Lives of Crime
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Banville: It’s a perfect period for noir fiction—all that fog, all that cigarette smoke, women wearing nylons. Remember nylons?
Westlake: I certainly remember the cigarettes.
Banville: I was wondering if it’d get published here with all the cigarettes.
Westlake: And without a warning label.
Banville: And it was such a hidebound time. So there was a sense that we must absolutely hold fast to the rules. We must obey the church, obey figures of authority. That was what was so useful for this kind of plot, that it all depends on people being able to keep secrets with great ease, and have that great arrogance—which lasted in Ireland up till the early ’90s—that says to the people, we don’t need to tell you things. You’re better off not knowing. We know, we’re in control, we’re the wise people, the great men. I needed that for the atmosphere of the book. That and the cigarettes.
© 2007
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