SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Russell is 8 years old, small for his age, bullied by his troubled older brother, often left on his own by his mother and a fading grandmother. He dreams of building a boat or airplane to whisk him away to an island near Hawaii. Eddie's in his 40s and lives next door, paints houses six days a week, is divorced and comes home to an empty house. One night, Eddie encounters Russell in the coffee aisle of a Fred Meyer grocery store. It's 10 at night. Eddie figures out the little boy has walked there. He buys him a quesadilla, and they talk.
WILLY VLAUTIN: (Reading) Can I ask you a question?
The boy nodded.
Why were you in Fred Meyer so late?
Russell shrugged.
You don't know?
I was just walking.
On a rainy night with no coat?
Again, he shrugged.
How's your grandmother been since your granddad died?
She doesn't get along with my mom or my brother, Russell whispered.
Is that why you took a walk?
Tears welled in Russell's eyes, and he nodded.
I'm sorry, man. That stuff's rough. Next time, remember to bring a coat and maybe a flashlight and leave a note so your grandmother doesn't go nuts.
Russell nodded.
SIMON: What's hatched that night grows into a kind of partnership in which two people help each other, man and boy, to grow up. "The Left And The lucky" is the new novel from Willy Vlautin, a writer who is also a musician with the Portland, Oregon, band, The Delines. He joins us now.
Thanks so much for being with us.
WILLY VLAUTIN: Oh, thanks for having me. I really appreciate it.
SIMON: Help us understand Russell's home life at the age of 8.
WILLY VLAUTIN: Well, it's a family of collapse. I always think of Russell's house as noir. It's black and white. It's full of shadows and darkness. And like so many times when you're in those rough situations, you can't see outside that darkness. And then next door is Eddie, who I always think of Technicolor. He's like those big, old, beautiful Technicolor movies with his, you know, rag-tag guys of degenerate house painters. It's like a heaven to a little kid.
SIMON: Eddie works and then works some more, doesn't he?
WILLY VLAUTIN: Yeah. I mean, sometimes you don't know what to do with your life. Like, his wife leaves him, and when in doubt, you just work more 'cause it's easier than being at home alone with your own thoughts. So yeah, he's a workaholic, and I think he also loves security. I think he never had much security in his life.
SIMON: But his work kind of brings him closer to the little boy, doesn't it?
WILLY VLAUTIN: Well, I think, you know, why I named it "The Left And The Lucky" is there is a lot of luck involved in life. And for Russell's sake, he lives next door to a guy, Eddie, who takes in strays. As you learn in the novel, why he's like this, he can't say no to broken people or wayward people. His wife was like that. The guys he hires are like that. And he can't kick them to the side of the road. And when Russell shows up, Russell, I think, intuitively sees this and says Eddie is my ticket to a safe life, and Eddie is a guy that just can't say no.
SIMON: What does an old Pontiac LeMans do for them?
WILLY VLAUTIN: Eddie buys the LeMans so he has something to do at night, something to keep his mind occupied. And the kid, you know, like any kid, sees an old Pontiac LeMans as like a Hot Wheel, and he's instantly attracted to it. And every night Eddie's home, he's in his carport working on it, and so the kid drifts over and before you know it, Eddie's got this kid who won't leave him alone, who wants to be a part of Eddie's life. And he'll do odd jobs for Eddie, he'll watch Eddie work, and he's always kind of asking Eddie for dinner.
SIMON: Willy, what put this relationship in your mind and heart?
WILLY VLAUTIN: You know, it's weird. You try to write about different things, but I think over the years, I realize I really do write about broken families a lot and wayward kids or guys falling through the cracks. And so I got obsessed with the idea of the older brother being, you know, he's good looking, he's strong, but full of rage. And then you have this little kid who still wets the bed, who's scared of everything. But he's got what Charles Portis said, true grit to survive. And I was really interested in those who sabotage the door that opens towards a better life and those who will, at any cost, go through the door to try to get to a better life. And so I think I was obsessed with that. And, you know, once in a while, I think it's 'cause I'm getting older, you know, you can't save anybody, but once in a while, you can save somebody in a novel. And so I was dead set on trying to save Russell and to save Eddie at the same time.
SIMON: Got to tell you, there's a scene where Russell, the little boy, is terrorized by his brother. It is so vivid and so real, I had to put it down a few times to get through it. And I say that with admiration for you, the writer. What was it like to imagine and write something so terrifying?
WILLY VLAUTIN: You know, it's really interesting you say that because some friends of mine have read it who have older brothers and it glosses over them with not a problem in the world 'cause they understand it. They're going, oh, yeah, my brother was that bad. My brother did stuff like this. And you start hearing these pretty gruesome stories of, you know, older brothers really beating up on their little brothers. To somebody that hasn't gone through that, it seems horrifying. My own brother is a saint. He wasn't like that at all. My brother is, like, literally probably as close to a saint for me as anyone. But I've been around a lot of guys like that. So yeah, it makes you cry. You know, if it doesn't break me up, then it's not working. But yeah, it's hard to write those scenes. And I don't do it very often. Like I said, I'm getting softer as I get older, and it takes more at of me to write those kind of scenes.
SIMON: What does it say about American literature right now that there aren't a lot of novels about people with a background like Eddie's - a working-class man?
WILLY VLAUTIN: That's interesting. I think about that a lot, you know, I grew up when Steinbeck was king in my school for whatever reason in Reno High School was taught, you know, six of his novels, his big works. You know, my mom was a struggling single mother, was paycheck-to-paycheck, plus she was an oversharer, so I knew all about that she got paid less than men, that she was sexually harassed at work. I kind of grew up knowing all those things. So Steinbeck was king for me. You know, I had a picture of him next to The Clash and The Jam and The Pogues as a kid. He was a real hero of mine. And I didn't have much talent in any regard, but I always knew I wanted to write stories like Steinbeck. I always wanted to write working-class stories. But as I found out, literature kind of turns their back on that, but who doesn't turn their back on that is crime fiction. Crime fiction tells the stories of the working class. You know, granted, you have a crime involved. But really, if you want to read working-class fiction, you have to read crime novels.
SIMON: Fourteen albums of music and eight novels. How do you go back-and-forth between the two?
WILLY VLAUTIN: Well, you know, sometimes I don't feel like I do it very well. I don't tour as much as most musicians because I love writing more. But writing takes forever, and I love the work ethic of writing more than anything. I always think of it as like you're just in a ditch digging, you're not bothering anybody and you're just working day after day, and I love that. But, you know, sometimes I'll get stuck and it takes the air out of me and I end up writing songs about it. Or, you know, I'll go through stages with a novel where something will break my heart to the point that I just start writing songs because I always write songs when my heart's broken. And so it's really - the novels give me all the ideas for my songs, and I just end up writing a lot of songs while working on a novel.
SIMON: "The Left And The Lucky" is the new novel from Willy Vlautin.
Thank you so much for being with us.
WILLY VLAUTIN: Oh, thank you. It's a real honor.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THE GOLDEN STATE")
THE DELINES: (Singing) My brother said he'd wire us... Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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