Narayan Radhakrishnan's Interview with
Carlos Ramet
Author of
Ken Follett: The Transformation of a Writer

Narayan:
What prompted you, sir, to take up this task of writing a critical study of Ken Follett's works? I ask this because you, the author, & the subject, live & work on opposite sides of the Atlantic.

Carlos Ramet:
First of all, let me say that I appreciate the opportunity to discuss my work with you & to talk about my research on Ken Follett. I should say that I started writing on Follett's works in a somewhat casual way. I was completing a doctorate in English & Creative Writing, & was taking a graduate seminar in Popular Culture criticism. After studying a variety of critical approaches to popular literature -- psychological, archetypal, genre analysis, etc., we were asked to apply those theories in a paper.

At the time, I hadn't read anything by Follett, but The Man from St. Petersburg was out in paperback & I was interested in the First World War. Also, the blurb on the back cover suggested to me that the book might be in the grey area of the serious & the popular & would allow for the application of some of those theories.

I had some early encouragement with the paper -- I was asked to present it at a national conference & it was then published as an article in an academic journal. I think that early success made me consider writing on Follett's works on a more regular basis, which I started to do once I was hired by Saginaw Valley State University in Michigan. Frankly, the more I wrote on Follett the more my respect for his craftsmanship grew. Even in his lesser works, he is interesting to study for what he demonstrates about the craft of writing; in his more significant works, such as Eye of the Needle, he uses popular forms to raise larger questions about heroism, love, the nature of popular literature itself.

As for living on opposite sides of “the pond,” I am originally from Britain & Follett has set a number of his novels in the United States. I think he would consider himself to be an international writer -- at least his book sales are strong in a great many countries -- & I've worked overseas quite a bit. So I think that differences in nationality are less important than are cultural similarities, or at least the reader's openness & interest in the culture the writer describes.

Narayan:
I understand that you did not meet or interview Ken Follett for the writing of this book. Was this a bit unusual?

Carlos Ramet:
Not really. It had to do with the way The Transformation of a Writer came about. For the longest time, I didn't know I was writing a book -- I was writing a series of conference papers & articles on a subject that seemed interesting to me -- the craft, perhaps the art, of a popular writer. As a junior faculty member, I was writing on a number of other subjects too -- creative writing pedagogy, bilingual education in Canada, the short stories of Khushwant Singh -- but eventually I was able to focus more on Follett. The book really took shape during a winter sabbatical when I revised the various articles & was able to conduct additional research.

Secondly, it seemed to me that if I really was engaged in literary criticism, the works should be read & analyzed on their own & the interpretation should not be influenced by the personality of the subject. Of course, I used some published biographical information as a way of introducing Follett's various books or certain themes, but The Transformation of a Writer is not a biography. Had I been writing one, naturally I would have wanted to interview the subject & those close to him.

Narayan:
I was quite impressed by your comments on the early Follett works prior to Eye of the Needle. You have compared Chadwell Carstairs, the series protagonist in The Big Needle, to Mickey Spillane's series protagonist Mike Hammer; also, you point to The Shakeout & Bear Raid as forerunners to Follett's later international spy thrillers. Though not great reads, you have described these books as good. Then why do you think these early books -— about ten in number -— haven't been more regularly republished & more widely distributed?

Carlos Ramet:
Follett has stated on various occasions that he considered these early works, especially those written under different pseudonyms, to have been apprenticeship novels. He has termed some of them halfway between bad & good, experiments from which he was learning all the time & could move on.

What struck me in studying the novels published between 1974 & 1978 was the range of experimentation -- he was writing everything from children's books to science fiction to novelizations of screenplays -- which resulted in the rapid progression of technique. By 1977, he was ready to write Eye of the Needle, the first novel for which he used extensive historical research. He was able to pace the book better than his earlier ones. I think also that there's a fuller literary texture.

Some of the early books have been republished, though I wouldn't say they've been widely distributed. I think more than anything, they represent a stage in the writer's development.

Narayan:
Now, I understand that the Melvin J. Zahnow Library at Saginaw Valley State University has established a Ken Follett Study Center -- could you tell me more about that? What's in store for the Follett reader & researcher at the Zahnow Library?

