He was a boxer and a US marine. Naturally, he turned to writing
Born in 1945, Thom Jones, the author of three short-story collections, The Pugilist at Rest, Cold Snap and Sonny Liston was a Friend of Mine, has been hailed as a new Raymond Carver
Observer: When did you become a writer?
Jones: I always wanted to be a writer - I just hoped I would have the talent and vision to do it some day. I remember reading Somerset Maugham and Alan Sillitoe when I was a kid. I had a preference for the British writers. The writers of alienation. I liked John Braine very much. I read all his books. Also Fielding, Thomas Hardy and Shakespeare. They just seemed to be doing it better.
Obs: Which American writers were you reading?
Jones: The one I cared for in the beginning was Mark Twain. He's our greatest writer. I also read Salinger. A fellow at college said: 'You ought to read this book; this guy complains almost as much as you do.' Salinger was like a god to me. In addition, as a young man I was reading Schopenhauer. I was reading everything. I just loved to read. I think most writers do.
Obs: Where did you grow up?
Jones: Aurora, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago.
Obs: What's your family background?
Jones: Lower-middle-class. My father was a professional fighter, then finally an engineer in the aerospace industry. He left, so I didn't know him much. My stepfather sold used cars and he was a scary guy. My mother worked at office jobs and I spent most of my growing up with my grandmother, who ran a grocery store. She was the one that salvaged me.
Obs: Does the boxing in your work come from your father or from your own experience?
Jones: From my father. He would show up with liquor on his breath and take me to the gym. Before the war, he'd fought a three-round exhibition with Joe Louis. They were friends. I remember meeting him as a kid. My father thought I was going to end up being a sissy, so he insisted I started boxing. But I loved it. I was boxing from the age of seven until I was in my twenties. Even after my epilepsy, I continued to go to the gym just to work out. I would spar with guys. I went on until I was in my middle forties.
Obs: Isn't it risky to be epileptic and box?
Jones: Absolutely, but I thought the damage is already done so what's the harm in going further? But I don't regret it. I loved doing it.
Obs: Your work is also full of Vietnam. Is that from personal experience ?
Jones: I was never in Vietnam, and that's because of the epilepsy from the boxing when I was in the marines. I fought the first division middleweight champion and really took a terrible beating. I ended up in this neuro-psych ward, and they thought I'd had a schizophrenic breakdown. So I got a discharge, was sent home, got a job in a factory and was really depressed. When I was in the marines, I was in this recon outfit. We had jump wings and distinctive haircuts, like a crack troop. That was really fun.
Obs: Did you want to go to Vietnam?
Jones: Absolutely, sure.
Obs: Which year was this?
Jones: It was '64. All my friends were killed. So I was saved by fate. One of my best friends, Ralph, was killed there. He was going with (the woman who became) my wife. She was at the Sorbonne studying French. She wrote me and told me he was dead. We were pen pals, then she came to see me at the University of Wyoming. We became fond of each other and ultimately we got married. I never thought I'd write about Vietnam until I married. I wrote this story. Nobody bought it and I thought: 'Gee, I can't write any better than that. I don't know what I'm going to do.' A friend of mine said: 'You know, Thom, editors don't want to buy your stories. They get paid to reject your stories, you have to write something that's so good they can't reject it.' I thought: 'I can do that, I can write a story they can't reject.'
The Gulf War was about ready to go.The first division (my old outfit), was expecting high casualties. The guys are all young, gung-ho. They thought they were omnipotent, invulnerable, as I had. I'm older and wiser, and I'm thinking this isn't going to be fun at all. And then to kick it off, my wife said: 'You know, today's Ralph's birthday.' I started writing this story, 'The Pugilist At Rest', at two in the afternoon. I was off sick that day and we were going to the store. It was raining very hard. About three in the morning I was done with the first draft. I went and had a fried egg sandwich. I started reading the story and I knew then I had written something that was really pretty good.
From that point in, they just started coming. I couldn't write them fast enough. It just wouldn't stop. The best part of the writing was that six months. I was the only one that was in on the secret and I knew that finally I'd done this. Nobody was pestering me yet. I thought: 'Nobody's going to buy this, so I'm just going to write what I want to read. I don't care any more. To hell with it.' And once I did that, then I was writing straight from my heart and it was really working. I found my own voice, I guess. And it was kind of an original voice.
Obs: It just poured out?
Jones: Sure. Never blocked again. It was like a miracle.
Obs: Your work is full of extremes. Do you know why?
Jones: Well, I like putting my characters in a lot of trouble, because then I figure something is going to happen. I'm seldom sure what that might be. Immediately, they've got hangovers, they've got serious problems. I just put the squeeze on them to see what they'll do. They're not very nice people. But I do know them.
Obs: Do the stories go straight down on the page or come bit by bit?
Jones: I'll have one line and then I have another line. I don't plot and I don't know how they're going to work out. Then I have a draft done, usually in one sitting. I'll go back the next day. I'll wake up and be very excited and want to get back to it, start making it better and better. Then I'll think: 'This little bit is the weakest part of the story, I need to make it stronger.' And suddenly, it's the strongest part of the story, so then the strongest original part of the story is the weakest, and I'll bring that up.Then you realise you're over-writing and it's time to stop. And that can be on the fifth or the fifteenth draft; it depends. They're easier to do now. I'm starting to get the hang of it.
Obs: Would you like to write longer works of fiction ?
Jones: I'm working on a novel right now. I think a short-story writer will just find the story starts to take off and that it's hard to control.
Obs: Do you find that you're being imitated much?
Jones: Oh sure. Plagiarised too.
Obs: How would you define the purpose of fiction?
Jones: I think fiction is a way of approaching the truth. A good fiction writer is the hardest thing to be. You can go to medical school and learn neurosurgery, but anybody can do that who's got the IQ. When you create something out of thin air you have to know the human heart. Look at Shakespeare. He probably understood human beings more than anyone. He's the best.
Obs: What do you do when you're not writing?
Jones: I just write, that's all I do. I don't want to do anything else. Or I play with my dog.
Obs: Do you have a secret ambition as a writer?
Jones: No, I just want to be better. I want to write something really good. I'm never satisfied when I'm done. But a lot of writers have that problem.
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