Thomas H. Carry Interview - Privilege ~ JeanBookNerd

Photo Credit: Jamey Welch

Thomas H. Carry holds a doctorate in literature and has worked as a professional actor, dancer, business consultant, bouncer, and pet whisperer. A recovering academic, Carry has also held positions at various colleges and universities. He currently lives in Manhattan with his wife.

Tell us your latest news.

I recently completed my second novel, A Tale Told by an Idiot, about a slacker actor who gets in some very hot water with some very dangerous criminals, while playing the lead in an idiotic production of Macbeth. Bad crime and bad theater ensue. Set against the backdrop of the Off-Off Broadway theater scene in the late ‘80s, it’s a satirical but fond recollection of NYC during that rocky time.

Who or what has influenced your writing, and in what way?

I love Patricia Highsmith. Her unique take on the human predicament is incredibly insightful. And Tom Ripley is one extraordinary creation. I’m also greatly influenced by certain filmmakers. Hitchcock and the Coen Brothers come to mind. And no one beats Elmore Leonard for finding the humor in crime.

Tell us your most rewarding experience since being published.

Positive feedback from a few authors I greatly admire. That gave me goosebumps.

What do you hope for readers to be thinking when they read your novel?

How could the protagonist be so blundering? Also: this could happen to me!

In your new book; PRIVILEGE, can you tell my Book Nerd community a little about it.

It’s a crime noir/satire hybrid set at an elite university. The protagonist, Professor Daniel Waite is in a funk. He has a brilliant wife, tenure at the fabled University, and is well liked by colleagues and popular with students, who flock to his film studies courses. And he hates his life. He can't bring himself to write, disdains academia, barely gets through his class lectures, and spends a lot of time hiding in his office in a stupor, pondering his collection of movie posters.

All that changes when his new teaching assistant shows up at his door. At first, he's thrown by the eccentric and intense Stacy Mann, but he soon finds in her a kindred spirit of sorts: an outsider, a cynic who shares his antipathy for the University, someone receptive to his alienation and resentment. And, most importantly, her knowledge of movie trivia rivals his own. But he soon suspects she is not who she appears to be, that there may be a hidden agenda, one that threatens his very standing. Murder and mayhem ensue, all against the backdrop of the University, an ivy-covered asylum for the tenured.

What was the single worst distraction that kept you from writing this book?

My cat, Butch. He does not like to be ignored for long stretches. I avoid writing at home.

If you could introduce one of your characters to any character from another book, who would it be and why?

I would love to introduce the protagonist, Professor Daniel Waite, to Dexter, who is far less blundering.

What was the most surprising thing you learned in creating Daniel and Stacy?

How much I liked them both—for very different reasons. Daniel is an affable everyman with a dark side and Stacy is the embodiment of life as total improvisation, for better or worse.

TEN REASONS TO READ PRIVILEGE

1. You love dark humor.
2. You went to or worked for a college or university.
3. You love twisty plots.
4. You love thrillers that leave lingering questions.
5. You have an affinity for protagonists in “intractable situations.”
6. You like your novels lean and without padding.
7. You are a film buff.
8. You are intrigued by characters who make questionable moral choices.
9. You want a novel that will compel you to read it in one sitting.
10. You are tired of conventional thrillers.

What’s the most ridiculous fact you know?

The phrase “getting caught red-handed” comes from medieval anti-poaching laws.

If you could live in any period in history, where would it be and why?

Classical Athens. Imagine seeing the opening night of Oedipus!

Best date you've ever had?

Lunch at a diner with the woman I would eventually marry.

If you could go back in time to one point in your life, where would you go?

Fourth grade, so I could punch Jim McCay again (he was a notorious bully).

What is one unique thing are you afraid of?

Clowns. They’re horrifying.

Favorite things to do alone?

Eat at crowded restaurants and eavesdrop. Go to the movies.

WRITING BEHIND THE SCENES

I enjoy writing around other people (diners, coffee shops, workspaces). I have no idea what is going to happen in each chapter until I finish the preceding one. Though I’ve only completed two novels (one still unpublished), both began with a sentence that I could not shake.

Professor Daniel Waite is in a funk. He has a brilliant wife, tenure at the fabled University, and is well liked by colleagues and popular with students, who flock to his film studies courses. And he hates his life. He can't bring himself to write, disdains academia, barely gets through his class lectures, and spends a lot of time hiding in his office in a stupor, pondering his collection of movie posters.

All that changes when his new teaching assistant shows up at his door. At first, he's thrown by the eccentric and intense Stacy Mann, but he soon finds in her a kindred spirit of sorts: an outsider, a cynic who shares his antipathy for the University, someone receptive to his alienation and resentment. And, most importantly, her knowledge of movie trivia rivals his own. But he soon suspects she is not who she appears to be, that there may be a hidden agenda, one that threatens his very standing. What begins as a tantalizing connection soon spirals into a three-day frenzy of murder, evasion, and deceit-all against the backdrop of the University, an absurdist place where privilege, hierarchies, and campus politics reign.

Praised for PRIVILEGE

A thoroughly entertaining, spring-loaded tale of one man's lethal remedy for middle-age boredom. —Kirkus Starred Review

"Take a dash of Francine Prose, a dash of Donna Tart and add a third original voice, and you have Thomas Carry's brilliant debut novel, Privilege. It is a moving, often disturbing, sometimes humorous tale. Carry writes with black humor about an indolent university professor and his star academic wife whose lives are drastically changed within a three-day period of unexpected mayhem. With clever, skillful plot twists and elegant prose, Carry vividly shows how difficult it can be to understand another person's intentions, and demonstrates how unfeelingly cruel, how profoundly stupid and how disarmingly disingenuous some people can be, even in academia. Privilege is a riveting read from a gifted craftsman and true storyteller who knows how to end a story." —Ray Carson Russell, Author of Philurius College Blues

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