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Jun
20
An Interview with John Milliken Thompson (THE RESERVOIR)
2011 at 5am Posted by Rebecca Joines Schinsky
John Milliken Thompson’s debut novel The Reservoir is out this week from Other Press, and I had the pleasure of interviewing him in anticipation of his launch party tomorrow night at Fountain Bookstore.
The Reservoir is based on a real murder trial. How did you discover it?
A paragraph in Virginius Dabney’s Richmond: The Story of a City got me on the trail of this 126-year-old case.
Were you looking for a book idea, or did the book idea grow out of discovering the case?
I’m always looking for and open to book ideas, but really I was just interested at that point in learning more about Richmond. I played around for a while with doing some kind of nonfiction book on the case, but I became so engrossed with the story I decided to try writing it as a novel.
You’ve written extensively about American history. Why make the move to fiction for this story?
Continuing from the previous question, the story wasn’t working for me as straight nonfiction. I was having a hard time probing deep enough into the characters to make the story anything more than an interesting local incident. I had a feeling that the only way to really get at the characters and their motivations, and to give the story more universal meaning, was through fiction, which allows and requires the imagination to go beyond the available facts. The characters’ thoughts, words, and actions, then, became the story, with the real case providing a rough outline.
What resources did you draw from while researching the case?
Everything I could get my hands on. There were two key sources: period newspapers, especially the Richmond Dispatch; and case records held by the Library of Virginia. Without those two, for both material and inspiration, I doubt I could’ve written the book.
The novel is filled with rich historical detail about Richmond and post-Civil War Virginia. What’s your connection to the River City?
I’ve lived in Virginia now longer than anywhere, and yet until a few years ago I didn’t really know the capital as much more than a mysterious place along the interstate. I knew several Richmonders–warm, eccentric folks, and I’d met people who had moved here and liked it. It was curiosity that got me exploring the River City, and I think outsiders have the advantage of seeing things that locals may take for granted. There are so many stories yet to be told about Richmond.
The courtroom dialogue during Tommie’s trial is really terrific. How did you prepare for writing it? Spend a lot of late nights with Law and Order?
I do like that show. I also wanted to bring out the historical oddities–the constant interruptions, the group visit to the reservoir, and so on. Much of that material comes straight from the actual case, though I’ve compressed it quite a bit. I also sat in on a couple of cases. I was even in a jury pool for two murder cases, and though I wasn’t impaneled I followed the cases later. My father, a Southern lawyer, read and commented on a late version of the book.
Let’s talk about the ambiguous ending. I love a book that knows how to live in the gray areas, but I have to know: do you have a private opinion on Tommie’s guilt or innocence?
That’s a good question that gets at the heart of what, for me, the book is all about. In real life a verdict comes down and we have to live with a committee decision–twelve falable people decide whether a person is guilty or not. The jury rules “not guilty” and a guilty person may walk free; the jury rules “guilty” and we say the defendant was “proved” guilty–was he really? Fictional mysteries usually give us what real life does not–a sense of knowing absolutely, and it’s a comfort. It’s hard to live with not knowing, with knowing that something definite happened but that we’ll never discover what it is. When I think of Tommie, I think of the character in the novel–he is the more real, three-dimensional person for me now, and so my opinion on his guilt has become a less important question than the one that helped keep me interested during the writing: How can we live with not knowing?
What’s the one question you’re dying to have someone ask you on book tour?
You couldn’t be more than 39, could you?” I promise to be ambiguous with the answer. Also, I wouldn’t mind, “My name is Steven Spielberg, can we talk later?” That would be a one-word answer
Visit John Milliken Thompson’s website & follow him on Twitter @john_milliken_t to learn more about The Reservoir.
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I thoroughly enjoyed this interview and cannot wait to read the book! JMT extensively researched the case, wow! I’m really intrigued about why he turned to fiction and excited to see how the story plays out. But what I’m really looking forward to is the courtroom scene which I have heard great things about. As a former prosecutor, trials are a lot like putting on a play and there is usually some drama!
Thank you Book Lady and JMT for a terrific post and for making me even more excited to read “The Reservoir”!
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Great interview!!! when we’ll be able to buy this book?
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Excellent insight into a book that has been drawing me closer and closer to clicking that “Add to Cart” option. Gracias!
Coffee and a Book Chick´s last [type] ..The Katyn Order- by Douglas W Jacobson
I enjoyed your interview, particularly the last question and John Thompson’s reply.
[...] John’s interview on The Book Lady’s Book Blog. [...]