Photo by Casey Templeton
Jon Sealy’s 2014 novel “Whiskey Baron” concerned a bootlegger dynasty and murder in a Depression-era North Carolina mill town. His work delves into the complicated wheels that drive people, the law and its limits, and a broken world in which people are attempting to figure things out for the sake of their lives. His newest book, “The Edge of America,” sets that frame upon cocaine-fueled and intrigue-rife Miami. This is “Miami Vice,” but the pastels are tinged by those long shadows of “The Maltese Falcon,” during a dangerous stakeout in a Carl Hiaasen alley. In a recent conversation, Sealy talks about experiencing Miami, his indie publishing company (Haywire Books) and the dynamics of power.
Image courtesy Haywire Books
Richmond magazine: The entrepreneurs of your stories are trying to make their way through a crooked and damaged world, and if their business is illegal, well, it only matters if you get caught — so don’t get caught. There’s also power dynamics at work.
Sealy: I spent a little bit of time in South Florida in 2008-2009. I was working on this and “Whiskey Baron” at the same time. This stuff was banging around in my head. The 2008 financial collapse has some parallels to the savings and loan crisis — the idea if you deregulate and give people leeway, they take what they can get away with. There’s also the intersection of business and politics mixed into the Cuban situation. Thinking about Oliver North, who orchestrated that illegal sale of arms, you get away with it, and you might get to be president or a commentator on Fox News. Or you might end up in jail or have a heart attack like [Enron CEO and chairman] Ken Lay.
RM: It’s a tight-written thriller that meshes the overworld of land development and “legitimate business” with its shadow underworld of intrigue and assassination.
Sealy: I was in the middle of writing this when the Boston Marathon bombing took place and basic martial law was declared there. You had police in special tactical gear patrolling the streets and this Orwellian sense of foreboding. I transposed this sense of uneasy streets to 1984 — in Miami. Every historical novel is about the present; times were good then for a few people, and really bad for plenty others.
RM: Like your characters, you’re an entrepreneur. Unlike them, your effort is for the sake of art.
Sealy: You know, I looked at this situation and said, “Screw it, I’ll start my own label. It’s like that scene at the end of “High Fidelity.” He’s going to put out the skate punk’s album. This press, it’s the last time I’m trying to push the rock up the hill. If this doesn’t work, I’ll go sell real estate. [Laughs, wearily]
Jon Sealy will read and sign copies of “The Edge of America” at Bingo at 6:30 p.m on Sept. 10. fountainbookstore.com
