Menomonee Falls native Mike Magnuson is one of our best authors. His two novels, "The Right Man for the Job" and "The Fire Gospels," are smart, funny, well-written Midwestern gothics and his latest, "Lummox: The Evolution of a Man," published by Harper Collins earlier this month, uses Magnuson's own life as a foundation.
We recently caught up with Mags and asked him about "Lummox," the Falls, drumming, the Packers and more.
OMC: Okay, we've read the disclaimer at the back of the book, but we've also seen in the small print at the front that "Lummox" is "fiction." How much should we believe?
MM: You know what? I hadn't noticed that small print till you pointed it out. Fiction? That's news to me. I mean, when I wrote "Lummox" I didn't intend it to be fiction, but obviously some of the stuff in the book is bull, which is to say I have fabricated material here and there in order to provide my readers with a more entertaining reading experience and a more enlightening one, too.
"Lummox" is a dramatized version of real events. It's a work of literature based on real events. This means I constructed the book -- the prose style, the dialogue, the arrangement of details, the story line, and so on -- so that the sum of its parts would obtain metaphoric value. You see what I'm saying?
I want the form of the book to supersede its absolute fidelity to the facts, and this is because I believe form creates metaphor and that metaphor is ultimately more valuable, and occasionally more truthful, than an exact rendering of who said precisely what and when. In any case, if there are factual infelicities in "Lummox," they exist because I've forgotten the real facts or never knew them in the first place. Besides, whatever the real facts are, I'll guarantee you that they're very, very close in substance to what I have presented in the book.
OMC: A lot appears to be made about your experiences with feminists, as detailed in the book. But, to me, this doesn't seem like a major theme of the book. Why do you think people are focusing on that aspect?
MM: The feminist stuff is probably coming from me, to tell the truth. I, Mike Magnuson, believe that "Lummox" is a feminist work. For real. If anything, "Lummox" should prove to feminists that they've been correct about men all along, which information they might find useful in some way.
OMC: Seems to me that you've got more of a beef with "intellectuals" of all stripes, regardless of gender. Specifically, learned people who are intolerant and unbending in their vision of what "acceptable" people look and act like and what other smart people are like. Did I read it all wrong?
MM: I don't have one problem with smart people. Smart is good. Thinking you're smarter than other people, on the other hand, or thinking that because you are an intellectual you're somehow living on a transcendent plane, well, that's a load of crap. Humanity needs intellectuals; that's true. But intellectuals also need to have humanity, which means that, on some level, they need to recognize that being an intellectual is the same as being anything else. It's a job. It's a profession. It's not cause to think you're special.
OMC: When the book ends, you've met what we presume turns out to be the love of your life. But we know you didn't stay in Eau Claire forever. Can you give us a synopsis of what happened between then and now or are you saving it for "Lummox 2: The Return of the Turd Car"?
MM: How's this for a synopsis? She wasn't the love of my life. I wasn't the love of her life. She went on to marry somebody else, and I did, too. Somewhere in there I got my sh*t together and went to graduate school in creative writing, and I was a 4.0 graduate student, and I published a couple of books, and every day for the last several years has been absolutely perfect. (pauses, lights a cigarette) I may be skipping an item or two.
OMC: What do your parents think of the book? Are they proud of their lil' "Lummox"?
MM: My guess is you're asking me this because you're thinking my folks are horrified by the subject matter in my books, but look: My parents are very cool people, very supportive of the work I do. They understand that I'm an artist and that my duty as an artist is to go places with my work that might make people uncomfortable.
Moreover, my folks are people who understand books, who understand literature, and if you're someone like that, someone who reads a lot and is open to a wide range human expression, you're just not going to be uptight. So sure, my parents are totally cool about it, or at least they're cool with my books as books with literary merit. Some of the source material for my work, however, I'm sure they could live without. I could live without it, too, but it's too late.
OMC: Speaking of your parents, you grew up in Menomonee Falls and we hear that after years of talking about returning to Brew City, you did move back briefly. Why are you gone again?
MM: I'm a creative writing teacher. That's my calling. I don't think of myself as a writer, not really. I think of myself as somebody involved in a community of writing, and the way for me best to effect good in that community is to teach, to find people who want to write and then help them learn how to write to the fullest of their ability. I mean that. It's a very satisfying, honorable profession.
