Table Talk

A A A Comments By Alexis Soloski Tuesday, Nov 4 2003

At the East Village's Library bar, theVoice settled in for birthday cocktails with newly minted novelist (How Soon Is Never?, Three Rivers Press) andSpin senior writer Marc Spitz.

photo: Cody Smith

Spitz: What difference does it make?

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How old are you today?Thirty-four. [He points to an envelope on the bar.] I got a raccoon penis in the mail today. J.T. Leroy sent it to me. I don't know if I'm going to wear it. Do you think I need to wash my hands after touching it?

Your protagonist, Joe Greene, is in his thirties and working for a music magazine and has the name of a famous sports figure and is sleeping with 22-year-olds and really loves the Smiths. Why not just write a memoir? I wanted that much more freedom to lie. Writing a memoir, well, I think you have to have done something first.

Well, you just wrote a novel. That's something. They could just reissue it. "A memoir by Marc Spitz, the guy who wrote the novel." But it would be the same book. It could have been a memoir. It could have been Rock Journalism Confidential. But I wanted the freedom to make up characters and put words in people's mouths. The book I'm working on now has nothing to do with me, but I think your first novel should have everything to do with you. You should get it out of the way.

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