Context
"Taken out of context, I must seem so strange."
- Ani DiFranco, Fire Door
"This is the world. And there is no escape."
- Sean Conley as Francesco Cenci.
Here then, are the contexts I've engaged in working on Hungry Rats:
Lumbering
Michigan Rogues, Desperadoes, Cut-Throats, by Tom Powers.
This book powerfully evokes the sordid side of Michigan's lumbering history. Tom Powers has been of great help in research.
The Shanty Boy, by John W. Fitzmaurice
By all accounts the Bible of primary sources on Michigan lumberjacks. Published in 1892, John Fitzmaurice was a bookish and sickly editor whose doctor told him to go out and become a lumberjack "or you are a dead man inside of a year." Not only did the work improve Fitzmaurice's health, but he wrote this 240-page compilation of songs, folklore, anecdotes, and testimonials. Not only informative, but colorful and fun to read. Especially the incident where a lumberjack travels forward in time from 1888 to 1988. Here is my review of The Shanty Boy.
Lumberjack: Inside an Era in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan: 50th Anniversary Edition, by William Crowe, edited by Lynn McGlothlin Emerick and Ann McGlothlin Weller. Lumberjack is an extraordinary piece of work, being an updated compilation of newspaper columns from the town of Manistique printed during the 1950s. Mr. Crowe, a bookkeeper for the Chicago Lumber Company during the 1890s has written his account largely as a rebuttal to more sensational accounts. Lumberjack provides much needed perspective and insight into institutions not so much chaotic as adapted to a specific economic premise: the need of the nation for lumber.
Other worthwhile titles include:
- Frankie and the Barons by Stuart Gross, one of the most lurid retellings of Jim and Maggie's exploits.
- They Knew Paul Bunyan by E.C. Beck, a collection of songs and poetry that goes beyond that found in The Shanty Boy.
- And most especially Michigan's Timber Battleground: A History of Clare County 1674 - 1900 by Forrest B. Meek. By far the most comprehensive and thorough treatment of the region I've encountered, I couldn't have written Part Two of the novel without this source.
Finally, the lumbering era dominated Michigan's economy for close to a half-century, and has been well documented and archived. Most cities in Michigan will have a museum or historical site with information on local lumbering, particularly throughout the Saginaw Valley, the northern Lower Peninsula, and the entire Upper Peninsula. Some of the best are:
- Hartwick Pines State Park in Grayling.
- The Hackley and Hume Historic Site in Muskegon.
- While not as well organized, Ludington's White Pine Days Village has such a wealth of donated artifacts (and helpful and enthusiastic volunteers), that it could easily take up a full afternoon.
- I've also heard good things about the Community Forest Resource Center in Grand Rapids, Minnesota and the Tahquamenon Logging Museum in Newberry, Michigan, though I have not visited myself.
Serial Homicide
The Serial Killer Files, by Harold Schechter.
Not only is the book amazingly circumspect (arguing, for example, that while intelligence is a prerequisite for serial murder, it in no way implies maniacal genius), but it is also comprehensive, providing dozens of case studies and a rigorous and detailed discussion of the causes and social implications of serial murder.
Of course, there are thousands of books, websites, and films dedicated to this subject. Online, Court TV's Crime Library is a good starting point to learn about serial murder, with a huge archive of information. For an equally impressive stash, presented some flamboyantly, check out The Serial Killer Hit List.
The writings of Thomas Harris and accompanying films are so well known that I don't have to say much about them... Felicia's Journey with Bob Hoskins and Arsinée Khanjian, directed by Atom Egoyan was an early inspiration to Hungry Rats by illustrating that stories of straightforward brutality can be injected with poetic, and even lyrical, beauty. I do not particularly recommend William Lustig's Maniac, although it scared me more than any film has in years, which is useful, I guess, in helping me empathize with my own characters. The Young Poisoner's Handbook, on the other hand, is insightful, funny, creepy, well-written, and well-acted, and it won't ruin your weekend.
Flint, Michigan
The Picture History of Flint: The Flint Journal Centennial, 1876-1976 is not comprehensive, but it is a vivid overview spanning the time from John Smith and Alexis de Toqueville's foray in the area to the beginning of the decline of the automotive era. A collection of well-organized and meticulously captioned photographs is the centerpiece of this volume. Anyone interested in learning about Flint ought to start here.
For the true aficionados I might recommend Well Do I Remember, Halfway to Yesterday, and Through the Years in Genesee, all By Ann Lethbridge, an early Flint resident. It is also worth noting the extensive reference records and archives at the Flint Public Library, as well as the collection at the Alfred P. Sloan Museum. Finally, while not directly related to Flint, the accounts and descriptions in The Detroit Almanac are of topical interest and are often applicable and relevant to goings-on further north. In a similar vein, Bronze Pillars: An Oral History of African-Americans in Flint not only provides detailed information on this important and oft-neglected subject — Flint's largest demographic — but also conveys a sense of the importance of neighborhood in this city.
Noir and Gothic Fiction
Finally, Hungry Rats is not only a novel, but is also a project being submitted for my MFA thesis at New York City's New School. As such Jeffery Renard Allen, my advisor, and Robert Polito, the director of the writing program, have helped me compile a list of readings in the gothic and noir genres. They are:
- Lawrence Block: When the Sacred Ginmill Closes. Here is my review of When the Sacred Ginmill Closes.
- Charles Brockden Brown: Three Gothic Novels.
- James Cain: Mildred Pierce.
- James Cain: The Postman Always Rings Twice. Here is The Postman Always Rings Twice.
- Agatha Christie: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. Here is my review of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.
- Tananarive Due: The Between.
- Jennifer Egan: The Keep.
- Brian Evenson: The Open Curtain.
- John Fowles: The Collector. Here is my review of The Collector.
- Carlos Fuentes: Aura.
- Dashiell Hammett: The Maltese Falcon. Here is my review of The Maltese Falcon.
- Mo Hayder: The Treatment.
- Nathaniel Hawthorne: The House of Seven Gables.
- Stephen King: The Shining.
- Denise Mina: Garnethill: A Novel of Crime.
- Toni Morrison: Beloved.
- Haruki Murakami: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle: A Novel.
- Joyce Carol Oates: Haunted: Tales of the Grotesque.
- Robert Polito, editor: Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1930s and 40s.
- Robert Polito, editor: Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1950s.
- Derek Raymond: I Was Dora Suarez.