Angel Baby Reading Group Guide

RICHARD L ANGE

A Novel

L i t t L e , Brown and Company

new york Bos ton London

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RICHARD L ANGE

A Novel by

Reading Group Guide

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A conversation between RichardLange and George Pelecanos

Its a rare pleasure to be a fly on the wall during a conversation

between Richard Lange and George Pelecanos, two crime fic-

tion masters. Below is our transcript of their exchange, which

ranges widely and rivetingly across such subjects as empathy,

prisons, the writing process, and why vets make ideal detectives.

Richard Lange: First off, let me say that Im a huge fan of

your work from way back, and its a real honor to engage in

this kind of dialogue with one of my heroes. I especially want to

thank you for all you did to spread the word about Dead Boys,

my first book. I cant tell you how many people have told me

that they read it because you mentioned it somewhere or rec-

ommended it to them. Im forever in your debt for that.

Now, to the questions. Ive tried to keep them brief and per-

tinent but havent always succeeded.

The Double is the second book featuring Spero Lucas. Why

did you choose to start another series, and what are the major

differences between this one and your earlier series? Were you

looking to explore new kinds of stories and characters in this

one?

George Pelecanos: I never plan on a series. When I finished

writing The Cut I felt like there was more to explore with the

character of Spero Lucas, so I went after it. Some of the things

I only hinted at in the first book come to the forefront in The

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READING GRoup GuIDE 3

Double. Lucass war experience in the Middle East has impacted

him deeply, and the darker aspects of his psyche have bubbled

up to the surface. Its a harder, more violent, and more sexually

explicit book than The Cut. Also, I liked writing about a young,

physical guy who has a young mans appetites. Id been writing

about middle-aged guys for a while, and switching up helped

me cut loose. The Lucas books have a certain kind of drive and

energy.

Richard, you made a positive reputation early on with your

short-story collection, Dead Boys, which you know I enjoyed a

great deal. When I read chapter 6 of your new novel, Angel Baby,

I was struck by how complete and polished it was. Detailing the

prison life of Jernimo Cruz, it stands on its own. Is it accurate to

say that you craft each chapter in one of your novels with the care

and precision that you would in one of your short stories? And

which form of fiction do you prefer, as both a reader and a writer?

Lange: Maybe because I started as a short-story writer, the in-

dividual chapters of the novels sometimes have a self-contained

feel to them. Theyre almost slices of the characters lives. Its at

odds with the narrative demands of the plot, I suppose, but its

the way I tell my stories, through discrete scenes. Im a slow,

careful writer, even in first drafts, and I spend a lot of time chip-

ping away at things in order to get them to my liking. As you

know, what looks simplest is often most difficult to achieve.

As far as what I prefer, short stories or novels, as a reader, I

love both equally. When it comes to my own work, stories are

where I feel most comfortable, but Im learning to love the ex-

pansiveness of writing novelswhich is good, because you cant

make a living writing short stories.

Youve done a lot of TV work. How has that influenced your

fiction, if at all? Its a different kind of storytelling, isnt it?

A CONVERSATION BETWEEN RICHARD LANGE ANDGEORGE PELECANOS

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4 READING GRoup GuIDE

Pelecanos: Working with writers like David Simon, Richard

Price, Ed Burns, Eric Overmyer, Bill Zorzi, and many others

in TV has made me a better novelist. Just sitting around a table

with those guys and talking about the process was invaluable. It

was my graduate school. Screenwriting is a different kind of sto-

rytelling in terms of format. But its still about the characters and

voices.

Love the scene on page 165 of Angel Baby, where Thacker

shakes down a couple of young women in a Mustang con-

vertible. Thackers somewhat of a pig, and yet this reader felt

empathetic toward him to a degree. Its hard to describe anyone

as good or bad in your novel, which makes the characters

closer to human than type. You seem to take great, deliberate

care in shading your people, is that right?

Lange: Yeah, the black/white, good/evil thing doesnt work

for me in life, so Im not going to do it in my fiction. Im all

over the map inside my head, and I assume that everyone else

is, too, whether theyre aware of it or willing to admit it or not.

