Jon Samsel

I asked author James Halperin for his thoughts about reader comments like those found on Amazon.com for his best-selling novel, The Truth Machine. How does he deal with feedback? How does it impact him as a novelist?

Reader comments on Amazon range from deep praise to extreme distaste. Halperin says:

“In retrospect, through the sieve of time, I have come to the conclusion that they are both right. A lot of it has to do whether readers like the central idea or hate it. The political and scientific ideas I explore in this book will cause a reaction–one way or another, which I think is a plus for the book. Even if you hate my ideas, at least the book made you think.

The truth is, my opinions–especially political opinions–are constantly evolving.

Some things I wrote about in The Truth Machine have been misinterpreted. For example, people think that I’m pro Swift and Sure death penalty. Give me a break! Swift and Sure is a pragmatic solution to a problem (in our society) that defies pragmatic solutions. The concept was presented as a choice among evils.

As far as the writing style, the dialogue is quite wooden because, frankly, I didn’t know how to write back then! It was my first work of fiction and the characters were somewhat one-dimensional. However, I note with some pride that in spite of this, I somehow managed to create a simple, compelling story that strikes a chord with a lot of people. A very cinematic story.

So far, I’ve read every piece of email that has ever been sent to me and responded to every person who has read one of my books. I get e-mail from people who have read The Truth Machine 30 times. I get e-mail from parents who tell me that their kids were slackers who weren’t interested in anything–until they read The Truth Machine and started studying because they wanted to be like Pete Armstrong (the book’s lead character) and change the world. I’m still shocked to get feedback like that, and it makes me feel great.”

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 19th, 2008 at 9:24 am and is filed under Interviews, Writing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.