The Ruinous Sweep
Written by Tim Wynne-Jones
Candlewick Press
978-0-7637-9745-7
400 pp.
Ages 14+
June 2018
Yesterday, I reviewed
Tim Wynne-Jones's latest young adult thriller,
The Ruinous Sweep. Today, as part of a blog tour, I have the pleasure of posting a Q & A with the author about his book.
(Be sure to read to the end for details about a special giveaway.)
HK: Much of The Ruinous Sweep reflects Dante’s Divine Comedy, from the title to Bee who mirrors Beatrice, keeper of divine knowledge, to the deadly sins including lust, anger and treachery, and the Inferno beasts of a lion and a leopard. Was the initial premise for The Ruinous Sweep always based on Divine Comedy or was it secondary to the scary incident you mention in your Acknowledgements?
TWJ: Wow! Somebody knows their Dante. The answer to your question is the latter of the two proposed. I didn’t think about Dante at all until I was a couple of chapters in. Suddenly, it occurred to me that the mysterious, moon-wet landscape Donovan found himself lost within, dazed and confused, was reminiscent of a very famous 14th Century epic poem. So, I started reading that classic again to see what my protagonist was likely to run into. For a brief moment I thought he’d follow Dante’s entire journey, but pretty soon it became obvious that twenty-first century Donovan had his own demons to vanquish and the two wanderers parted company. But it sure gave me a lift in the early going to fall back on that amazing story. Fiction, even when it seems unique and entirely new, usually builds, in one way or another, on what has gone before. There’s nothing new under the sun. Or under the moon, for that matter.
HK: Do you believe readers need to have a background understanding of Divine Comedy to appreciate the fullness of the story of The Ruinous Sweep or do you hope The Ruinous Sweep will lead them to check out Dante’s epic work?
TWJ: Not at all. I think everybody knows a little something about that random, transitional world between worlds, where nothing quite makes sense but there is this pervasive, suspenseful feeling that at any moment anything might happen and everything will change for the better or worse! We’ve all experienced it, if only in our dreams.
HK: For much of the book, the story is told in two voices: that of Donovan who is confused about what has happened and what is happening, and his girlfriend Bee as she deals with the aftermath of a horrifying night. Usually when told in the voices of boyfriend and girlfriend, their perspectives come together in the end but not in The Ruinous Sweep. Instead their perspectives become untangled when the mystery is solved. Why did you keep the two separate for much of the book rather than blend them into a strong couple working together, even if separated by circumstances? (I don’t want to spoil the ending by giving away too much.)
TWJ: In the first draft, I wrote all of Donovan’s story first. It’s weird, because while I was locked into his story I couldn’t really see or imagine Bee. I only knew he was desperate to reach her and that, one way or another, she would be there for him. Then one of my sons sent me a video of the composer Ludovico Einaudi playing I Giorni (The Days) with the violinist Daniel Hope in a club in Stockholm. And there she was, Beatrice, all in shadows, just over the pianist’s shoulder. (See the video here at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54LgLNpW3KE) She looks kind of distracted as if she’s only half there or the sad and beautiful music is reminding her of something or someone. A journey all her own.
HK: While many assume that the adage of actions having consequences usually refers to negative actions, like getting angry or dealing in criminal activity, some positive actions, like trying to not hurt someone’s feelings or to protect someone from potential harm, can also have dire consequences. Is this something you believe needs to be recognized or was it merely an unintentional message in The Ruinous Sweep?
TWJ: This is such a great question. What I love about writing is that, for me, it’s always a learning experience. I never set out to write a book I know the ending of; I never write a book with an agenda; I set out to discover what effect will result from this or that cause. For example, Hamlet’s father’s ghost tells his son who murdered him. Go. It worked pretty well for Shakespeare. Once I start that ball rolling, all sorts of issues come up but I can only understand them in the context of my characters and what they are going through. Their motivation rules. I don’t want to put words in their mouths. Of course I do, but I try really, really hard not to make them mules for some message I might have to pass along. I set them loose in trying times and watch and learn. Sometimes I just have to shake my head at what they get up to, but then I turn the jets up higher, increase the stakes, and put them in even worse jeopardy. That’s how I come to learn what the story is really about. I often don’t know the theme of one of my novels until I read the reviews. Which might explain why I got such lousy marks in high school English.
HK: There is a character in The Ruinous Sweep who has a unique ability to communicate with those at death’s door. Do you believe in mediums and have you ever had a reading from one?
TWJ: I’m not sure what I think. I guess I’d have to waffle and say I definitely don’t not believe in mediums. Dante was led on his journey through Hell by the ancient Roman poet, Virgil. Donovan Turner gets himself a crusty farmer lady with a heart of gold named Jilly. There are just some trips you can’t make alone.
HK: One thing I appreciate in your writing, whether middle grade or young adult, is that you give young readers much credibility. You “talk up” to them, recognizing that their stories do not need to be simple for them to be understand. How do you find the right balance of writing for youth without writing down to them?
TWJ: When I was a teenager I read adult books; there really wasn’t a genre that was labelled “young adult.” But in any case, I’ve always thought that if you’re reading a book that pulls you in, featuring characters you really care about, caught up in truly intriguing situations, you’ll figure out whatever you need to figure out in order to go along for the ride. I remember smiling when the Harry Potter books came out. There were all these experts who said adolescents couldn’t possibly read books that were that long. Hah! Rowling proved the “experts” wrong. Kids who were so young they could barely even pick up The Order of the Phoenix read it in a weekend and remembered every significant detail. Honestly, I think young readers are often way better readers than adults, if they’re sufficiently engaged by the story. For one thing, their brains aren’t full of mortgages and back problems. I always tell my writing students not to ever underestimate a young reader. No spoon-feeding. No needless explaining. No sugar coating. Don’t dumb down the language. Feed a kid a delicious new word and let them figure out what it means from the context in which it’s used. All of us, adults and kids alike, skip over what we don’t quite grasp but if the journey is exciting enough, it doesn’t slow us down.
HK: If there was one message which you’d like readers to take away from The Ruinous Sweep, what would it be?
TWJ: It may already be apparent that I don’t write messages into my books. But I know I learn things from writing them and I hope my reader learns stuff, too, although it might not be exactly what I learned. This journey began for me with a traumatic experience I needed to come to terms with. A violent experience that left me stunned and confused. As Sting says, “Nothing comes from violence and nothing ever could.” And I guess that song says at least one of the things I’d like my readers to understand: we must never forget how fragile we are.
• • • • • • • • •
Many thanks
to author Tim Wynne-Jones
for responding to some probing questions with his honest answers
and
to book publicist Winston Stilwell
for arranging this Q & A.
• • • • • • • • •
BUT WAIT!
WANT TO WIN AN AUDIO BOOK of THE RUINOUS SWEEP?
As part of the The Ruinous Sweep blog tour,
Tim Wynne-Jones and his publicity team
are offering an audio book of The Ruinous Sweep,
read by the author himself.
Residents of Canada and the U.S.
who would like to enter to win the audio book
just need to leave a comment below
(before noon (EST) on July 3, 2018)
explaining why you'd like to listen to the audio book
of The Ruinous Sweep.
We'll do a random draw (using a random number generator)
and notify the winner via reply to their comment.
We look forward to reading your comments below.
