Man of Mystery
Robert B. Parker loves to box, loves the Sox, and is happy in his longtime relationship that has had its rocky moments, including a nearly two-year separation in the early 1980s. It all sounds a lot like the life of Spenser, the Boston private eye Parker has been writing about since 1974. His 35th Spenser mystery, Now & Then, comes out October 23. Globe Magazine editor Doug Most caught up with the Cambridge author to talk about the art of mystery writing, Boston as a book setting, the ties between Spenser's girlfriend, Susan, and Parker's wife of 51 years, Joan, and why Spenser's loyal buddy, Hawk, is safe from a literary death.
Boston has established a reputation as a good place to set crime stories. What do you like about it so much?
What I like about it is I live here and have all my life in and around Massachusetts. I think it makes for a good crime story, because it allows you to describe some interesting stuff: the age, the density, the diversity of character. Actually, I think any big city would do fine. If I lived in Cleveland, I would have set it all in Cleveland.
If you weren't writing, what would you be doing?
Oh, probably I'd be dead from drink now. God knows what. I used to work. I hated that. I was a technical writer at
Do you still dabble in it?
We dabble, but the hands-on is mostly done by others. I have an artificial knee. It's hard to get down now.
The classic Western Shane is a favorite movie of yours. What do you like about the main character?
He was a sensitive human being. He was an archetype. What was magical about that movie, I thought, was [director] George Stevens's ability to see it through the eyes of the boy. He was actually good. It was an amazing directorial trick. Trying to get the first-person point of view in a novel translated into a movie is rather difficult.
Certainly, you can appreciate a good mystery. Shane's ending is a source of debate. Some believe Shane is slumped over on his horse from exhaustion and his wounds, but others think he's dead.
I come down that we'll never know, because that's all there is. He was wounded and rode off into the West from whence he came. Did he die? Well, sooner or later. Because of what I do, I am more keenly aware than the average person that these are created characters; they are not real. Spenser ain't real.
Speaking of Spenser, what's the hardest part about keeping a character going this long?
Thinking up a story. But that was the same challenge I had the first time. I don't find it any harder than if I were going to write different characters every time. Some of it is easier because you know who you're dealing with.
Do you ever get bored of Spenser?
No. The real answer is "Yes and no." I don't get bored with Spenser. I get bored because I write five days a week, 50 weeks a year. Writers love distraction. All that crap about going off into the woods and writing all day? I don't buy it. I can't wait for the mailman to come. Your phone call has made my morning.
Ever considered killing Spenser?
No.
Why?
Don't see why I would. Seems unfair to the readership.
How about Hawk?
I have no plans for killing Hawk off. Nor have I considered it. I don't plan to kill Susan, either, despite what some people wish. [Parker's wife] Joan's not crazy about Susan.
What about having Spenser finally marrying Susan? That subject comes up more than once in your newest book.
We had them living together in one book, I can't remember which one. And that didn't work so well. They are the kinds of people who would have gotten married years ago. I kind of feel like they shouldn't. I don't know what to do about that. So I'm leaving it alone. It's like his age. How old is he? I don't know. I stopped thinking about it.
Can you talk about the art of writing a mystery, of building suspense?
The art of writing a mystery is just the art of writing fiction. I don't really have a good answer. You create interesting characters and put them into interesting circumstances and figure out how to get them out of them. No one is usually surprised at the outcome of my books.
Did the TV show Spenser for Hire make you change the way you wrote the books and the character?
I was very clear about all of that. Someone once said to me, "So, why do you sell the rights to your books to Hollywood?" For the money! What other possible reason could there be? It had no effect on me.
I'm surprised Spenser hasn't come back to TV.
It was, in fact, syndicated. I still get the occasional royalty check. Last one was $2.75. There is some thought about resurrecting it, to remaking it.
There are plenty of parallels between your life and the books. Do you see any of Susan in Joan?
Oh, sure. Joan is Susan without the flaws. The intellectual blah blah that Susan gets into sometimes . . . [Joan is] less annoying than Susan. Susan is Jewish, childless, and a psychiatrist. Joan is none of those things. But I have taken our relationship and given it to Susan. The way he feels about her is the way I feel about Joan. I'm hopeful that after being married 51 years, she's starting to like me.
Do you see any of Spenser's surrogate son in your sons?
Not really. I had sons, so I knew how to write about them. One of my sons is an actor and the other is a choreographer, so obviously I took what I know and used it. But neither of them are him, and he is neither of them. I don't know how much I have used. What I write comes out of what I know.
I read that you don't read anything about yourself. I guess I won't be hurt that you won't read this.
It is not my intention. Joan will read it and let me know if you savaged me or if there was a misquotation.
Why is that?
I don't think it's good for me. I'm doing the best I can. Gets me thinking about what I do. The material that's written about me is useful for biographers, and reviews are useful for readers. They're not useful for me. I like the Hemingway line: If you believe the good stuff they write about you, you have to believe the bad. Also, the bad stuff hurts my feelings.
After you edited The Best American Mystery Stories 1997 anthology, did you walk away hopeful or sad about the state of American mystery writing?
I had no view on it. Otto Penzler asked me to do it, so I did it. I don't care about the state of the American mystery story. I only care about the state about what I'm writing.
