The idea for Richmond magazine Senior Writer Harry Kollatz Jr.’s first novel, “Carlisle Montgomery,” came to him in 1998, when he was mowing his lawn. “The [mower] conked out, and I leaned over to pull the lanyard, and I looked up and there was the [intersection] Carlisle-Montgomery.” Years later, the actor and playwright’s book, named after its red-haired, nine-fingered, guitar- and banjo-playing protagonist, is here at last. The 600-page tome contains sex, music, “freakgrass” and an illumination of the Richmond music scene from a couple of decades ago. Kollatz, on hiatus from his duties as an amateur weatherman, talks about the writing process, a long-gone music scene and the city he loves.
Richmond magazine: Why set your book in Richmond as opposed to an unnamed generic city?
Harry Kollatz Jr. (File photo)
Harry Kollatz Jr.: Well, I know Richmond, I live here, plus the '90s were a fertile period of music in Richmond and even moreso now. There were venues here, and I just felt like I could describe it and give the sense of smell and touch, the vision of how this place felt and looked. Seattle had grunge, New York City was doing its thing, and Carlisle is doing her folk music in Richmond and called it “freakgrass.” It’s a blend of many traditions, and I think that was a good place for her to pick up on all this and weave it together in her own special way, and I just like writing about Richmond, period.
RM: What makes “Carlisle Montgomery” different from your previous books?
Kollatz: Well, the previous two books were histories. They were based completely in fact, and this is a novel, and there are elements that are truthful in terms of places and memories and parts of town, but it’s also the biggest thing I’ve ever written.
The street signs in Fulton that, combined with a balky lawnmower and a late-afternoon summer sun, inspired the creation of “Carlisle Montgomery” (Photo by Harry Kollatz Jr.)
RM: The idea for “Carlisle” came to you in 1998, but you started writing the book in 2011. Why did it take so long to get going?
Kollatz: Well, I put her in some short stories subsequent to that, but it didn’t really work out. I was working on another novel, and Carlisle was a subsidiary character, a best-friend character of one of the other characters. … I had this fits and starts process, which is why it took so long [compared] to these earlier books. ... I would write five pages and spend the next three weeks revising those pages, which meant I wasn’t making any progress. Eventually … I had to concentrate my energy, and the way to do that was to write these pages in this period of time and leave them and the next page and the next page and the next set of pages, and that’s how you get through something like this.
RM: In the book, there is the line “Richmond never forgets.” What did you mean by that?
Kollatz: [Laughs] Well, it doesn’t. It doesn’t matter what you did, how long ago or how insignificant it was. It’s a city that bakes its memories in its bricks, the great ones and the not so great ones.
Harry Kollatz Jr. will read from and sign copies of “Carlisle Montgomery” at Babes of Carytown on June 25 at 6 p.m.
