Writers & Readers: Things that stick
An interview with novelist Andrew Boryga about discovering readers, reading as a writer, and reviews that get stuck in your head
Hello!
There are certain things people say about your writing (or art) that, inevitably, stick in your brain.
Sometimes it’s something small... For example, I read a review of my book that commented on the short sentences that make up Lee’s inner monologue. Even though it was ultimately a positive review, to this day I still can’t get their very particular critique of sentence structure out of my head.
Other times, it’s something funny… Like a few weeks ago when I Zoomed with a 6th-grade class, and one of the students asked me how long it took to write the book—about 5 years, I said—to which they asked “How do you have a career if it takes you that long to write just one book?” 🤣
But occasionally, something amazing happens. In today’s interview with Andrew Boryga—the author of VICTIM—I was pleasantly surprised to hear about one of these magical interactions with a reader.
Before we dive in, here’s a little bit about Andrew:
Andrew is a writer, editor, and author from the Bronx, New York who currently lives in Miami. His first novel, VICTIM, has been called “a crowning achievement” by the New York Times Book Review.
His work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Paris Review, and more, and he’s also been awarded prizes by Cornell University, The University of Miami, The Michener Foundation, etc.
Andrew has a substack newsletter called .
Hey Andrew, thanks for doing this with me! And congrats on the successful launch of VICTIM. I want to start by diving right in… what’s something you’ve learned about the writer-reader relationship now that your first novel is out in the world?
The biggest thing I learned is that there is an audience of readers out there who are willing and, in many cases, have a desire to be challenged. Some of the best feedback I’ve gotten about the novel is how it has made people cringe, question themselves, or experience uncomfortable emotions. And yet, that is what they seem to enjoy the most by the end of their reading experience.
I knew I was writing a book that wouldn’t necessarily go down easily for everyone, and the whole endeavor of seeing how readers would react to it always felt like a gamble. Is this going too far? Will people be put off by my really unreliable and unlikeable narrator?
It felt like a very delicate line to balance while writing. And what I learned from the audience is that there seems to have been a lot of appreciation for the fact that I even took a chance in the first place.
There have been a lot of nice comments on Goodreads, for example, by people who didn't necessarily love the book and gave it two or three stars, but who have also said they appreciated what I was going for—even if it didn’t perfectly land for them. Some appreciated it enough that they said they’re looking forward to what I do next, which I’m happy to hear. I feel like that’s about the best you could ask for from an average, to below-average review.
Wow, yeah that is a delicate line to walk when writing. Did you think about an ‘audience’ when you were drafting this novel (or when you write in general)?
To be honest, not all that much. I try–first and foremost–to write something that entertains me. Something that goes in directions I’m not expecting and that feels exciting, fresh, and different.
If I can build a good deal of that energy into the book, then I feel like it will likely stimulate similar feelings in whoever reads it. Or at least, that is my hope.
That resonates a lot with me… I read somewhere once—maybe it was George Saunders who said it—about how the writer needs to be curious about or entertained by their own story first. Otherwise, how could they expect a reader to be, right?
So now that VICTIM is out, is there something a reader has said that stuck in your mind and made you see your work differently than before?
A reader named Sharon Velez Diodent (@bookdragon217 on IG) wrote a really lovely review of the novel, in which she diagnosed Javi in a way that I hadn’t thought of, but made a whole lot of sense. She wrote:
“He was the middle man in his parent’s relationship/separation and he also had to negotiate his needs vs. wants to craft his own meaning of hustle mentality. To me, Victim is Javier’s exploration of what it means to be his father’s son and earn his approval after his death even though his father wasn’t his best role model.”
She also added that the book “shows how unresolved grief can manifest itself as manipulation and escapism.”
She told me some of this during a really dope reading and conversation with her Puerto Rican book club over Zoom, too, and I remember leaving that conversation thinking, damn, you are so, so right. And I felt that even stronger after reading her thoughts in the IG review.
It was fascinating because Sharon was able to concretely name things I was unconsciously getting at. I knew while writing, for example, that I wanted Javi to grapple with the loss of his father, but her perspective on that, as well as his relationship with his parents, put this wonderful language to it. It was very special and a perfect example of how a reader can see things an author may be too in the weeds to even notice.
Ahhh that’s so wild! That’s happened to me a few times and it’s such a strange, wonderful feeling…When a reader picks up something your brain is doing that you’re not even aware your brain is doing. Very cool. Has this comment or review affected the way you write now?
It’s funny because I’m working on a new novel, with new characters, where I’m trying to probe deeper into that father-son relationship in many ways, and, more specifically, what the absence of that relationship can do to a man as he enters adulthood and is about to have his own son.
So the comments made me realize I’ve been thinking and writing about this subject for a long time now, which sort of gives me a challenge to see how I can go ahead and move towards those themes a little more deliberately this time around, and think about what that might look like.
I’ve heard that our core question as a writer remains the same… like the existential thing we’re interested in. But how we approach it and the stories we tell change all of the time. I’m excited for this next novel!
I want to switch to a question about reading. Do you read differently now that you’re a writer? If so, how?
I’ve considered myself a writer for a long time, since I was a teenager. But I think now that I’m a published author I read a little differently in the sense that I have a couple of different modes of reading. I have the reading I do for pleasure, just because I want to read a book and I think it might be interesting.
And then there is other reading for research, which is what I’ve been doing more of now because I’m in the thick of drafting. Some of that reading is to get a sense of who is writing in a similar space as me. How are they doing it? What are they doing well? What aren’t they? Some of it is just to gain information and knowledge about a narrative arc or setting I’m trying to fictionalize.
That reading can still be enjoyable though, and honestly, the best thing is when it is, as was the case with recent books I’ve read like Margo Has Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe, God Bless You, Otis Spunkmeyer by Joseph Earl Thomas, Someone Like Us by Dinaw Mengestu, and What Are Children For? by Anastasia Berg and Rachel Wiseman. But sometimes it isn’t that enjoyable. Sometimes it requires reading things where I’m just going to be skipping around, and moving on once I’ve gotten what I needed.
Okay, last question… do you think readers care about who the writer is?
I think they care marginally, at best. In fact, I believe some writers can overthink the marketing side of things. The branding and so forth. Yeah, you might get a lot of Instagram followers or whatever, but I think if you’re looking to find readers–people who will really champion your work and recommend it to others moving forward–then the work itself must come first.
I think we’re in a moment in the publishing industry where a lot of us writers think that the branding and marketing stuff comes first. I believe it doesn’t. In fact, writers–and especially debut writers–would be much better off focusing less on their appearance to the world online, and focus more on getting everything on the page into the best that it can possibly be.
You can worry about all that other marketing shit when you’ve sold your book and you have all that downtime in between. Because, as you know, Charlee, publishing is mad fucking slow.
But before you get to that point, I’m not convinced that, in the long run, having a big platform is more important than having a really great book that people will enjoy and pass along and that will hold up after all the buzz and hype fizzles away.
So there you have it. Sometimes one thing—one comment, one review—has a huge impact. We love our readers!
Speaking of…I’ve been blown away so far by the responses online—and in my daily life—when talking to people about this project. I thought my audience for the newsletter would mostly be writers, but I overlooked the fact that SO many people are creating things these days… newsletters, new products, recipes for their blogs, social media posts, etc… and everyone is thinking (or not) about their audience.
Thank you for following along,
Charlee
Thank you, Charlee!