But did you get a sense of good writing out there?
Oh, there is good writing out there. Who's a better writer than Elmore Leonard? And there are many bad ones.
When you start a new book, how much do you have laid out as you begin writing?
I have a premise. I just finished a book on Labor Day and sent it off. In the interim, I rested and thought about the next Spenser book. It is simply that four woman exploited by a lothario hire Spenser to track him down.
How did the idea to turn Hawk from adversary in Promised Land to friend in The Judas Goat come about? That's quite a plot twist.
It happened very undramatically. I had written about him as a worthy adversary who helps Spenser out rather than hurts him. Then I was writing The Judas Goat, and I thought, "Spenser needs backup." Rather than invent someone, I used someone I had.
Is there a Hawk in your life?
Joan Parker? (Laughs.) No. Plus, she's the wrong color. Hawk is total figment of the imagination. I used to be a professor. I try to keep that covered up. In my doctoral dissertation, I examined the American hero, and part of that is a hypothesis that the white protagonist has a nonwhite companion.
Why is that?
Several possible reasons. He ain't heavy, he's my brother. Another hypothesis is that there exists between these men a kind of sexless love, and the differentiation in race helps to maintain it that way. It does not become a homoerotic relationship. There is a lot of this in American literature. From the Lone Ranger and Tonto to Ishmael and Queequeg.
With black and white characters so prominent in your books, have you thought about delving more deeply into Boston's long history of racial strife?
My business is to dramatize things. The ongoing relationship between Hawk and Spenser I can dramatize. It is not pure accident that Susan is Jewish. Bleak social criticism, I think someone called it.
Why Spenser with an "s" in the middle?
I like the Elizabethan reference to Edmund Spenser, the poet. And I like the Renaissance implications of poet, priest, warrior. And I like the odd spelling.
And why no first name?
I don't know. Just worked out that way. I had tried a variety of first names, including one or another of our children's names before we recognized that the sibling rivalry would reach new heights. I don't have one in my mind. I don't have one secretly hidden away.
Your list of favorite restaurants includes some of Boston's finest: Grill 23, Sorellina, Rialto. And the Agawam Diner in Rowley . . .
Which is the greatest restaurant in the world. It's an authentic diner; coffee mugs are thick, get breakfast any time, day or night. They serve pie. Woooo. Calvin Trillin used to say Arthur Bryant's Barbeque in Kansas City was the best restaurant in the world. But I'm sticking with the Agawam Diner.
It's late September. How do you see the Sox finishing up?
They're beginning to make me nervous. It's a good team. They should win. They should go all the way. Terry Francona is the best manager they've had in years. One of the best managers I've seen. He manages the personnel so good, gets pitchers a night off, sees that everyone is used, never throws a player under the bus, never gets pushed around by media, unfailingly pleasant. He did manage a feat that no one else has managed since 1918.
Where did you watch that?
On TV, in my house. It's great to have that happen; the city gets pulled together. First game of the World Series, a cab pulled up next to us as were driving home, a Haitian driver, he spoke little English. The Sox final out was made, and the cabbie and I went simultaneously, "Yes!" and gave a thumbs up, and off we went. That sort of thing happens all over the city, moments like that. Charming.
What are you reading these days?
The aforementioned Elmore Leonard. I don't read much fiction. I reread Three-Ten to Yuma. Mostly, I read nonfiction.
You have talked about the influence of Raymond Chandler on your writing. Do you think your writing has improved through the years?
Yeah. I think recent books are better than earlier ones. Not everyone agrees; they like the noir of the earlier ones. Subsidiary characters have become richer and more interesting. Spenser is less compelled to be a wise guy and less compelled to punch somebody's lights out.
Ever been in a scuffle yourself?
Not recently. I do box twice a week. A trainer comes to my house. We spar, hit the heavy bag and speed bag. It's always interested me. I have an artificial knee and can no longer run, thank God. I was looking for other workouts. Steve comes over, and we spar. Steve's 29. The rule is, he may not hit me. I'm not paying some guy $200 an hour to come over and punch my lights out. People can do that for free.
What do you like about boxing?
The exercise. Since I started boxing, I've lost 15 pounds. It's aerobic; it's interval training. Three-minute rounds, then sit for one minute. Or in my case, one-minute rounds, sit for three.
I'm curious if you're a Stephen King fan? He's obviously more gruesome at times, more morbid.
He and I are very different. I am a fan of Steve's but don't read the books so much. He's a marvelous writer, just a different writer than I am. We talked once, and he suggested maybe doing one together. Then we thought about that, and he said, "Spenser doesn't belong in my universe, does he?" I said no.
Spenser loves to cook. He's a pretty neat guy - likes to look nice and keep in shape. He almost sounds like the early stages of the metrosexual.
You said metrosexual. I'm going to hunt you down. Morrissey Boulevard. I know where you are. The cooking allowed us to see a softer side and to notice that whatever he undertakes he tries to do well. I know how to cook; I take no pleasure in it, but I used to cook for the kids. If there is a feminist reader still left in the world, yes, I cleaned up afterward. (A door shuts in the background.) There is Joan Parker, just returning from a session of yoga.
Could you ever see Spencer doing any yoga?
No! No, he ain't! I've seen what she does, and I am frightened by it. 