Two things drew me into writing Thank You, Goodnight. First, there was the Teddy character, a person who’d accomplished something great a long time ago and then had to adjust to life as a regular guy. Second, there was the scene in Switzerland. I knew that Teddy would never have set out on his journey to put the band back together and restore his “legacy” had he not run headlong into this little pocket of rabid fans with which he was forced to share an evening. For some reason, this scenario played out in my head before any of the rest of the novel materialized, and it served as a great starting place for writing the rest of the novel.
The scenes when Teddy and the band are recording in the studio and working with Sonny to make a record together are incredibly detailed. Did you do any research into the music industry and recording process, or were those scenes based on personal experience?
I am fortunate enough to have done some recording. A guy I played in bands with for many years—who happens to be a very close friend—and I spent three weeks in San Francisco making an album when we were in our mid-twenties. In addition to being a total blast, the experience made a huge impression and provided a wealth of detail, such as how the placement of instruments and microphones affects the sound, the way the producer looks while sitting in front of the mixing board, the long stretches of tedium as another musician lays down his or her tracks, the rises and falls of everyone’s moods over the course of a long day. It’s a unique environment, and not always conducive to creativity.
Thank You, Goodnight is your first novel: what about the writing or editing process did you find surprising? What did you find challenging?
I was surprised that the editing process never felt done. I was ultimately able to get the narrative in a place that felt comfortable and complete, but with every read-through, there were words and sentences on nearly every page that I felt compelled to revise.
In terms of challenges, a major one for me was keeping the dialogue both fresh and realistic. Most conversations that we engage in on a daily basis are very ordinary and unfold in relatively short phrases that are not terribly poetic or even articulate. A lot of the scenes in this book entail two people simply having a conversation, as Teddy visits all his old co-conspirators to pitch the idea of reforming Tremble. It was a challenge to make the dialogue interesting and alive, while at the same time believable.
Are there authors or books that have particularly influenced or inspired your writing style?
I’ve always aspired to write like Tom Robbins, but it’s dangerous to try to emulate that kind of writing style because it’s so easy to fail—and so apparent when you do. I’ve been greatly inspired by Dave Eggers and the way he tells stories, particularly You Shall Know Our Velocity and recently with the understated but very compelling A Hologram for the King. I also sometimes find myself trying to allow scenes to unfold in the very natural, organic way that I associate with Jhumpa Lahiri’s writing. And Almost Famous by David Small, with whom I was fortunate enough to take a writing workshop as an undergraduate at Franklin and Marshall, is a great example of well-crafted character-driven fiction. Those are but a few of many influences.
Teddy explains that first impressions with a song are paramount. “A maiden voyage through a song is like a first date, painting it with visual imagery that becomes forever inseparable from the music.” Do you share this romantic notion about how we experience music? What songs have made a successful “first date” impression on you?
I have absolutely found this to be true. If I first hear a song while coasting along a scenic highway at dusk or while sitting on the beach at midnight, it’s going to be easier to like. If I first hear it on a rainy day in the parking lot of a mall, that song has a lot of drab stimuli to overcome. I first heard “Pink Moon” by Nick Drake while walking along a deserted city street in the middle of a snowstorm, and every time I hear the opening strum of that acoustic guitar, I’m back in that peaceful wintry scene. I first heard Joni Mitchell’s “Court and Spark” while lounging around my apartment with my then-girlfriend (now wife) on a Friday night, so that musical first date went very well. I have hundreds of examples.
The act of making or experiencing visual art is very powerful or even pivotal at several times in the novel, such as Teddy’s experience with Heinz-Peter and his exhibit at the Tate, Sara’s therapeutic creation of mosaics, and the great impact that the Trans Am with Electric Eel painting has on Teddy. How is art important in your own life? Why did you want to include these other media in addition to the art of creating music in the novel?