I try to create real people, and then put them through their

paces. Of course, theyre not real, theyre fictional beings, but I

want them to have all the ambiguity of real people. You may not

like them, but I hope you understand their motivations and the

forces that shaped them and cause them to do what they do. Im

trying to create empathy. We can use more empathy.

Spero Lucas and a lot of his friends and associates are veterans,

primarily of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Was there a reason

you chose to have so many characters be ex-military?

Pelecanos: I live near the old Walter Reed Army Medical

Center, and Ive had the opportunity to talk to some of the

returning soldiers and marines whove been wounded. At the


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same time I found that criminal defense attorneys and prose-

cutors often use veterans as private detectives to harvest infor-

mation before going to trial. Vets are suited for the work, and

the job closely replicates the experience theyve had overseas.

Meaning, in active duty, they wake up every day and are given a

mission. It was an organic way to tell my story. Everyone knows

whats going on with our veterans and how weve fallen woe-

fully short in our obligation to them. Fiction can take it right to

the heart.

Lange: I enjoy books set in real cities, and I feel like I could

use The Double and many of your other novels as road maps and

guides to certain sections of D.C. You obviously know the city

inside and out, but do you actually visit the locales you write

about in order to get them right? I only ask because I do a lot

of boots-on-the-ground research for my stuff. For example, part

of Angel Baby takes place in Compton, an area of L.A. Id never

actually been to, so I drove down and hung out for a couple of

days to get enough sensory details about the place to feel confi-

dent writing about it. Do you make similar field trips?

Pelecanos: Always. I do a lot of street research before I sit

down to write. I researched both Spero Lucas novels from the

seat of my 2001 Jeep Cherokee, the saddle of my road bike, and

the cockpit of my kayak. I enjoy that part of the process. I dont

start to see the book until I get out there.

On page 103 of Angel Baby, a description of a neighborhood

in Tijuana:

Its as bad as prisonworse, because out here they tell you

youre free. Dusty boys with no future kick scuffed soccer

balls, a widow in perpetual mourning sells tacos from a grill


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in front of her house, and gangsters congregate in the shad-

ows with caguamas of Tecate, dreaming of international hit

man stardom.

Thats great writing, man. How much of that sort of thing

comes from your imagination, and how much is straight obser-

vance and reporting?

Lange: Its a combination. In the case of TJ in Angel Baby, Ive

spent a lot of time there and in other cities and towns in Mex-

ico, so I have a feeling for the place and lots of sense memories

to draw on when writing about it. Of course, its not straight

reportage, because Im shading things to fit whatever story Im

writing. When it comes to writing about someplace like La

Mesa, the prison in Angel Baby, I do research online. Its a real

prison, so I was able to find videos and photos that gave me an

idea of what it looks like inside, what the prisoners wear, etc.

I used these details to ground me, and then I made up the rest

based on prison movies Ive seen and real prisons Ive visited in

the course of my travels. Im kind of a prison freak, actually.

Spero does a lot of biking and kayaking in The Double and The

Cut, so much that it wore me out just reading about it. Are these

activities you enjoy? If so, how do you ever find the time? Do

you stick to a pretty strict schedule in your daily life?

Pelecanos: As you know, you cant write all day long. I do a

long morning session at my desk, then get out in the afternoon

and do something physical to blow it out of my head and clean

house. Then I come home and rewrite at night. I write seven

days a week when Im working on a book. Its a strict schedule,

but thats how I get it done.

Can you tell the readers your road (and roadblocks) to getting


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published? I think its something that potential writers like to

hear, and all of our stories are different.

Lange: I got a scholarship to film school at USC and took

fiction-writing classes there with T. C. Boyle. I didnt go to grad

school because I was sick of being poor and wanted to get a real

job. I ended up in magazine publishing, and that was my career

for twenty years. During that time I wrote fiction as a hobby. I

wrote short stories exclusively, sent them out to journals, and got

rejected over and over and over. Each time they came back, Id

rework them and send them out again. Through this process, I

taught myself the grind of writing. My first story was published

when I was thirty-five years old. Over the course of the next

eight years I published a bunch more, all of which are collected

in Dead Boys. An agent contacted me. That led to a two-book

deal for the stories and the novel This Wicked World.

