Fathers never fare well in folktales.
This was my breadcrumb trail.
I wanted the reader, on some level, as unsure and off-balance as Apollo, LaValle says.
Credit: Taylor Hill/Getty Images
The Changelingis partly inspired by LaValles own story.
When he was a boy, his mother, a Ugandan immigrant, and white father separated.
His father didnt vanish, but he was absent.
Spiegel & Grau
I definitely could not have written this book before we had the kids, he tells EW.
It just wouldnt have been possible.
It also gives him a different perspective on his own father if not forgiveness, maybe understanding.
The people who raised us are often just human beings trying their best.
Thats not a young persons understanding, necessarily.
Its not something I understood when I was young, LaValle says.
I was just angry at my father.
Early versions ofThe Changelingwere much harder on the fictionalpater familias.
All he was, from the beginning, was a bum, LaValle says.
But thats a childs grudge.
Youre writing this as a grown man.
What does this look like?
The result is more sympathy for Brian, Apollos father, and maybe even some admiration.
That was a late addition that came with me thawing out, LaValle says.
No one person is just the mistakes they have made.
Its a real place in Queens, my hometown.
Its like a doorway.
Take one step and youre in the woods, the middle of nowhere.
Take another and youre on the Q45 bus.
Im endlessly fascinated by that, as a magic trick, LaValle says.
