Boy Still Missing
by John Searles

List Price: $12.95
Pages: 304
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 006000780X
Publisher: Perennial

John Searles is the Deputy Editor of Cosmopolitan where he oversees all book coverage for the magazine. His essays, articles and reviews have appeared in the Washington Post, the New York Times and other national magazines and newspapers. He lives in New York City.

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Q: How did you come to write Boy Still Missing?

JS: I wrote a novel before this one that never found its way to a publisher. I got lots of encouraging letters, but then an editorial assistant mistakenly left a cruel note in the manuscript when it was returned to me, and I was devastated. After that, I was incredibly depressed and I didn't think I wanted to write again. Six months or so went by, and one day I was cleaning my apartment when I heard a sentence in my head: "Whenever my father disappeared we looked for him on Hanover Street." I decided to write it down, and then some time later the second sentence came. I made up my mind to write again, but just for myself this time around. From then on, the story continued to unfold through the voice of a teenage boy who's out with his mother and her friend, looking for his father. I wrote to find out where the father was in that opening scene, and when I realized he might be at his mistress's house. I wanted to know what would happen if the boy went to get him. The situation seemed so combustible -- a teenage boy who betrays his mother and gets involved with his father's girlfriend -- I kept writing to find out what would happen next.

Q: At heart, the novel is a decidedly moving coming of age tale, but Boy Still Missing is also packed with page-turning twists and turns. Was this something you set out to do?

JS: I wanted this to be a book that kept the reader turning the pages, and at the same time made the reader think. It seems that some people believe a book has to be inaccessible in order for it to be good, but I disagree. I hope to write books that readers can relate to and be completely absorbed by, but also ones with serious themes. When a reader tells me that they couldn't put my book down, it makes me incredibly happy.

Q: One of the elements of the novel I enjoyed immensely was Dominick's voice, especially in those scenes where he and his mother would be searching for Dominick's tomcat of a dad. Was it a challenge to find that wondrous combination of wisdom and vulnerability?

JS: There were so many things that were hard about writing this book -- keeping the fast pace, unraveling the plot, and a hundred other challenges -- thankfully the voice was one of the more natural elements. From the first time I heard it, Dominick's perspective on the world around him came pretty naturally.

Q: The women in Dominick's life are very different -- Edie Kramer is mysterious, Marnie Garboni is comical, and his mother is understandably troubled and sad. Still, each of them is captured in such vivid detail that they all come to life. Can you talk about how you went about writing these characters?

JS: To be honest, I have always gotten along better with women than men. I work in an office full of women and most of my closest friends are women. I suppose I drew on these relationships to create female characters that I hoped would be recognizable and believable to readers. Also, when I was growing up, the women around me always seemed trapped or beholden to men in some way -- whether it be for financial or some other reason -- and I think this impression from my childhood found it's way into the characterization of Dominick's mother, as well as Edie and Marnie to different degrees.

Q: Throughout the story, the reader is left wondering whether Edie is being deceitful toward Dominick. Did you know what she was up to the whole time or were you just as surprised?

JS: Just like Dominick, I was definitely surprised by Edie and intrigued to learn her true intentions. A perfect example is when he notices her red eyes when they first meet that summer night in her kitchen. Dominick says, "She had been crying like my mother. Or, drinking like my father." Like him, I wasn't sure which was the case until he kisses Edie later and tastes the alcohol on her breath. Throughout the story, there are so many mysterious things about Edie's actions, and I was as curious as Dominick to understand her better.

Q: In Boy Still Missing, Dominick often looks for "signs" based on advice given to him by his mother. Do you believe in signs? What about fate?

JS: At the risk of sounding too New Agey, I do pay attention to signs in my life. I think the world, or the universe, or whatever you choose to call it, has a way of showing us things if we pay attention. One big sign I got during the writing of this book came when I was about four chapters in. I was writing a few different story lines to see which direction the book would take -- sort of a trial and error method. Because of the time period, one of the story lines involved an illegal abortion. Around that time, a friend asked me to go with her to see a documentary called Leona's Sister Gerry. It turned out to be about a woman who died in the sixties from an illegal abortion, which was an incredible coincidence because it was what I was writing about. I couldn't get the film out of my mind so I tracked it down a few months later. When I watched it again, I realized there were many other coincidences: The woman died on my birthday; she was from a small-town in Connecticut, as I am; it happened in a motel, and my novel is centered around a motel. I took these things as a sign that I was going in the right direction with this story.

Q: One of the most haunting images in the novel remains for me a stain on the motel room floor. What are the images from the book that most frequently come back to you?

JS: Whenever I pass a roadside motel I think of Dominick and his mother and Jeanny. I also think of the snowy night when Dominick gets off the bus from New York, rides his bike to the motel and sees all the police cars. I still go to Saint Patrick's sometimes during lunch and look up at the cardinal hats above the altar. And whenever I see a balloon let loose in the air, I think of Dominick's story.

Q: Frank McCourt has compared your writing to J.D. Salinger's. Why do you think that is?

JS: Because it's true -- no, I'm kidding! I am flattered beyond words that Frank made such a comparison. I first read Catcher in the Rye in the ninth grade and, like most people, was completely absorbed. I purposely did not read it again before or during the writing of this book, since both stories have teenage narrators and I didn't want to be intimidated. As for why he made the comparison, I'm far too humble to even speculate at length the reason why. Maybe because we both wrote about isolated teens; or maybe because both characters make life altering pilgrimages to New York, which is something I forgot about Holden until someone mentioned it recently.