Five Qs for Peter Golenbock

July 19, 2010

Apropos of my recent review of 7: The Mickey Mantle Novel, author Peter Golenbock was kind enough to answer a few questions –on his birthday, no less — about the controversial project.
* * *
Bookshelf: After all those non-fiction projects, what was it that prompted to to venture into a different genre?

PG: I had heard all these stories from Mickey, Billy [Martin], and others, but often they were told in shorthand.  And after Mickey and Billy died, there was no way for me to get any more information. I couldn’t write this book as non-fiction because I didn’t have enough information.  So I categorized it as fiction.

Bookshelf: Did you find writing a novel easier or more difficult? Is it easier for you to do the research for a non-fiction title or create from scratch, although 7 was “based on” actual events?

PG: Fiction is different from non-fiction.  In non-fiction you have to do research and interviews.  In fiction you can make up anything you wish, but you have to be inventive and interesting.  This book really was a cross between the two. I knew Mickey very well, and my goal was to tell a story that allowed the reader to get to know the real Mickey Mantle.  I still contend this book is the closest thing to who he really was than anything that has been written about him.  If Mickey had read this book, he certainly would have agreed.

Bookshelf: What was your reasoning for including so much sex in the book?

PG: I included a lot of sex, because it was the driving force in Mickey’s life.  Few men had as much sex as Mickey in their lifetime.

Bookshelf: Were you surprised by the amount of negative responses 7 received?

PG: I wasn’t surprised….  It just saddened me that they killed the sales of the book.  A lot of people who would have enjoyed reading this book didn’t.

Bookshelf: Do you have plans for another novel, or having had the experience, once was enough?

PG: I don’t fancy myself as a novelist, but there are certain larger than life characters in sports whose life story would be best told in novel form, so I’m not ruling out doing another one.

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