Holly Kennedy is the author of the new novel The Sideways Life of Denny Voss. Her other books include the novel The Silver Compass. She lives in Alberta, Canada.
Q: What inspired you to write The Sideways Life of Denny Voss, and how did you create your character Denny?
A: I wrote the first 30 pages at a writer’s retreat in 2010 and immediately fell in love with Denny. He was stubborn and funny, and he had an undefinable charm. I couldn’t stop thinking about him; I even dreamed about him.
I understood that he was mentally challenged, that he’d been arrested for murder, and that this novel was somehow meant to be his coming-of-age tale, but beyond that I knew nothing else about his story. It didn’t matter, though, because I also innately knew I didn’t have the chops to write it. Not then, anyhow.
I was intimidated by Denny. He wasn’t a cardboard character, and I knew I’d have to nail the authenticity of his voice before I could even begin to tackle his story. He had to feel believable on the page. He had to feel real.
Could I do that, though? Could I write an entire novel from a mentally challenged man’s point of view? I worried that I’d get it wrong, but Denny wouldn’t leave me alone.
I thought about him all the time, and eventually I convinced myself that if author Mark Haddon could write The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time narrated by a boy with all the characteristics of someone with Asperger’s syndrome—he’d worked with kids on the autism spectrum but wasn’t autistic himself—then I could be Denny on the page.
The development of his voice was influenced by a few factors. One of my relatives is cognitively challenged, and many of her traits became Denny’s (her purity and innocence, her trusting outlook on life, how she’s sometimes unaware of the seriousness of situations and can’t always properly communicate using her own words, so instead she mimics other people’s responses).
It bothers me that society often perceives those with mental disabilities as people who need constant support, as resource-draining members of society who have little to contribute and don’t have the ability to influence or enrich other people’s lives. I wanted Denny, as the protagonist of this novel, to challenge those stereotypes.
There’s a stigma that surrounds both diversity and mental health, even though many of us are broken in some way; for example, one in four adults suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder, me included.
I don’t talk about it publicly because I’m intensely private, but I suffer from severe anxiety. There are days where I need hours of preparatory mental time just to do one Zoom call. I also have ADHD, and I struggle with depression.
Like Denny, sometimes my mind jumps all over the place, or else I’ll get fixated on something and my mind will start to loop, covering the same ground over and over again.
Also like Denny, I grew up poor in a small town, and had (still have) a mom like Nana-Jo in The Sideways Life of Denny Voss who cleaned houses for 25+ years and always put her kid’s needs first.
So…in one way or another, the development of Denny’s voice, and his personality, was influenced by all these factors, though as I came to know him better, I did want him to have an almost untouchable quality too.
I didn’t want his story to be dark and depressing. I wanted readers to get the feeling that he was going to be okay, no matter what. It was important to me that I portray him sympathetically—as different rather than handicapped. I didn’t want to stigmatize him with a label. Denny is a sensitive, lovable man with diminished mental capacity, full stop.
Beyond that, I wanted his character to touch people and make them feel (and, perhaps, act) differently when dealing with someone like him. I hoped that getting to know him would encourage people to look at the world from a different perspective. I also hoped Denny’s story would spark conversation.
Q: How did you research the book, and did you learn anything that especially surprised you?
A: This may sound surprising, but I didn’t do any research for the book. Many of the stories within it, or versions of them, came from my own life. Beyond that, once I mastered Denny’s voice, I tried to let him take me wherever he wanted to go with the story.
As for learning something that especially surprised me, I got very attached to all the characters in a way that I never have before – not just Denny, but Angus, Nana-Jo, Lydia, Elaine, Nori, and Theo as well. I was very sad when I had to say goodbye to them.
Q: The writer Jacquelyn Mitchard said of the book, “Kennedy’s Denny is not idealized. Instead, he is fully revealed, with a clarity not seen in the pages of a novel since Carson McCullers wrote The Heart is a Lonely Hunter.” What do you think of that description?
A: That really moved me, and I greatly appreciate that Ms. Mitchard took the time to both read the book and offer such a wonderful endorsement! She reached out again recently to let me know how much she loved the novel.
Q: What do you hope readers take away from the novel?
A: In many ways, The Sideways Life of Denny Voss is about community, about the families we inherit and those we create. At its heart, though, it’s about individual limitations and human potential, and I hoped Denny’s story would remind readers that we should all accept and appreciate the people we meet on a day-to-day basis, without judgment.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I have started writing a new novel, and, like The Sideways Life of Denny Voss, it too will be a standalone story, told in first person from a woman’s point of view. And, also like Denny’s story, it will combine elements of different genres, like coming-of-age, mystery, family drama, and romance.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: There will absolutely be a dog in my new novel (not sure what kind yet) because…well, every good story should have a dog in it, right?
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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