Remembering Ken Bruen

Two interviews from 2007 with the late crime fiction master

I was lucky enough to speak with crime writer Ken Bruen several times over the years, though it has been a long while since I have done so. Bruen, who died last week, was always generous with his time, willing to help someone out with a project or to have a chat about his work.

I lost my old blog, Things I’d Rather Be Doing, in a web-hosting snafu, but have been able to salvage quite a bit of the content thanks to the Wayback Machine. It is thanks to that tool that I am able to offer these two interviews from 2007. Both were part of my “Monday Interview” series that, you guessed it, featured an interview each Monday. I didn’t usually bring someone back so soon, but Bruen was so prolific that there was plenty to talk about just a few months after the last interview.

Presented here as they appeared in 2007, are interviews from Jan. 28 and Aug. 13. The second is for paid subscribers only. Enjoy.

Jan. 28, 2007

Monday Interview: Ken Bruen

I’ve fallen for the work of few crime novelists as quickly and completely as I have that of Irish author Ken Bruen. From a first dip into his work in late 2004 with The White Trilogy that gathered the first three books about his character Brant, through to the point of being pretty well caught up with all of his U.S.-released work to date, I have blazed through 16 novels without finding one clunker in the bunch.

You’ve likely read reviews that talk about the economical prose or lean narrative structure of a given work. If Bruen’s name wasn’t on the spine of the book being written up, then you’ve come no closer than reading about the work of the second place finisher in either category. For in Bruen’s work, there truly is never a word wasted. The words he does choose, however, crackle with energy and danger; you can’t help but speed through these stories as you race to learn how they resolve. And still, you want to immediately begin again so you can savor each turn of phrase.

The books that follow the travails of Taylor, a former member of the Guards in Ireland, have earned Bruen his best notices (and one assume sales). They’re darker than the Brant novels, which offer a bit of comic relief in the form of his protagonist's disregard for authority, and both are highly recommended. He also has penned several recent stand-alone novels, and his earliest work has also been gathered in the Busted Flush Press omnibus A Fifth of Bruen. Add to that his Hard Case Crime novel, Bust, written with Jason Starr (soon to be joined by a second, Slide), several short stories and more, and it’s clear that there can never be too much of a good thing.

Bruen’s story is novel-worthy in its own right; I’ll not recount it here, but can point you here to learn more about the hot furnace in which this writer and his work were forged. Suffice to say that he knows of what he speaks when it comes to the old ultra-violence.

You can’t swing a stick around the world of crime fiction blogs without reading an interview with Bruen, such is his gentlemanly acquiescence to the continued demand from fans of his time. I asked for a bit more of it, hoping that I at least could ask something new. He was kind enough to respond.

TIRBD: Your fiction is so immediate that it has the feel of something written quickly. It doesn’t feel as if you labor; you get in and get out. Is that at all reflective of the actual process?

KB: Exactly, like Keats said, if it doesn’t come as natural as the birds to the trees, bin it... ’course editors hate me.

Epigrams and the occasional Gaelic help you to communicate certain ideas and concepts. What does each do for you in terms of advancing the story? Does your growing U.S. audience have an impact on your use of either?

I'm delighted to be able to use me native tongue more and more, and epigrams help me pass on the word on writers who I think should be widely read.

How is your work different now than it might have been if you had started writing books as a younger man rather than living the life you’ve led?

They'd be literary, i/e........shite.

You’ve said rage fuels your work. Is it hard, given your success, to continue to find ways to tap into that?

Are you serious? A few weeks back, at a launch I reluctantly agreed to do, a guy walked up and hit me with a bat, broke me jaw, rage that!

Has its source changed, perhaps from something more personal to things that are more societal?

Both, they feed off each other. My daughter who has down syndrome came home from school and asked me what a retard was?.........as they called her that at school..........rage? And that leads me to the way our society treats people who are different.

How do you decide what to write in terms of whether it's a Brant, a Taylor or another work? Do you start with one in mind, or do you start with the situation and then figure out who best to deal with it?

I write Brant to chill me out and Taylor to torment meself… Brant is pure fun, Taylor is me disgust with our new rich Ireland.

You’ve mentioned that American Skin starts a new series, though it had the feel of a stand-alone. Is there more to come, and where will it head?

No, it's done. There is nothing more to add to that.

Is your writing in the collaborations with Jason Starr on the Hard Case Crime books different, and if so, how?

Yes, ’cos it's a pure joy, just wondrous fun............ we have a total blast with them

Have you written non-fiction about music, or ever plan to do so?

Yes, I've written a whole range of non fiction, especially music, and I'd do more if I'd the time.