Shalom Auslander

By OFW Editor: Katrina Monroe

Published: July 23, 2012

Accomplishment: Author

Shalom Auslander was raised as an Orthodox Jew in Spring Valley, New York and it is the foremost influence on his writing. His collection of short stories, "Beware of God," describes just how many ways God can fuck with you and how He is oh so willing to do it. While Auslander spends the majority of his time whining, complaining, and worrying about which lightning bolt is going to strike him, he was kind enough to climb on the Rack (after we drugged him) for a few moments and allowed us to pick his brain.Not that he had any choice in the matter...

What are the biggest challenges for you in your writing career?

Not treating it like a career. It’s tempting to, but it would death for me. I don’t see myself as a writer at all. I think the moment you do, something dies, some fire goes out. Nietzsche talked about only wanting to read book that needed to be written, as opposed to books that just wanted to be written. Seeing it as a career, I think, means you write whether you need to or not. I’m trying to stay with “need.”

Have you ever wanted to quit? Why didn't you?

Same as above – if I were writing something just to write, just to publish, I would quit. But when it’s something that needs to be written, said or expressed, I’m more worried that I’ll die before I get to finish than I am about quitting.

What books do you like to read? Hate to read?

Bukowski wrote about preferring people who “scream when they burn.” I like books by people who are burning. And who are screaming about it. I can’t stand books that are just there, that are just happy to be books, or think that because they are books anyone should give a shit.

Which writer would you like to emulate?

Beckett, probably. For some reason, a lot of the writers I admire turn out, later on, to have been fascist anti-Semites: Celine, Cioran. It’s very disturbing. I’m sure my mother has a theory about that. As a man in a Parisian bookstore said to me, Celine wrote 40 books, and 38 of them were total shit. But the two that were great were just fucking staggering.

What's the best moment you've had as a writer? The worst?

Best: probably just the first time I wrote something that sounded like me, and unlike anything else. The worst? The moment just before that, when I wondered if I ever would.

What advice do you have for beginning writers?

Give a shit about something, and don’t give a shit about anyone else.

If, like your protagonist in Hope: A Tragedy, you found Anne Frank

in your attic, what would you do?

I think I’d be okay throwing Anne Frank out, since I am Jewish. I’d have a harder time if it were, say, MLK Jr. Like if he only got grazed by the bullet, but decided to live in hiding ever since, and I found him in my basement. I’m a white Jewish middle-class guy, I can’t fucking throw MLK out, even if he is driving me crazy.

Nominated for the Koret Award for writers under thirty-five, Auslander has published articles in Esquire and has had stories aired on NPR’s This American Life. His latest novel, Hope: A Tragedy, was published on January 12, 2012. I recommend giving it a read.

1 Comments

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Veronica Sicoe
Monday, 16 Jul 2012 10:51 AM

The answer to "What books do you like to read? Hate to read?" -- love it! Couldn't agree more.

Great interview! Love the advice. ;)

Also, I could never really stand Emil Cioran either. Something about his brand mixture of decay and the futility of existence went against my deepest intuition of reality, despite his general adoration by Romanian philosophers and literature teachers for his "Heights of Despair".

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