Critical Mick

Reviews Free of Rules.

Reviews by the Clown that All Other Critics Want to Strangle with a Black Turtleneck

A Two-RC-Colas-and-a-Moonpie-Drive from Graceland

The latest installment in Critical Mick's series of rule-free interviews features Michael Loyd Gray, author of the new novel Confederate Nation: Special Appearance by Elvis Presley. After flying through the book like so much burning love, Mick hounded the surprisingly accessible university lecturer with e-mails in early May 2006.

Critical Mick: OK, be honest: who's the Aaron Neville guy pictured on the back cover of Confederate Nation: Special Appearance by Elvis Presley? As Elvis would say, that ain't you, baby. You're actually Tom Robbins! Am I right? Michael Loyd Gray: "Hah!!! What does Robbins look like? I don't think I've ever seen him. Yeah, that's me on the cover. I have a van dyke now, so just pencil that in on the photo. Is Robbins really as good-looking as me (just kidding)?" CM: Well your writing is right up there with the Even Cowgirls Get The Blues and Still Life with Woodpecker. Man! The imagination, energy, originality and surprising blooms of poetic beauty in Confederate Nation really knocked me out. MLG: "Thanks, Mick. I'm curious to know where those poetic blooms are. I think a writer should always feel a little nervous when people say nice things. It's such a crapshoot: you attempt to make something, never knowing if people will like it or understand it. But one of my goals is to entertain, to give readers something for heir money and their time. So, I'm very happy to hear you like it. I want others to give it a chance. And damnit – I want someone to make a movie out of it. As I wrote it I was always thinking it was a film. Let's get Kurt Russell to dust off his Elvis impersonation. Too bad Andy Kaufman isn't still around because he'd be a great choice, too." CM: I also dig the attitude on that back cover. MLG: "I felt that needed to be said. The mainstream publishing industry really is constipated and stagnant. It shouldn't be so hard for new voices to be heard. Publishers need to get off their fat New York City asses and realize how silly and pretentious it is to believe New York is the center of the universe. And anyway, Chicago's a better town. Of course I'm a big Chicago Bears, Chicago Cubs, Chicago Blues, and Chicago Pizza fan – all things, I might add, that go well with a tankard of Guinness. CM: So this is your first writing that has been made available to the good readership? How long have you been brewing these mad, alternate dreams?

Michael Loyd Gray I was born in Arkansas just a two-RC-Colas-and-a-moonpie-drive from Graceland, the center of the Known Elvis Presley Universe, but I grew up in the liberal shadow of a major university near Chicago. Two very different worlds. The Confederate battle flag was proudly displayed in one and regarded with suspicion, dread, and anger in the other. Elvis was The King in both. I remember Saturday afternoon Elvis double-features at a downtown Jonesboro theater surrounded by a gaggle of my Arkansas cousins. More RC Colas. More moonpies. In those days you scratched off the cork under the RC Cola bottle cap to see if there was a star. If there was, you won something. More RC Cola, I suspect. Dr. Pepper and RC Cola were the gin and vodka of delta kids in those days. Family lore has it that my mother's best friend lived next to Graceland and sometimes put her dog over the fence so it could run on the Graceland grounds. The claim is that one day Elvis brought the dog back personally and flashed that devastating smile, leaving her speechless and nearly paralyzed. More family lore says my mother's friend was hovering at a Memphis stoplight when Elvis pulled alongside in a jeep, again flashing the smile before zooming off and leaving her to sit through another light. Again speechless and nearly paralyzed. I never met Elvis, but I did visit Graceland when he was still alive. Albert Goldman was right that Elvis seemed to have furnished it from roadside stands. But that didn't matter. It was the home of The King and it hushed and awed people the way I imagine the Taj Mahal can. Elvis was unique. There will never again be someone quite like him. Others have been as famous – Muhammad Ali, John Lennon -- but Elvis remains unique for reasons I can't easily articulate through words on a page, though the reasons drench me as obvious whenever I hear his voice or see him in a movie with that devastating grin. "Elvis was religion to me," Lennon once said. Why did I decide to resurrect The King in my novel (Confederate Nation: Special Appearance by Elvis Presley)? Why did I breathe life back into him and allow him to be 64, free of drugs, and happy? Because he should have been.   copyright 2006 Michael Loyd Gray

MLG: "A long time. My dreams have always been wacky and vivid. I'll share this with you: for much of my life I have dreamed I was a Confederate brigadier. In the dreams I am always a brigadier general, commanding a brigade or two, but the brigades are almost always nestled away in some forested valley and I am sitting with my officers in front of a fireplace or a campfire. We never fight. We just make good camps and rest. Then, I always seem to make a separate peace with the war and ride off to California, where I buy a house on the beach and drink wine and chase senoritas and contemplate life. I also never disclose I was a brigadier in the war but people who get to know me suspect it. I love it!!!! Maybe it's a book. And I once described the dream to a counselor who said she believes in another life I really was a Confederate brigadier. Maybe I knew Pat Cleburne."

