and now to our weekend
spotlight.
This week, I spoke to crime
novelist and activist don
Winslow about why his new series
of books will be his last, and
what's in store for his next
chapter.
Novelist don Winslow has
authored more than 20 acclaimed
international bestsellers,
including "The border,"
"Savages" and "The cartel."
His latest is "City on fire,"
the first in a trilogy.
It's a gritty gangster saga
inspired by the mobsters of his
Rhode Island home town and,
Winslow says, by Homer's
"Iliad."
We spoke this past week as he
was traveling on his book tour,
about why this latest novel is
his last as Winslow shifts his
focus from writing to activism.
So, don, your new book is this
iliad saga telling the story of
these warring crime families in
1980's Providence, Rhode Island.
Where did this idea come from to
combine crime and the classics?
Don: Well, it's been 27 years
ago I was reading the iliad, as
one does.
And the precipitating story, the
Helen of Troy story, reminded me
so much of a real-life incident
that had taken place in new
England, in the crime world,
when I was when I was a kid,
that it struck me, the parallel
struck me.
And I thought, I wonder if I
could do that, if I could make a
fully modern crime novel that
would stand on its own as a
contemporary crime novel, but
also echo those stories and
themes from the classics.
Geoff: The protagonist, I guess
the Trojan hero of this story is
Danny Ryan.
He's part of this Irish crime
family in Providence.
I read where you've said that
he's not based on you, but that
he's somebody who you know well.
Give us a sense of who he is and
this world that he comes from.
Don: Yeah.
Danny, you know, is a is an
Irish American guy.
He was a longshoreman.
He was a fisherman living down
in a little town where I grew up
in.
And he marries the daughter of
the Irish mob boss.
And so he enters the family that
way.
And because of that, because of
his loyalty to his wife and to
his family and his friends, he
gets dragged into this war.
Geoff: One of the most
interesting things about you is
that you've lived so many lives.
You were a private investigator
years before you started
writing.
Before that, you were a safari
guide in Kenya.
You had a job in a panda reserve
in China.
You directed Shakespeare plays
in oxford.
First of all, how did you do all
that?
But then how did you really sort
of navigate the transitions from
one life to the next?
Don: Yeah, you know, I've always
wanted to be a writer since I
was a kid, but nobody stamps
your papers to do that, right?
The transition, you know, I was
in my thirties and I thought I'd
better get serious about
writing.
I've been talking about doing it
for a while, but talking isn't
doing it, is it?
And one morning, in fact, in
Kenya, around a campfire before
dawn, I just decided I better
really seriously start doing
this.
So I decided to write five pages
a day, no matter what, no matter
where I was -- on safari, if it
was in China, you know, England,
wherever it happened to be, I'd
write those five pages.
Three years later, I had a book
or I thought I had a book.
Most publishers in the industry
did not agree.
Geoff: Fast forward to the
current moment.
You're one of the most
celebrated crime novelists in
the country, and yet you're
retiring from writing to focus
more on politics and your
advocacy work.
Why?
Don: I think it's time for me to
get off this stage.
But more importantly, I think
we're in an existential crisis
for democracy around the world.
But but, you know, particularly
here at home.
I started feeling that way and
not coincidentally, around 2016
.
I don't think we're out of the
woods by any stretch of the
imagination.
I think this is going to be a
fight.
It's a fight we have to win.
And I wanted to devote more time
and energy to that fight.
Geoff: That fight has included
dropping slickly-produced
digital videos on his social
media feeds critical of Donald
Trump and warning about the
dangers to democracy.
Videos which Winslow says have
been viewed online more than 250
million times.
At the same time, he also warns
that, as he sees it, the January
6 committee will not produce
anything relevant to aid in
holding trump accountable for
the insurrection and trying to
overturn the election.
Don: Look, it's been sixteen
months since January 6.
It's been five and a half years
since he fired Jim Comey and
then admitted that he fired
Comey in order to, you know,
shut down an investigation.
Not a single Republican involved
in the January 6 attack has been
subpoenaed.
Never mind indicted, on
something we all saw and heard.
So the clock is running out.
Let's say the committee finishes
up in September or October.
The midterms are in November.
If the past is prologue, what
history tells us is that the
party that's out of power tends
to be in power and then they all
shut everything down.
So that's the basis for my
skepticism.
Geoff: You tweeted recently
, "Democrats have better ideas,
better candidates and a better
vision for tomorrow.
What they don't have is better
messaging.
And I'm going to try and change
that."
How?
Don: By talking in plain, simple
terms, by meeting people where
they are, by using little videos
to reach people, you know,
because that that is the
battlefield.
We need to be tougher against
the right wing, against the
white supremacists.
You know, we have to stop
bringing -- and I have said this
before -- spoon to a knife
fight.
Geoff: What have you learned
about human nature?
What have you learned about this
sort of moment in politics based
on your experience as an
investigator and a prolific
crime writer?
Don: I think what I've learned
is that as human beings, we have
an infinite capacity for
nobility and for evil.
We can go in either direction
and sometimes in both.
And that has stopped surprising
me.
Geoff: Don Winslow, thank you
for your time.