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http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/style-blog/wp/2014/09/25/darin-strauss-flees-brooklyn-by-train/

Darin Strauss flees Brooklyn by train


Darin Strauss talks with students at a fundraiser for 826DC in Washington in 2012. (Ron Charles/Washington Post)
This week, Amtrak announced the names of 24 writers — chosen from more than 16,000 applicants — for the #AmtrakResidency program. Each of them will be given round-trip tickets on board a sleeper car in hopes of inspiring creativity (and good publicity for Amtrak).

One of those lucky writers is Darin Strauss, whose memoir “Half a Life” won a National Book Critics Circle Award in 2011.

I pestered him by e-mail.

So what makes a guy who lives in Brooklyn — Literary Shangri-La — want to jump on the rails?

Perhaps it’s because a writer lives in Brooklyn that he’d want to get away from it. It can be very sustaining, this community of writers — sometimes it’s the feeling of many hands, giving you a boost. But all that identical ambition can be choking, too. The many hands slide up to your throat.

How long will you actually be on the train?

It’s for two weeks. Not sure yet how far I’ll go, but I want to get my money’s* worth.


(Courtesy of Amtrak)
Are you worried that being separated from your desk, your books, your special writing talismans will throw off your mojo?

I have twin six-year-old boys. Have no mojo. The closest thing to a mojo I have is five minutes of peace.

Are you the kind of traveler who wants to strike up conversations with your fellow travelers?

Yes. I’m a (slightly) thinner iteration of John Candy in that Steve Martin movie, “Planes, Trains & Automobiles.”

Do you think you’ll get much actual writing done? Will you be able to write about anything besides riding on the train?

Yes, I will. (See answer about twins; mojo.) I sometimes now write on the NYC subway.

Have you been in one of those sleeper cars? I did it once — Boston-NY. Very cool for the first 20 minutes. Then panic sets in. And I’m pretty sure I showered in what was supposed to be the toilet.

I never have. My knowledge of trains — and love before first sight; love at negative-one sight — comes from Alfred Hitchcock.

__________

*There is no money.


Eric D. Schwerin
eschwerin@rosemontseneca.com

Sent from my iPhone