CM: Matthew Wayne Selznick, author of Brave Man Run, gave some mixed but general positive insight into his dealings with lulu.com self-publishing. Care to comment or advise on your own self-publishing experience?

MLG: "First, I don't think anyone has much right to look down on POD books. As I mentioned, getting published is ridiculously tough and shouldn't be, and the industry is run by bean counters instead of real editors, like back in the days of Max Perkins or Saxe Cummings (spelling?). Could Hemingway and Faulkner even get published today? I wonder. But of course Tom Clancy can and so can that awful writer who wrote The Bridges of Madison County. Publishers think formulaic crap is all that's worth their time. Tragic.

MLG: "Second, choose a POD carefully because obviously some are better than others. I don't have any problems with iUniverse, and believe me, I wouldn't be shy about saying so if I did. But then I always understood that they were just printing the book and that their stance is that the authors do the promotion. My contact there was always quick to respond and help me.

CM: Let's turn this criticalmick.com site into imdb.com. Give us some trivia about this novel and its writing.

MLG: "OK, let's see. Well, I'm not sure that I can recall where I was when I really started writing it. I may have begun it in Champaign, Illinois, which is where I was raised. I do know that I wrote much of it when I lived in Canandaigua, New York. In fact, I got the ending in New York.

MLG: The title was sort of accidental. Originally it was just Confederate Nation. It became Confederate Nation: Special Appearance by Elvis Presley only after the Presley estate declined to license a photo of bloated Vegas Elvis as the cover, and so I tacked on the Special Appearance by Elvis Presley so readers wouldn't see just the Confederate battle flag on the cover and assume it was just some pukey Civil War book."

CM: What exactly do you teach?

MLG: "I teach Literature and Composition and I have taught Creative Writing and Journalism. I was a newspaper reporter for nearly ten years in Arizona and Illinois. I walked away from newspapers because I could see they were drifting away from reporting and toward fluffy infotainment crap that is frankly ruining America – with an awful lot of help from George Bush, of course. I agree with Neil Young's new song on that matter. But I am happy to point out that many Americans are waking up to the deceptions and outright lies and incompetence and disdain for democracy of the Bush regime."

CM: How did you get into that? Do you enjoy teaching at the college level?

MLG: "I do like teaching. I'm an actor and it satisfies my need for a soapbox. Also, I get paid for a year but only have to work day to day for nine months. Even though I will teach some classes online this summer I am otherwise off and have time to write and be away from the school on a day to day basis. Teachers work hard doing those nine months and deserve summer session. We certainly work more often than a president who has set records for vacations while in office."

CM: Ah, come on! You do it for the 30-year-old redheaded hottie graduate students.

MLG: "For the 22-year-old redheaded hottie graduate students, Mick. Actually, we don't have graduate students at community colleges, so that's out. In Confederate Nation, of course, Grail, has his graduate student girlfriend."

CM: Seriously: award-winning Irish novelist/playwrite/critic John MacKenna warns that, when choosing a daytime job, an author should avoid teaching literature.

MLG: "I think Hemingway shared that belief. But it's not a problem for me. Teaching stories and novels motivates me to want to write my own stuff. This summer I'll use Sherman Alexie's Reservation Blues and a quirky short novel (but a hoot to read) called Norwood by Charles Portis. It's sort of like when an architect saunters down the street looking at buildings and gets ideas and maybe rushes back to the studio to see what he or she can do with what they learned."

CM: Is it just me or is there a resurgence of interest in the US Civil War? Nicole Kidman was looking gorgeous in Cold Mountain on my telly the other night and Robert Hicks' Widow of the South is on my to-read list, even though it is a bestseller.

