Interview with Frank Portman, Author of King Dork - Page 2

Too late, man. I mean, I've been around The Catcher in the Rye block. I've been forced to read it like three hundred times and don't tell anyone but I think it sucks.

One day, though, Henderson finds a copy of Catcher In the Rye which was apparently owned by his father. This leads to discovering other books owned and marked up by his father. This leads us into a mystery as he tries to figure out what coded message his father was writing and who or what was the person referred to as "tit"?

This book is marketed as a young adult book – despite references and incidents of oral sex – but it deals with subject matters that can be appreciated by readers of all ages: angst, peer pressure, etc. Particularly meaningful for me were passages about his dad's sudden death and leftover emotions. Complicating matters is conflicting stories about how exactly his dad died.

Henderson has excellent taste in music and books, and Portman has helpfully provided lists of both via Amazon.

This book is at times hilarious, moving and always engaging. Pick it up. And now, enjoy my interview with the author.

What do you really think of The Catcher in the Rye?

The narrator of King Dork sees it as the source of all the evil in the world. I'm ambivalent. It's certainly an important cultural icon, and as such it symbolizes something of which I approve generally: contrarianism and rebellion and so forth. It is a fine book as well. But I have never been able to understand why the book as such is venerated unconditionally by so many of the English-speaking world's booky people. Frankly, I think a lot of these people are faking it, just to fit in with all the people who aren't faking it. Which is, like, ironic and stuff, right?

Why do arrested psychos often have this book in their possession? Would you prefer they hold King Dork instead?

As Tom says, in the sixties, everyone used to carry it around with them wherever they went, and some of them just kept right on doing it even after they became unabombers or terrorists or whatever. The second question is tricky, because I wouldn't want my book to become generally associated with psychotic, smelly, poorly groomed hippies unless there were enough of an increase in sales to make it worthwhile. But I've got a great publicist, so I suppose the answer would be yes. Unless saying yes makes me look bad somehow, in which case the answer is no.

Article Author: Scott Butki

Scott Butki was a newspaper reporter for more than 10 years before making a career change into education.

He is an in-house media critic, a recovering Tetris addict and a proud uncle.

Visit Scott Butki's author page — Scott Butki's Blog