Carlos Ramet:
The Zahnow Library recently underwent a complete renovation & expansion, & a fourth floor with a superb reading room was added. There's also an archival reading room for reviewing some of the documents related to Follett's work. Basically, there are two parts to the collection -- the correspondence, manuscripts, & research materials generously donated by Mr. Follett; & a comprehensive collection of Follett's published works, including rare copies of short stories & books written under the pseudonyms “Symon Myles”, “Martin Martinsen”, & “Bernard L. Ross”.

As for the materials donated by Mr. Follett, there are some 44,000 items stored in twenty-nine boxes, & while guidelines & procedures for the use of these materials are still being established by the Library, a sampling of the documents is available on-line in a virtual exhibit. There are a couple of web-addresses people can use: http://www.svsu.edu/library -- Click “Archives”, then “Virtual Exhibit” links. Or, go directly to http://www.svsu.edu/library/follett/exhibit2/vexmain2.htm

With the exception or one or two of the long out-of-print books, the collection of published works is quite readily available through Circulation.

Narayan:
I understand also that Mr. Follett visited Saginaw Valley State University in connection with the inauguration of the study center. Having worked on a critical analysis of his work, what was your feeling when you first met Mr. Ken Follett? & more importantly, what was Mr. Follett's reaction or opinion about your book?

Carlos Ramet:
Naturally, it was a distinct honor to meet him & to host him at the University. It was also an opportunity to talk to him about some of his more recent works -- Whiteout had just been published & there was considerable interest in the community about his latest novel.

As for his reaction to my own book, his note to me when The Transformation of a Writer was first published was quite complimentary. During his visit here, his comments were similar -- that he was flattered to have his work be the subject of such a careful reading, that he was probably the worst possible judge of my ideas, & so forth. He must have liked it; I'm sure he would have told me otherwise.

Narayan:
Your book also touches on another aspect regarding Follett: the short story writer & the screenplay writer. The short story writer has to his credit about half a dozen short stories & a couple of screenplays. Why do you think there hasn't been more attention paid to these?

Carlos Ramet:
In my book, I didn't discuss the stories & screenplays in much detail because, to be honest, I didn't have access to them at that time. I was aware of them, of course. Follett had been quoted in a magazine article in the 1980's as saying that early in his career he had sold one or two short stories, but nothing much came of them. What I did notice in studying his novels is how carefully crafted some of the opening chapters are -- they read like short stories with a compactness & unity one doesn't always find in the opening chapter of a novel. This is especially the case for the first chapters of The Key to Rebecca & Lie Down with Lions which, by the way, were published on their own in popular magazines. It would be interesting to go back & read some of his earliest short stories to see how he was honing those skills, but I don't think his reputation will ever rest on his work as a short story writer.

Follett's always had an interesting relationship to film. His thrillers have been termed “cinematic in conception” & several of his books have been turned into film or television mini-series, with the rights to several others sold to filmmakers but remaining unproduced. It's true as well that there's a certain screenplay sensibility to some of Follett's more recent novels such as Code to Zero with its short descriptive paragraphs, a heavy reliance on dialogue, & the frequent change of location. As you point out, he did work on several teleplays in the 1970's -- only two of which, I believe, were actually produced. I think when he was starting out, he was trying his hand at everything --journalism, short stories, television, turning screenplays into novels, writing thrillers -- & that's the quickest way to progress as a young writer -- by working in a wide range of genres & by writing all the time.

Narayan:
Will newer editions of The Transformation of a Writer be published? I ask this because Follett is still writing (I understand that he is working on a sequel to The Pillars of the Earth) & each work is attaining bestseller status.

Carlos Ramet:
I have given some thought to a revised edition. Other works of his have since come to light &, of course, he's written three or four bestsellers since The Transformation of a Writer was published. I've also considered writing a separate book -- one that would build upon the first book but would contain completely new chapters. Let's put it this way... with all the new research material available now, I've already written two new articles. We'll see where that takes me.

Narayan:
I also understand that you have published an article on Jeffrey Archer -- another popular writer from England. Can we expect a book from you on Jeffrey Archer in the near future?