MLG: "The Civil War will always be popular reading. And it still touches Americans in ways they may not always be aware of. For example, last year I had surgery on my neck. The surgeon is the great (not sure how many greats go here) grandson of a Confederate officer, a colonel who commanded brigades under Lee at Gettysburg and Antietam. My surgeon's family owned the house that became the Confederate White House used by Jefferson Davis.

MLG: "I read Cold Mountain and thought the guy wrote very well, but I sure got tired of the brutality toward animals (I have two cats – EH and Moonpie). I would like to see the movie yet to know if it is accurate. I have read at least 50 or more books on the Civil War and so I feel fairly qualified to judge how it's presented. Nicole Kidman is pretty nice, though suspect in my book for marrying that goofball Tom Cruise. I tend to fantasize about Rene Russo when it comes to actresses."

CM: Just a plug here: from his Authors on Tour Live podium, Robert Hicks expressed his admiration for Pat Cleburne, the Irish-born Confederate general who won the title "The Stonewall of the West." Go Irish!

MLG: "Pat Cleburne earned a great reputation. John Bell Hood needlessly butchered Cleburne and six or seven of his other generals in that stubborn and stupid attempt to replicate Pickett at Franklin, Tennessee. But Cleburne was widely respected, and deservedly so. I think even Lee from his Olympian vantage point was aware of Cleburne, though they didn't serve together. Last night I watched Martin Scorcese's Gangs of New York, which filled in a few details about the Irish and the Civil War. Now I need to discover how much of it is accurate. I wouldn't give two cents for Leonardo di Caprio, but Daniel Day-Lewis was splendid as Butcher Bill.

CM: Your main character, in searching for his father and heritage, discovers much about the South that is admirable. Modern, agrarian, eco-friendly, and the days of slavery and confiscating New York Yankees bumper stickers off tourist cars long over. Confederate Nation celebrates the traditions of the South. And though there is still a tension, also much about the culture of the North. How does this reflect your own experience and opinions of North and South?

MLG: "A tough question. I'm not sure I would ever want to live again in the South. Some of that has to do with the damn humidity. I lived for a year in Houston, Texas, and hated the hot weather and the attitude that George Bush is still somehow a great and honest man despite a long list of failures and lies. I have always enjoyed the countryside of my native Arkansas, especially up near the Missouri border where there is trout fishing amidst rapids and waterfalls and hills. But mostly I prefer the people and great country to be found in Michigan, where I attended graduate school. Wisconsin is nice, too. And upstate New York, where I spent two years. I don't mind snow. I lived in Arizona for five years and had fun, especially during those great winters, but that summer heat was too much. I tried California. Great weather, but most of the people are completely nuts or consumed with looking cool. As for the South of Confederate Nation, I wanted it to come off as more progressive than the North. I'm a reluctant capitalist."

CM: Thank you for bringing Elvis back to life. I'm a long-time fan of The Big E. The way he fused so many different styles into something that was exciting and brand new without sacrificing the spirit of where the music had come from- brilliant stuff. The father in The Commitments had the King's portrait hanging beside the Pope's for good reason.

MLG: "The father also chided anyone who didn't show proper respect for The King. I loved The Commitments. And I love Elvis. I wanted Elvis to live again, and I was curious as to how he might be if he had made it into his 60s and beyond. He should have. A great tragedy. I think Mick Jagger was once asked his quick reaction to what happened to Elvis and he said simply, "Poor boy."

CM: What are you reading at the moment?

MLG: "Yesterday I bought a copy of F. Scott Fitzgerald's This Side of Paradise. I read it decades ago and now want to see how I like it. It was his first novel and I recall a few critics mentioned that he was still learning how to construct a novel with Paradise. I was learning on the job, too, with Confederate Nation. The novel I am hoping to finish this summer, December's Children, is being structured somewhat differently than the first one. Maybe that means I have learned something – or at least like the architect I mentioned in an earlier question perhaps I have at least studied a few more buildings. I think I'll also read some Civil War stuff this summer. David Eicher has a book out on why the South really lost the war. I'm curious to read it because I enjoyed another one he wrote on the war. I think I'll re-read Shelby Foote, too. He died not long ago and was a grand old southern gentleman who I admired.

CM: What writers do you admire? (Tom Robbins aside.)

