The Village Voice recently caught up with Paul Beatty, whose new novel, Slumberland, hasn’t been getting as much attention as I’d expected. Granted, one of its central scenes revolves around a porn flick involving untoward treatment chicken, but it’s a great seriocomic glimpse of cultural and racial splits, as chronicled by an American in Berlin. Beatty had spent a year in the city back in the ’90s, but Slumberland was more closely inspired by the amazing story of Henry Grimes, a top-shelf jazz bassist who was missing and presumed dead by some until a few years back:
Asked if Stone reminded him of anyone in particular, Beatty throws out some guesses, saying that the character owes something to both his mother and father: “Also, I got the idea from this guy, Henry Grimes. He used to play bass for Albert Ayler, then disappeared for a long time. A friend of mine sent me an article from Wired about a guy who tracked him down—Grimes was living in some SRO in L.A. I always love it when people say: ‘Fuck it, I’m gone!’ “