Carlos Ramet:
It would have to be a biography, wouldn't it, & there are already two very good ones available -- Michael Crick's Stranger than Fiction & Jonathan Mantle's In for a Penny. What's most interesting about Archer is his life -- here's someone whose gone back & forth from top to bottom so many times; been one of the youngest members of Parliament but lost all his money in a business failure & becomes a best-selling author almost by default. & the ups & downs become even more dramatic after that.

That's the fascinating part -- the incredible events in his life &, I suppose, the imaginative projection he makes of them by creating an appealing fantasy. No, what attracted me to writing an article on Archer's A Matter of Honor was the way in which it seemed a complete encapsulation of the classic espionage genre -- it turned the clock back to Richard Hannay [John Buchan of The Thirty-Nine Steps] while at the same time reflected 1980's anxieties.

Narayan:
You have authored about a dozen short stories. I don't believe they have been collected & published as a book. Could you tell us more about your short stories?

Carlos Ramet:
Most of my stories are about people caught between two places or two cultures. Quite a few of them, for that matter, are set in countries other than the United States, but I would say that almost all of them examine ways in which personal relationships are formed, sometimes broken & sometimes re-formed. An example would be “Shadow Love”, which was published by The Critic & was a finalist for their annual short story award. In it, a young American woman, married to a U.S. diplomatic staffer & living in Malaysia, finds herself tremendously attracted to everything in her surroundings but is constrained by her Catholic up-bringing. As a fiction writer, I'm probably more influenced by Graham Greene than by Ken Follett, though I have tremendous respect for what a good popular writer can do.

Narayan:
No interest in writing a mystery/thriller? Having read & researched a lot on Follett & on popular fiction, shouldn't we expect one from you in the near future?

Carlos Ramet:
There was certainly a period when I was writing a lot of detective short stories, none of which were published, & probably deservedly so. I've had much more luck placing “serious” short fiction, but writing those crime stories, & studying popular writers like Follett & others, has made me realize how difficult it is to write a really good genre piece. There's a double challenge -- you have to be both derivative & original at one & the same time. You're following a formulaic pattern, but need somehow to make it new. I must say, though, that writing bad mysteries was good for me. When I returned to writing stories about quiet lives in crisis, I started to place a much greater emphasis on plot.

Narayan:
Before I end this interview, could you please list your favorite Ken Follett reads—say, the top five...?

Carlos Ramet:
Let me say again that I've very much enjoyed this opportunity to share some ideas with you on Ken Follett's works. I think that for anyone who wants to understand Follett's contribution to popular literature, Eye of the Needle & The Pillars of the Earth are must reads -- “Eye” because it's a masterful weaving of history, action, & romance into a World War II espionage thriller, a form & a setting with which he'll always be associated, & because it was one of the first spy novels to make use of a strong female character; Pillars because it represented a new direction for him as a writer & allowed him to apply suspense-writing techniques to history, resulting in what has been termed a new kind of novel, “the historical thriller”.

On Wings of Eagles should also be on a top-five list because it demonstrates Follett's skill at combining research, hundreds of hours of interviews, & numerous documents into an exciting re-telling of an actual event. The book also won him many new readers, especially non-fiction readers. I would also include one of his historical novels about social inequality -- either A Dangerous Fortune or A Place Called Freedom. They're both good reads & show a new confidence in giving characters a political outlook after the publication of Pillars.

It's a toss-up between Whiteout & one of the earlier, somewhat neglected works like The Shakeout or The Hammer of Eden. A new book is always exciting because it connects with where we are now as a culture, makes reference to topical events or addresses contemporary fears. But I'll settle on The Shakeout as the last book on my list of five. It's certainly the best of his pre-Eye of the Needle works & was one of only two from that period to have been published under his own name. It's part British social realism, character study of a very conflicted hero, action/adventure story, & story of financial double-dealings. If it's not a perfect book, it's certainly an interesting & readable one. I'd recommend it.

Narayan:
Thank you, Professor Ramet, for the illuminating interview. I sure will checkout the books you mentioned. & look forward to the companion volume of The Transformation of a Writer.

Do catch my review of Carlos Ramet's Ken Follett -- we hope it makes you go out & buy yourself a copy!

Narayan Radhakrishnan
2002©Narayan Radhakrishnan
Published 07/17/05