. Peter had been a loyal and devoted follower of Jesus,
St. Peter did betray Jesus more than once. It was a complicated friendship.
I
really liked the idea of retelling that story, albeit with a huge amount of
artistic license, as set in a contemporary high school. I didn’t follow the
Biblical story to the letter, of course. Just looking at it loosely, Jesse
performs a series of “miracles,” pulling off jobs and manipulations like no boy
his age should be able to do; Pete becomes his disciple, adopting the bad boy
persona. The betrayal in Sway comes from both sides, but I like to imagine that
St. Peter felt somewhat betrayed when Jesus told the disciples that he must go
to Jerusalem to suffer under torture and be killed. See what I mean?
Complicated.
Other
characters were all inspired by people I have known—some living, some dead. My
biggest regret is that Carter was based on a boy I knew in high school and
beyond. One conversation between Jesse and Carter was lifted from real life, a
conversation he and I had when we were about 18. The person Carter is based on
is now deceased, but I like to think he has become immortal through Sway.
Jesse
is not the quintessential hero. He’s prickly and not exactly pc. Were you at
all nervous about where he was taking you?
There
are parts to Sway that I cringed as I wrote them. The one that really stands
out for me is the scene in which Jesse describes the kids Bridget volunteers
with at the Siegel Center. Though his delivery comes off as very insensitive,
Jesse is really just describing what he sees. He’s brutally honest in his
description of their physical disabilities, even mentioning that he finds the
drool coming from one boy’s mouth to be revolting. This observation is cruel
and unkind, and it makes us dislike Jesse a bit (or a lot).
There
are two things at play that make this scene one that was both hard to write,
and is now hard to read. One, is that we are socially conditioned to understand
that describing people with special needs in the way that Jesse does is wrong.
So, even if we were to think about a particular group of people in a certain
way—whether you’re speaking of race, physical or intellectual disabilities,
gender, religion—most people wouldn’t say it out loud, because most of the time
it just isn’t socially acceptable (thank God).
And
two, the other thing at play with this scene is that when a person feels
really, really terrible—suffers from depression or has withstood tremendous
grief—it becomes difficult to feel empathy and compassion for other people.
Most of the time, when people are rude or unpleasant or mean, it is just
because they themselves are deeply unhappy. So, Jesse, a deeply unhappy person
who has closed himself off from feeling anything, can’t really see these kids
in the way he should. He should feel guilt and remorse for being insensitive
about the way he describes them, but he doesn’t, because he isn’t capable of
experiencing those emotions.
Definitely
some of the things Jesse says are offensive and make him a hard person to like.
But there are a lot of people like that in the world, all fighting their own
battles. It’s what makes this planet an interesting place to live.
Did
I ever worry that my book would not be publishable, or people would be
offended, because it deals with some issues that are not usually explored
honestly and openly? Not really. All I did was write was a book that portrayed
a high school I knew and understood, portrayed male teenagers in a way that I
personally experienced them when I was a teenager myself. They say you should
write what you know. The high school in Sway is the high school I knew.
Did
I ever worry that people wouldn’t like Jesse (and, I suppose by extension, not
like me)? If there is one important lesson it is that you can’t like, or be
liked by, everyone in this world. All you can do is try to be nice to people
and treat them the way you would like to be treated. Some people will be
offended by Jesse, but I can’t help that. Others will appreciate his depth and
complexity, and I wrote this book for them.
Did
you have a specific message in mind when you wrote Sway?
No, I
don’t feel like I really set out to create a message-driven book. These were
just people who I got to know inside my head and they acted out the rest. But I
have enjoyed reading about the meanings other people have discovered in reading
Sway. One of my friends likes to discuss Sway as if it is real literature and
not just something kind of funny that I wrote. She analyzes the characters’ personalities
and motivations and it is fun to expand their back stories after the fact in
conversation with her. I have to be honest, I was always really turned off by
message-driven books for young people when I was a teenager so there is nothing
I really preach in Sway. Except one point, that Jesse makes more than once,
which is that recreational drug use is not the best idea if you want to
accomplish good things in life. Smoking pot, drinking alcohol, dropping X—it
doesn’t make you a better writer or artist. Quite the contrary. And I’ve lost
several people in my life to drug and alcohol abuse, which is a horrible waste.
Which
character in the book do you relate to the most or feel a special affinity with?
Jesse
most of all. I understand that sense of turning off your feelings because some
things are just too horrible to feel. Of course, then you have to let go of the
good feelings too.
Jesse
has chosen to wall himself off instead of experiencing hurt or regret. In a
way, it’s almost…respectable. He doesn’t burden other people with his problems;
never asks anyone to do him a favor he isn’t paying for with cash; and he tries
to have the strength to navigate the world alone. In Jesse’s words: He’s a
survivor. I can respect a survivor.
As you’re
working on a story, when do you know that you’ve hit your stride?
Hmmm,
I don’t think that I’ve ever hit my stride while writing. In fact, I really
hate writing a first draft, getting the bones of a story down on paper. My
first drafts always suck. A lot. My real joy is in editing and rewriting. I’ll
write a draft, revise it about 100 times, hate it to the point of scrapping it
altogether, and then one night I’ll wake up at 3:00 AM and know exactly what to
do to make it perfect. It’s always a huge relief when that comes.With Sway I
had the friendship between two boys and the characters were there but there was
no high stakes, no real tension between them. And then, one day, I had the
epiphany to throw in a dash of Cyrano de Bergerac and suddenly I had an
underlying, secret conflict and with that a climactic betrayal to make it all
work.
Now
we’d
like to switch gears just because. The BiblioJunkies motto is “books, boys, pie”.
That being said …
Is
there a book that you enjoy to re-read?
There
are many books I read over and over again—open them to my favorite part and
relish a little ambush on the stockade in Treasure Island, or the
gasoline can scene in Stick, or the detective interviews in Murder on
the Orient Express, or the London scenes of Sense and Sensibility. I’m
kind of a lazy reader in that way and I always have a hard time meeting a new
author to fall in love with. But when I do find an author to fall in love with
(ahem, Peter Abrahams, I’m waiting for your call), I fall really hard. I can
reread an Echo Falls Mystery by Peter Abrahams over and over. My third child is
named after the main character, Ingrid.
Between
us three BiblioJunkies, we have several book boyfriends and we love them all.
Who’s the ultimate book boyfriend to you?
God,
Dallas Winston, of course. The quintessential bad boy with a heart of gold
(hello, Jesse Alderman). And Ernest Stickley in Stick. Also a bad boy.
And, of course, the perfectly broken and tormented male lead…Batman.
Which
dessert describes you best?
Does
bacon count as a dessert? If not, it should. I think bacon would describe me
best. Salty, not great when it’s too crispy, not really good for you, and
always makes a mess to cook, but some people like it enough that they put up
with these faults.
Thank you Kat, for joining us and giving us insight into your remarkable debut.
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