It was the novels going 20 years back that put him on the map –“The Wishbones,” “Election,” “Joe College,” “Little Children,” “The Abstinence Teacher” and “The Leftovers.” However, you might know him for what a handful of his books became, the crossover where a writer consistently hits a cultural nerve, so much so that Hollywood comes calling time and again.
Tom Perrotta is the rare writer adored in literary circles for his craft, and simultaneously loved by the critical and commercial masses for his ability to cut through the cultural ether to hit on the societal tensions of the moment.
Perrotta won an Oscar for co-writing the screenplay adaptation of “Little Children.” “The Leftovers” was adapted into a critically-acclaimed TV series for HBO, Perrotta receiving writer and creator credits. And his early work, “Election,” not only became a landmark comedy directed by Alexander Payne, but his character of Tracy Flick, portrayed by Reese Witherspoon, has come to define what it means to be an overachieving high school student.
Perrotta will be in Durango Friday as the featured author for the Durango Public Library’s 2015 Literary Festival, with an opening reception from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. and a presentation and book signing from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Both events are free.
While making a splash in film and TV, Perrotta is at heart a novelist, or better yet, a storyteller. However, Perrotta acknowledges the limitations of the novel as a vehicle for his work. Through TV and film, his work reaches a wider audience and is part of a broader conversation.
“Just in sheer numbers, novels don’t reach that many people. But I think the people they do reach are often really passionate,” he said. “To take that kind of time out of your life and to be that active, you have to make a more active commitment to read a book than you do to turn on the TV. It’s a smaller audience but a more passionate one.”
His foray into film and television – a dream for many novelists – has offered a learning curve for Perrotta. Television writing is collaborative in nature, he said, and he’s learned to check his ego throughout the process of working on “The Leftovers.”
“How I always put it for myself is to be a member of a band, rather than be a solo artist,” he said. “I’ve been able to learn from those people and not to feel like my way is the only way. Part of the reason you collaborate is so that the people that you work with bring you to some place you couldn’t get to on your own.”
While his work has seen broad critical and commercial success, and in collaborating with such heavyweights as Payne or Todd Field (“Little Children” director) and now Damon Lindelof (“The Leftovers” writer and co-creator), Perrotta doesn’t see himself or his writing much different. Yes, he’s travelling half the time to L.A. for his TV writing gig and has found himself in situations he couldn’t have imagined as a young novelist. Ultimately, it’s the only life he knows, famous or not.
“That’s the lesson for me: Your life always feels like your life,” he said. “Every now and then I’ll have those moments of, “Wow, I can’t believe I’m here,” but that feeling never lasts. It’s not a constant feeling.”
Out of the spotlight, off the red carpet, Perrotta will undoubtedly find himself back at the keyboard alone, working on a new writing project, spending vast amounts of time in his own head space, occupying that lonesome, solitary world of creating stories. And in those moments, how the world will receive his work becomes almost irrelevant. The questions and concerns are the same ones he asked himself decades earlier as an unknown and unpublished writer, simple questions like, “How do I make this scene work?”
“(The question is) always, ‘How can I write a decent book?’ Until pretty far into the process, I’m not sure it’s going to be a decent book or what kind of book it’s going to be,” Perrotta said. “I can’t even imagine how it’s going to be received by other people.”
dholub@durangoherald.com. David Holub is the Arts & Entertainment editor for The Durango Herald
If you go
Durango Public Library’s 2015 Literary Festival features novelist and screenwriter Tom Perrotta with an opening reception from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. and a presentation and book signing from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Friday at the library. Both events are free.