I didn’t notice this until I’d finished writing the book, so I can’t claim to have deliberately baked this theme into the batter, but there is definitely a running thread of artistic ventures setting characters free, or at least forcing them to look into the mirror. Teddy’s decade-long musical dormancy overlaps with his general malaise and low-grade bitterness. Writing songs again sets in motion all the events that land him on that beach at the end. Sara needs to be around the chaos of creation at her friends’ studio because it’s the only place where she can allow all her buried emotions to breathe; she certainly can’t do it at home with Teddy. It was important to me that the Trans Am painting depict motion, and on a subconscious level, when Teddy sees it, he knows he has to move forward. By deciding to name the Tremble album after that painting, he’s—again, subconsciously—recognizing that it’s time to move forward in other areas of his life too. And obviously, Heinz-Peter’s photography exhibit places Teddy literally face-to-face with the laughing stock he is in the eyes of the world.
After the experience of writing and publishing your first novel, do you see any similarities between the publishing industry and the music industry?
I have very limited experience in the music industry, but my impression is that there are so many variables that contribute to the success or failure of an artist that the industry has to be concerned with a lot more than just the music. By contrast, the people I’ve dealt with in the publishing industry—easy people to like, by the way—just really love books. A lot of sweat obviously goes into the marketing of a book, but as far as the author is concerned, the focus really seems to be on the work.
As Teddy had unfinished business in the music industry, is there anything in your own life that you are dying to try your hand at for a second time?
I’d like to work my way up a major league baseball organization. I haven’t played seriously since high school, but a few afternoons at the batting cage and I’d be ready!
Are you working on a second novel? What’s next for you?
I’m finishing work on a second novel. It’s about a brother and sister whose lives are separately falling apart over the course of a summer. The brother is a roller coaster engineer who loses his job and separates from his wife and daughter all in one day, so he takes a job as a lifeguard at his apartment complex pool. The sister is a journalist who starts receiving unsettling emails from an anonymous sender. No one plays in a band.
ENHANCE YOUR BOOK CLUB
1. From the one and only Death Cab for Cutie song on Teddy’s iPod, to the Oasis album in his glove compartment, to when Sara “brought her own copy of Bitches Brew to the relationship,” listening to and being surrounded by music is a huge part of Teddy’s life. Set the mood for your book club by creating a playlist of the music mentioned in the book or songs inspired by Teddy’s adventures. What songs remind you most of Tremble’s hits? Ask your book club members to suggest songs for the playlist.
2. Teddy gets Tremble back together for one more album, to tie up what he feels is unfinished business. Is there anything in your life that you feel is unfinished? Or, is there something that you’ve always want to do, but haven’t yet? Share with your book club.
3. Have you ever read a musician’s autobiography? If so, were there any similarities to Thank You, Goodnight? What about the autobiographies of popular eighties and nineties rockers, such as Cyndi La
uper: A Memoir by Cyndi Lauper, Sinner’s Creed by Scott Stapp, or Makeup to Breakup by Peter Criss? Ask several members of your group to bring autobiographies to compare to the novel.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Photograph © Caryn Abramowitz
Andy Abramowitz lives in Philadelphia with his wife and two daughters. He is a lawyer with a past in music, but he has no musical legacy to correct. This is his first novel.
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2015 by Andy Abramowitz
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First Touchstone hardcover edition June 2015
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Interior design by Jill Putorti
Jacket design by Kimberly Glyder
Jacket art: record © Bojan Benak/Shutterstock
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Abramowitz, Andy, author.
Thank you, goodnight : a novel / Andy Abramowitz.—First Touchstone hardcover edition.
pages cm
“A Touchstone Book.”
Summary: “Nick Hornby meets Almost Famous in this side-splittingly funny coming-of-middle-age debut novel about the lead singer of a one-hit wonder 90s band who tries for one more swing at the fences”—Provided by publisher.
1. Singers—Fiction. 2. Musicians—Fiction. 3. Humorous stories. I. Title.
PS3601.B7313T43 2015
813'.6—dc23
2014041615
ISBN 978-1-4767-9177-7
ISBN 978-1-4767-9179-1 (ebook)
Thank You, Goodnight Page 35