From the author's Q & A with Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg for the Wall Street Journal's Speakeasy blog:
Why did you write a memoir that you knew would expose the most painful corners of your life to public comment?--Marshal Zeringue
Benjamin Anastas: I had no choice. I was trying to write fiction and either editing things to death or throwing it out. The circumstances of my life were tough. I was out of money, I had increasing bills to deal with every month, and magazine editors, at least those who were still working, weren’t answering my emails. I couldn’t think of anything else. I thought my only option was writing about what had happened in my life.
Why did you think people would be interested in your story?
I thought that a book that was artful and spoke to other people’s concerns would be something others would read. What gave me the courage to go forward was knowing we were going through a ridiculously hard recession, and that a lot of people had found themselves in a place in life where they never expected to be. At the age of 40 you’ve got a kid to feed and nothing to feed him with. I thought if I could write about that truthfully, from the inside, if I could somehow make my own experience universal, it would be something that people wanted to read. I wanted it to be more than about my own failures. Most people at some point find themselves in a place where they ask...[read on]