MLG: Hemingway. That's where it begins with me. And Ray Carver, who also admitted Hemingway was an influence. To all the people who criticize Hemingway because he was a drunk and a brawler and not always pleasant, I say get a fucking life. He was a great artist. It just doesn't matter that he could be a shit. We all are sometimes. I also like Larry Brown. He wrote some brutal but great short stories and died too young. I like the early Bobbie Ann Mason and the early Ellen Gilchrist. Scott Fitzgerald. A guy in Michigan named Stuart Dybek. I worked with him in graduate school. When I want to be distracted from the world I read those Arkady Renko novels by Martin Cruz Smith. He makes Renko come alive to me. Or maybe it's because I liked William Hurt as Renko in the film Gorky Park -- especially when he releases the caged sables.

CM: What are you working on now?

MLG: Novel two, called December's Children. I borrowed the title from the Rolling Stones' fifth album. The story is set in 1966, the same year as the album. It's about a 17-year-old kid growing up in my fictional town of Argus, Illinois, His name is Billy Ray Fleener and he thinks he wants to go to California and be a surfer. He's clearly feeling fenced in by tiny Argus on the east central Illinois prairie.

CM: So you're a big Stones fan, then? I noticed their brief appearance in Confederate Nation.

MLG: I love the Stones. The second album I ever bought was December's Children. The world's greatest rock and roll band, though they looked a little pathetic at the Super Bowl. It might be time for them to avoid the mega-shows and play small venues where they can play the old bluesy stuff. I love Keith Richards. He's amazing. It seems to me that he has lived his life pretty much on his own terms and has enjoyed it.

CM: Sorry, just another plug to give a little credit where it's due. This interview was transcribed into HTML and posted while under the influence of Sufjan Steven's 2005 concept album Come on Feel the Illinois. Twenty-two Carl Sandberg-mentioning tracks such as "Concerning the UFO Sighting Near Highland, Illinois" and "The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is Out to Get Us!" And (my personal favourite) "They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back From The Dead!! Ahhhh!" Good shit. Sufjan also has a Michigan album.

MLG: "I know where Highland is – down near St. Louis. And there's posh Highland Park on the north shore of Chicago, where Michael Jordan lives. I advise anyone from Ireland or any other country to skip New York City for Chicago. Midwesterners aren't as nasty as New Yawkers. Or as pretentious. Just my damn opinion. Go to the famous Billy Goat Tavern, located under Michigan Avenue (stairs are on Michigan). The Stones used to frequent the Billy Goat.

MLG: Did you know that Sandburg and Hemingway met? The story has it that the young Hemingway, fresh from his wounding in Italy in WWI, attended a party in downtown Chicago and Sandburg was a guest, too. Hemingway was then unknown but already showing promise as a writer."

CM: I really admire some of the innovation that's just waiting out there to be discovered. Anything you'd like to recommend?

MLG: "While I can't think of anything at this moment, and that's partly because I haven't been reading much this semester, I really want to reiterate my strong feeling that there are too many writers worth reading who can't get their voices heard."

CM: Elvis asks your main character, "So, Grail, what do you regret, man?" Same question to you.

MLG: "The toughest question of all. I regret not sucking in more cold air on a nippy day in winter to remind myself I am alive. After a bout with cancer last year I am much more aware of the miracle of living. It made me realize I have squandered opportunities in the past. I regret not taking at least several women from the past more seriously. I can think of a few who would have been worth a lifetime, but at the time I couldn't see it.

MLG: I regret not taking college seriously the first time and flunking out. It cost me some wasted years.

MLG: I regret the Chicago Bears didn't take advantage of that great Super Bowl team and win at least one more title.

MLG: I regret that the American public, aided by an unquestioning media, was snookered into electing George Bush president. He has damaged the world and we will be long recovering from it.

CM: Anything you'd like to mention that I haven't brought up?

MLG: I though up the name Wad Upshot all by myself.

CM: Many thanks, Michael! As you'll see when I post my review along with this interview, the novel had been nominated for the Critical Mick Best Book Read in 2006 award. Confederate Nation has captured my enthusiastic recommendation much the same way an unlikely band of rebels swept in and nabbed Honest Abe Lincoln.

Read an exclusive excerpt from December's Children!

Yo! This interview transcript and all content on the DFA Guide site are copyright 2006 Mick Halpin. All links to other sites and documents are copyright to whatever source wrote something cool enough for Mick to give it a referral. Try to claim them as your own work and bad karma will catch up with you, baby. Believe it.

Irate, huh? Managed to piss off another one? Direct your hatemail to mick @ mickhalpin dot com.

This Page Was Last Updated On 23 July, 2006.