Does every teenager need a Pigman?
Yes, Yes, Yes. Kids need a special man or woman in their lives who can teach them all the qualities of friendship, kindness, courage, and help them develop self-confidence. Nonno Frankie taught me all the very basic rules of growing up that were supposed to be given to me by my mother and father. My father ran off with a girlfriend when I was two years old, and my mother was manic-depressive. Needless to say, I didn’t come from a traditional background. I notice that the kids in my neighborhood today are crazed, undisciplined, wild, and disenfranchised. When I interact with them, I try to be the friend to them that Nonno Frankie was to me. I know that you grew up surrounded by fear, and that your mother conveyed the feeling that the world was out to get you. Which of your characters is most fearful of the world? I think Beatrice in The Effects of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds is the most fearful. Her character really conveys my mother and the house I lived in. Like my mother,
