Go Home, Ricky! An Interview with Gene Kwak
Melissa L. Amstutz interviews Gene Kwak, author of the new title Go Home, Ricky!
MA: As a fellow Omahan, I was thrilled to read a book that featured so many landmarks and captured the mood and milieu so well. Did you always plan on setting this story in Omaha and having it play such an integral part?
GK: Yeah, this book is my love letter to Omaha. I have complicated feelings about this city, like we all do about the places we occupy. Most of them involve wanting it to be better. But when I think about books about Nebraska, they're almost always featuring only white people staring at dilapidated barns and staring off into the middle distance. But that's not the Omaha I know. I was like, where are the weirdos? The outcasts. The loudmouths. The riffers. That's my Omaha.
MA: The reader is instantly transported into the hyper-specific world of semi-professional wrestling. Is this a world you knew intimately? What is your connection to it?
GK: Wrestling for me holds a sense of nostalgia, because I'm reminded of my childhood. I knew it intimately then. Now, less so. But one thing that interested me is that wrestling is this world where persona matters so much. And if you remember back in the '80s, it was still presented as being "real." Now nobody cares. It's repackaged as sports entertainment. But back then the whole thing hinged on that thin veneer of "reality." Kayfabe as they call it. So that meant that the wrestlers essentially had to almost always "be" their personas. It's so interesting to think about, especially from a writing perspective. I also wanted to write a protagonist who was brash and was also good at riffing off of the top, so making Ricky a wrestler just made sense.
MA: Did you set out to write a novel that tackled the complexities of masculinity? Or did it happen more organically?
GK: I definitely had that in my mental backpack while writing the book. Tackling race and masculinity has always interested me. Some of the earliest writers whose work inspired me--from Barry Hannah to Denis Johnson to Thomas McGuane--wrote these gritty dude narrators and while I love their work, they weren't often unpacking that masculinity. A dude would pet a cat and all would be forgiven. And yeah, part of it was the times, but that's exactly why we can't rewrite those same types of books now. It's like making Joker or something. It's only wild if you don't know your history.
MA: A smaller—though still prominent—theme is self-image, and Ricky’s relationship with his own body. Can you speak on that?
GK: . I've felt the same feelings as Ricky. I used to be much more athletic in my younger days, but as time and metabolism conspire against us, I've definitely had some shitty thoughts about my body. I thought that someone who made their living using their body had to have some mental hurdles to deal with once it broke down. I didn't want it to be the primary focus of the book, but it was important to acknowledge.
MA: One of my favorite parts of the book was the funny and poignant dream Ricky has where Pilgrim is cradling him—it felt very loaded with symbolism. What is behind Ricky’s fascination with Pilgrim?
GK: That relationship is like a stand-in for his missing kid. But I also think Ricky probably even has these second guesses about his identity and Pilgrim is someone who passes as white but is Native. It's almost like Ricky feels more authentic around someone like Pilgrim.
MA: Race is another major thread and preoccupation of Ricky’s as he grapples with his own identity and the implicit and explicit racism around him. What do you hope readers glean from Ricky’s experience?
GK: At the end of the day, Ricky realizes, all right, if I'm going to be an ally, I've got to put up or shut up and so he acts. That's all I'll say without giving away what happens. Although I will add that there's a subtle thing at the end of the book where Ricky is asked a question by a Native American professor and he replies with something ridiculous and it shows that although we can move in the right direction in wanting to do better, it's not like one action floats someone to sainthood. You'll still make mistakes.
MA: Is there anything you want to talk about that people haven’t picked up on, or aren’t asking about?
GK: Maybe just that I hope I did the women justice. It's a very "masculine" story obviously and it's delving into that but I also wanted to make sure that all the women felt like they had their own agency and they weren't just one-dimensional characters for Ricky to bounce his ideas across. I hoped that people felt like they were all living their own lives whether Ricky was a part of them or not. That even if they made tough choices or "bad choices" in Ricky's perspective, readers understand that these women were doing what was best for them.
MA: I feel like an interview wouldn’t be complete without asking what you’re working on next and your advice for writers, so what are you working on next and do you have any advice for writers?
GK: I've got two novel ideas in the bank. My only advice for writers is to write the story you want to write. Look at the hyper specificity of things like Squid Game. It's so Korean and a lot of that Korean-ness goes over people's heads, but because we know the stresses of capitalism, because we've felt betrayed, lost, scared, backstabbed, etc. we connect to the story. And sure, it took the dude like a decade to make it and a lot of no's, but look at him now: he's beefing with LeBron James. So just write the story you want to write and there'll be an audience for it. Especially for those queer kids and people of color and other marginalized folks who've had the doors slammed in our faces for so long. Those doors are slowly but surely opening up. Have faith. Find your people. And don't close the door behind you.