But if you want to be a creative writing teacher, and if you want someone to pay you a decent wage for it, you can't be choosy about where you want to live. You have to move to wherever someone will give you a job. At any rate, when I moved back to the Falls a couple of years ago, I didn't have a teaching job. I basically just sat in my basement all day and wrote, and if I surfaced it was to do stuff like pick up my daughter from daycare or go to the grocery store.
It was a fairly sad and lonely life for me. I didn't have anywhere to go, I guess, or any loony writer-type people to hand around with, and I got very bummed out. I obviously had no desire to stay bummed out, so I applied for a bunch of teaching jobs and ended up getting one at Southern Illinois University. It's a great job, too, but the price I'll pay for it is that I'll probably live the rest of my life in exile from Wisconsin.
OMC: Fans of "American Movie" got a pretty accurate look at Menomonee Falls...true or false? Did you like the film?
MM: Funny thing. I went to my 20th reunion last summer, and I never once heard anybody mention "American Movie." I even asked people about it, and they were, like, shrugging and stuff and wanting to talk about something else. They never heard of it, I guess, or they didn't want to say they had. That's the Falls for you.
That's "American Movie" for you, too. It's a great piece of work. A fairly accurate depiction of the Falls, I think, or at least what the Falls is like on its surface. Me, I don't think the Falls is a joke or a cartoon or something that should exist for people's amusement, which is how the Falls is presented in "American Movie." A lot of terrific people have come from Menomonee Falls, and a lot of terrific people live there now. But you can't really make a cool movie about a lot of terrific people, can you?
OMC: Have you heard about the Blue Shirt at the airport in Milwaukee or seen the new addition to the Milwaukee Art Museum? What's the official "Lummox" stance on these projects, which seem to be universally approved by the local smart and cultured folks?
MM: I'm all about the Art Museum. When I was in high school, we used to drive down there all the time because they had the original painting that's on the cover of Zeppelin IV. Talk about kickass! So there you go: The official "Lummox" stance on all the arts is that they're great. Participate in the arts in any way you can. I mean, the arts aren't everything, and you don't have to be a snob just because you dig the arts, but if you live without them, you're just not living.
OMC: Ah, Carbondale. Awfully close to St. Louis, isn't it? What's the beer situation like down there?
MM: Yep. I'm living in Budweiser country. I will say, though, that there are worse beers in the world than Budweiser. Matter of fact, I enjoy Budweiser a great deal. Think about it: People in St. Louis eat Wisconsin cheese. What's wrong with Cheeseheads drinking Budweiser?
OMC: Is it difficult being a Packers fan in southern Illinois? Did you get any grief before or after the recent Packers-Rams battle?
MM: The Rams fans are rent-a-fans, as far as I'm concerned. I give them no credence whatsoever. Ha! For real, though, the Rams are the TV team in southern Illinois, but nobody around here really cares about the Rams, not like Cheeseheads love the Packers. But yeah, I watch the regular-season Packer games at a sports bar and catch my share of crap there, but that's only because I get a little over-boisterous during the Packer games, if you dig what I'm saying.
OMC: When you come to Milwaukee for your reading, where can folks expect to find you before and after the event? Mader's? Kopp's? Art Altenburg's? Holler House? Downtown Menomonee Falls? Sleeping in a grammar school?
MM: I'm, like, totally open to suggestions. How's that sound? The grammar-school thing, that's definitely out, but if you want to talk about grammar, as in English grammar, have a seat. I'll blab with you all night.
OMC: Words of wisdom for any up and coming Milwaukee-area Lummoxes?
MM: Tell you what: Real Lummoxes never listen to advice. So there's nothing to tell them. If you're not a Lummox, though, and you know one, be nice to him. Let him know you think he's okay. He'll listen to that.
OMC: We hear a lot about your musical life in "Lummox." Can you still play the Bach fugues or make your way around a drum kit?
MM: Give me some sticks, man. I'm ready.
Read more about Lummox on Mags' Web site, www.lummox.org, which also has another interview.
Mike Magnuson returns to his home turf Thurs., Feb. 28 for a 7 p.m. reading at Harry W. Schwartz Bookshop, 2559 N. Downer Ave. Admission is free. Call (414) 332-1181 for more information.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
