When “The Last Town on Earth” was announced as this year’s
“Tale”
selection in October, Mullen answered some questions from The Daily
News. Portions of his comments appeared in an Oct. 23, 2007, story;
here
are his complete responses:
THE DAILY NEWS: Have your participated in a commuity-wide reading
project before?
MULLEN: I've been on a book tour and read at book festivals, but this
is
the first time I've participated in a community reading project. I'm
very honored to have my book chosen, and I'm looking forward to hearing
what people respond to in the book, what they take away from it and
what
they bring into it.
On my book tour in the fall of 2006, because my book had just been
published, the audience was usually comprised of people who had heard
of
the book but had not yet read it.
Next March, I imagine I'll get very different questions and that the
experience will be richer and more interesting in that people will have
read the book and will have more complex, perhaps unexpected points
to
make or questions to ask.
Writing is a solitary experience, and writers seldom have the
opportunity to get out there and hear what people thought of the book,
what moved them, what bothered them, what things or experiences they
were reminded of when reading, etc.
THE DAILY NEWS: How do you, as an author, benefit from a community
reading project?
MULLEN: I think community reading projects are great because anything
that encourages people to read fiction is great.
As everyone involved in publishing knows, people aren't reading as many
novels as they used to. I've always been a voracious fiction reader
and
feel that it offers certain benefits and pleasures that other art forms
do not. I'm not going to rail against film or TV or the Internet, since
I'm a fan (to varying degrees) of all three, but I do think it's
important for people to keep reading, and, in this memoir-happy,
blog-happy age, one of the things I enjoy most about both reading and
writing fiction is the opportunity it gives us to see the world through
other peoples' eyes.
THE DAILY NEWS: You’re novel takes on many different topics. Why
that
approach?
MULLEN: There are characters in this book who disagree with each other
quite vehemently on life-or-death political and personal issues, and
through fiction I could debate the merits and try to understand the
nuances of these conflicting viewpoints. Hopefully readers too can
explore their own views and see, more clearly than before, sides of
the
argument that they might not have before.
THE DAILY NEWS: The main storyline of “The Last Town on Earth”
is based
on a little-known part of American history - towns quarantining
themselves to try and stop the flu from arriving and infecting
residents. Where did the idea come from?
MULLEN: As for where I got the idea for the story: about a decade ago
I
read an article about the 1918 flu epidemic, and it mentioned that some
uninfected towns were so terrified of what they heard about the flu
(which was strikingly virulent and fatal) that they decided the only
way
they could protect themselves was if they blocked the roads leading
into
town and posted armed guards to prevent anyone from entering.
I immediately found myself imagining a situation in which two guards
were presented with the dilemma of a lost, starving, cold traveler
begging them for food and shelter. What would they do? Would they put
themselves and their town at risk by helping him, or would they turn
him
away and force him to die in the woods?
From there I researched the era -- this was during World War One, a
time of surprising political repression and tense emotions about whether
we should be at war, as well as violent labor activity, both of which
became key parts of the story.