Your “The Time Has Come” FAQ
My novel is out May 16. Here’s what you need to know.
Buy my novel The Time Has Come right here.
I am such a sucker for the Frequently Asked Questions article format that Daniel, the main character of my book How Lucky, early on in the book stops the narrative dead in its tracks, grants the reader temporary sentience and busts into an FAQ about his disability. I find the format not just entertaining to read, but a perfect conduit to providing reliable information in a fun way — flexible enough to wander afield when desired and sturdy enough to provide a reliable foundation when it’s time to return.
One of my favorite moments in a book ever is when, in Dave Eggers’ A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, he begins a chapter with what seems to be a question-and-answer session with a producer of the ’90s reality show “The Real World” that slowly dissolves into howls of grief and pain as he confronts his memory of seeing his mother in the casket at her funeral and you realize that this is not in fact an interview at all. I remember interviewing Michael Schur for New York right before “Parks and Recreation” came out and asking him why he was sticking with the “mockumentary” format he had used for “The Office.” “It’s just familiar and banal enough that you can play with it however you want it and it will always…