Eskor David Johnson
Author Interview - Eskor David Johnson
Author of Pay As You Go
New to town and delusionally confident, Slide imagined himself living in a glossy building with doormen and sweeping views of the skyline. Instead he’s landed in a creaking, stuffy apartment with two roommates: a loping giant who hardly leaves his room, and a weight-obsessed neurotic who keeps no less than forty- seven lamps throughout the house, blazing at all hours. Unwilling to accept this fate, Slide—a barber with an opaque past—embarks on a quest for the perfect apartment, pinballing through the sprawling, madcap city of Polis and its endless procession of neighborhoods. As he bounces from foldout couch to disaster-relief tent, falling in with some tough types, Slide begins to realize that he’s going to have to scratch and claw just to claim a place for himself in this world—let alone a place with in-unit laundry. An exuberant, fantastical odyssey, Pay as You Go wonders if what we’re searching for is ever really out there. Its pages—surreal, biting, and teeming with life—announce the startling talents of Eskor David Johnson, who knows that all any of us really want is a place to rest our head.
Author Interview - Eskor David Johnson
Author I draw inspiration from:
Texaco by Patrick Chamoiseau. An epic of the Caribbean in prose of the highest inventiveness and beauty. It’s also a novel very much concerned with the supreme importance of storytelling as a means of survival, with which I can relate.
Author Interview - Eskor David Johnson | Author I Draw Inspiration From
Favorite place to read a book:
At my desk in the morning or in bed at night.
Book character I’d like to be stuck in an elevator with:
I can’t imagine liking being stuck in an elevator with anyone, unless they are someone who can get us out. Harry Potter?
Author Interview - Eskor David Johnson | Book Character I’d Like to be Stuck in an Elevator With
The moment I knew I wanted to become an author:
My parents would read us bedtime stories. Once I found out that it was someone’s job to make them up, I decided I’d do that.
Hardback, paperback, ebook or audiobook:
Ranked in order of best to worst: Hardback - The best. Heft and history. Paperback - Still excellent. As long as you have a physical object and pages to turn, we’re golden. ebook - Kind of like reading, but you don’t really digest things well on a screen. Studies have shown, but you can feel it yourself anyway Audiobook - This is not real reading
The last book I read:
The Idiot by Elif Batuman Felt like one of those I'd been seeing around and hearing about so picked it up on a whim from McNally Jackson. It was good, though just that. I like novels in which it feels the author has allowed themselves to play around with character and plot, without worrying about formal commitments, and this felt like that.
Author Interview - Eskor David Johnson | The Last Book I Read
Pen & paper or computer:
Computer mostly, though a swap to pen and paper when stuck, or in need of untangling something a bit more intuitively. When my rhythm is at its best I’m, up by 5:30 and writing by 6:30. In between I make coffee and oatmeal, shower and brush teeth, read for a little. Phone off, no internet, clean quiet room. First hour is mostly of feeling my way back into the story then I’m on a roll for two hours or so. By 9:30 I’m winding down. By 10 the phone comes on, and then there is no more writing.
Book character I think I’d be best friends with:
Ignatius Riley from A Confederacy of Dunces. I have a high appetite for ridiculousness and love a good rant. ‘Good friends’ is certainly a stretch, but we’d find each other amusing, I think.
Author Interview - Eskor David Johnson | Book Character I’d be Best Friends With
If I weren’t an author, I’d be a:
Filmmaker
Favorite decade in fashion history:
New York in the 70s
Place I’d most like to travel:
South of Italy. A lazy answer, I know, but I’ve never been, and I can join the rest of everyone in being over it once I’ve had the chance to go.
My signature drink:
Spicy margharita
Favorite artist:
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Jean-Michel Basquiat
Number one on my bucket list:
I would like to buy a house.
Anything else you'd like to add:
If you write me an email, I'll write you back!
Find more from the author:
About Eskor David Johnson:
Eskor David Johnson is a writer from Trinidad and Tobago. He currently lives in New York City.
