Review Fix Exclusive: John Schulian Talks ‘A Better Goodbye’

Review Fix chats with author John Schulian discusses his new book, “A Better Goodbye.” Breaking down his creative vision for the novel as well as his goals for the future, Schulman, the co-creator of the cult-TV hit “Xena: Warrior Princess,” breaks down how the two different works create his unique sense of style.

For more information on the book, click here.

About ‘A Better Goodbye’:

Jenny Yee thought she was finished with the high-end massage business the day two co-workers were raped and robbed. But that isn’t how the world turns when the glitz of Los Angeles gives way to potholed streets and every dream comes with scuffmarks.
Rotten luck thrusts Jenny back into the sex trade, where she finds an unlikely protector in Nick Pafko, an ex-boxer haunted by a tragedy in the ring. Jenny and Nick work for Scott Crandall, once a B-list TV star, now a pimp. But Crandall envisions a new role for himself as he tries to wheedle his way into the world of a prison-hardened sociopath named Onus DuPree Jr.

DuPree burns with criminal intent, and the higher the flame inside him grows, the more combustible A Better Goodbye becomes. This first novel by sportswriter and TV writer-producer John Schulian erupts when Jenny and Nick are swept up in a robbery scheme concocted by DuPree, who doesn’t sweat the small stuff – like who lives or dies.

Here is L.A. noir for the twenty-first century, always honest, seldom kind.

Review Fix: How do you go from Xena to A Better Goodbye?

Schulian: I’m tempted to say time travel. But the truth is, I was never as interested in Xena’s sword-and-sandal world as I am in noir fiction. I fell into co-creating Xena when I was the head writer on Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. My apologies if I’m not appropriately reverent, but it was just a job. I would rather have been writing about cops or private eyes or straight-up criminals. I broke into TV by working on shows like Miami Vice and Wiseguy, and even Midnight Caller had its noir moments. But for a variety of reasons I got off that track and never found my way back. I guess you could say A Better Goodbye gave me a chance to scratch an itch I’d had for a long time.

Review Fix: Why does noir still matter?

Schulian: People are endlessly fascinated by the underbelly of society and both the pleasures and the dangers that await them there. When the setting is Los Angeles, as mine is, noir’s appeal is even greater – all that loneliness and despair, bum luck and sexual obsession is heightened when it’s on display beneath a sun that is only supposed to nurture surfers and starlets. Maybe Raymond Chandler said it best about noir: “It’s not a fragrant world.” But it was a world he cashed in on by creating the iconic L.A. private eye Philip Marlowe.  In the process Chandler paved the way for all the noir writers who have followed in his gumshoe steps, Michael Connelly and James Ellroy being the obvious examples. They in turn are part of a larger felony-lit department featuring Lawrence Block’s Matt Scudder in New York, James Lee Burke’s Dave Robicheaux in Louisiana, and the oddly charming jailbirds and schemers who took Elmore Leonard’s novels from Detroit to Miami to Hollywood. It’s writers like these who bring noir fans into the tent where they can’t wait until characters start getting shot, sapped and slipped a mickey. And noir rolls on.

Review Fix: What authors inspire you? Why?

Schulian: There’s a multitude of them beginning with the founding fathers of noir, W.R. Burnett, Dashiell Hammett, James M. Cain and Horace McCoy. Then along came David Goodis, Cornell Woolrich and the truly twisted Jim Thompson. Donald Westlake, who wrote so much hilarious crime fiction, used the pen name Richard Stark to unleash a brutally efficient career criminal named Parker (no first name, ever). I remember the thrill of discovering Elmore Leonard, James Lee Burke, James Crumley and Charles Willeford in the late 1970s, and 40 years later I’m still recommending them to friends. Among contemporary noir masters, you can’t beat Richard Lange, Scott Phillips, James Sallis and Daniel Woodrell. From beginning to end, they’re all distinctive stylists and inventive storytellers. But here’s the most important thing about them: They’re more than just crime writers. They’re wonderful writers, period. They can make the language stand up on its hind legs, pull a gun and demand all your money. And they make you like it, too.

Review Fix: Who do you think would enjoy this book most?

Schulian: I hope I can convince devotees of Elmore Leonard that I’m working territory that might have appealed to the master himself. Likewise, I think anyone who shares my admiration for Leonard Gardner’s unsurpassed boxing novel, Fat City, may find a place in his or her heart for A Better Goodbye. There’s no doubt that my male protagonist, an ex-prizefighter named Nick Pafko, knows the same hunger and bleak future that Gardner’s fighters did. For show-biz aficionados, I’ve got a washed-up B-list TV star who has turned to pimping and seeks the approval of a merciless sociopath who intends to terrorize everyone who crosses his path. And if you have a liking for contemporary damsels in distress, you should find my female protagonist, Jenny Yee, an interesting change of pace – a college girl who loves Elizabeth Bishop’s poetry and is paying for her education by working in the sex trade.

Review Fix: This sounds like an idea for a great late-night animated show or a video game. Any thoughts on that?

Schulian: Personally, I’ve always seen A Better Goodbye as a tasty little independent movie with a two- or three-million-dollar budget that might attract interesting actors the way Drive snagged Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan. Of the two proposals you’ve trotted out, I have my doubts about a video game that involves the rub-and-tug business. (Guess what the kids aren’t getting for Christmas if that ever becomes a reality.) But late-night animation could be cool and funky. I imagine it as a graphic novel for the small screen, lots of shadows, sex and violence. Of course the pilot episode – spoiler alert – would have to end differently than the book does. Or would it? Get the right production company interested and we can find out.

Review Fix: Bottom line, why should someone read this book?

Schulian: I’ll pass up the obvious sleazeball remark about a happy ending and simply tell you it’s a damn good read.

Review Fix: What’s next?

Schulian: Another novel, one that I hope will come as a surprise if all somebody has read of my work is A Better Goodbye.