It was a long, lonely haul. I didnt do writers groups or re-

treats or classes. Im too shy for that kind of thing and wouldnt

have trusted the opinions of anybody else anyway. I knew what

good writing was, and I knew when I was doing it. I didnt sit

around waiting for inspiration. I wrote a little bit every day, good

or bad. Writing was and is as much a part of my life as eating

and sleeping, and its the only thing I let myself be proud about.

Pelecanos: One of the endorsement quotes on the back of

Angel Baby includes the line Lange stands out as the greatest

young crime writer of his generation, precisely because he

doesnt write crimehe writes literature. Are the two concepts

mutually exclusive?

Lange: Those are just marketing terms to me. Im writing ex-

actly what I want to write, and they can call it whatever they


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want in order to sell it. People have said Im too literary for

the crime crowd and too crime-y for the literary crowd. Every-

bodys taste is different, and Im not going to chase an audience.

I like what I write, and thats all that matters. Ill probably have

a short, shitty career because of that attitude, but itll damn sure

be fun while it lasts.

This conversation first appeared on mulhollandbooks.com on July 15. 2013.Used with permission.


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Questions and topics fordiscussion

1. What was your initial impression of Luz? Did your opinion

change over the course of the novel? Did you feel her

choicesespecially leaving her daughter behind and return-

ing to Tijuanawere justifiable at the time? Why or why

not?

2. Based on the descriptions in the novel, do you think the

methods of the U.S. Border Patrol are effective? Is their mis-

sion worthwhile, or is it pointless to try to hold back the

ocean (16)? Why do people take such enormous risks to try

to cross the border illegally?

3. How did Luzs relationship with her mother influence the

direction her life took? Is there any love left between them?

How might their history influence Luzs plans for raising

Isabel?

4. Luzs mother told her, Assume that everyone you meet is

a liar, a cheat, a rapist, and a murderer. . . .And if anyone

claims not to be, trust him even less than those who have

their crimes tattooed across their foreheads (30). Given the

events in the book, was this good advice? Why or why not?

5. What do you think of Malones way of life when he first

meets Luz? Do the events in his past make it more un-

derstandable? Did his actions over the course of the novel

change your feelings about him? If so, how?

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6. What are the rules of honor in Rolandos world? Is it strange

that he respects a man like Jernimo, who defies him (64),

but has contempt for the cops who cooperate with him (46)?

Does Rolando himself abide by this code?

7. Is Luzs beauty an asset or a liability? How does it influence

the way others respond to her? How might her story have

been different if she hadnt been so beautiful?

8. Why does Rolando consider Luz his greatest enemy (52)?

Can a betrayal turn love to hate so quickly? Why or why not?

9. Do you believe Jernimo when he tells Irma, Theres some-

thing good in me (63)? Do you think he can really walk away

from being another mans monster after so many years (219)?

What about the other flawed characters in the book? Is there

good in each of them, or are some beyond redemption?

10. Why was Thacker so transfixed by Brother Clyde Waters

(16770)? Why does he ultimately become disillusioned?

What does this story reveal about his character?

11. How does the L.A. depicted in this novel differ from Luzs

fantasy of the city that had been shaped by MTV and gossip

magazines (187)? How does each of the main characters

paths differ from the life they envisioned for themselves?

12. Throughout the book, characters make difficult decisions.

What do you think of Jernimos choice to go through with

Rolandos mission (85), or Carmens choice when Jernimo

and Thacker come to her house (191)? Are these real choices

at all, or are the characters paths already determined at these

moments?

13. How did you feel about Carmens reaction to Luzs return

(2013)?DoesLuzdeserve theharshwordsCarmenhas for her?

14. What do you think the future holds for Luz? What does it

hold for Jernimo? Do they and the other characters in the

book get what they deserve?

QUESTIONS AND TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION

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