'The Weirdness of Life'

Nick Flynn is hesitant to call his new book, Another Bullshit Night in Suck City, a memoir. "There's the risk of self-indulgence," the poet and University of Houston teacher explains from New York, "and the memoir seems like such a peculiarly American phenomenon." He says he settled on the term because "it seemed like I could write a million poems about [my father's homelessness] and it would always be assumed as a metaphor. It just felt like the only way to say, shorthand, 'Let's just assume this stuff is real.'"

The book focuses largely on Flynn's father, who left the family when the children were very young, was incarcerated in federal prison for check fraud, and eventually became homeless in Boston. Oddly enough, Flynn was working in Boston's most well-known shelter, the Pine Street Inn, while his father stayed there, but the two had little contact. Flynn was living on a houseboat in Boston Harbor at the time, having dropped out of college following his mother's suicide.

Flynn is, both in writing and in person, very careful to make clear that he does not think of himself as deserving of pity. He answers the allegation that his story is unique with a laugh and the simple response that "everybody I know struggles with their parents."

Unsurprisingly, Suck City does a brilliant job at forgoing the maudlin in favor of the absurd. He says his experience at the shelter reminded him of Beckett, characterized by "darkness, continually punctured by incredibly funny scenes, you know, hysterical absurdity and the weirdness of life and the comedy that's just inherent in every tragedy."

Flynn wanted his book to be a portrait of how one person became homeless, but he acknowledges that his father isn't the most sympathetic character. "I knew when I was writing the book that some people from the right could say, 'He's a fuck-up, he's an alcoholic, he left his family, why does he deserve anything from the government?'" Flynn says. "I don't know, I just think everyone deserves an apartment, whether they're a fuck-up or an alcoholic." He'd like his book to be a catalyst for dialogue with people who disagree, which is why he's excited to read at the Texas Book Festival, founded by Laura Bush.

Despite the memoir's success so far, Flynn still primarily considers himself a poet. "It's so perverse in this society to call yourself a poet," he says. "I love the glassy-eyed stares you get. It's such a perfect conversation-ender."

Sunday, Oct. 31, 11am-12:15pm, CE2.010
See www.texasbookfestival.org for full schedule.

Read the full interview with Nick Flynn.