Michael LaPointe, "Private Hands"

It’s December 19. Michael LaPointe, author of The Creep, has a line on a shoe once worn by Jerry Garcia.

How would you describe your story?

MICHAEL LAPOINTE: “Private Hands” is about a poorly paid assistant's quest to verify the authenticity of a famous folk singer's guitar, in order to sell it to a millionaire. It's about the assistant's struggle not just to make ends meet, but to recapture the long-lost language of class outrage to even articulate his situation.

When did you write it, and how did the writing process compare to your other work?

ML: I wrote it in 2020, and I suppose the process was similar to my other "plotted" work, with the story sort of dragging me along behind it once I set it in motion, though it's quite different from what I've been working on lately, which doesn't rely on a story in such a strict sense.

What kind of research went into this story?

ML: I was fascinated by the Great Depression era, when everyday people were actual communists, actual anarchists. It seems to me that the horizon of the "common person's" political imagination stretched so much further than it does now, in terms of massive and radical reorganizations of society. Most of my reading was about that period.

What, to you, makes the short story a special form? What can it do that other kinds of writing can’t?

ML: I'm not sure I've ever figured this out, only that some ideas I have for stories seem obviously short, while others seem obviously long. The intrinsic qualities giving rise to this obviousness aren't entirely clear to me; it's just a feeling.

Where should people go to learn more about you and your work?

ML: They can check out my website: www.michaellapointe.com.

What's the best gift you've ever been given?

ML: A little suitcase record player, when I was twelve. I could raid the vinyl collection getting moldy in the basement, discover old music, and carry it around with me. I still have it.

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