Q&A: Author Will Blythe discusses “Cadillac Man”

North Carolina writer Will Blythe and a host of local and national writers will descend upon UNC this weekend as part of the N.C. Literary Festival.

The DTH got a chance to speak with Blythe, the author of Tar Heel favorite “To Hate Like this is to be Happy Forever,” about the UNC-Duke basketball rivalry.



DTH: How long have you been writing and had a career as an author?

Will Blythe: Well, I’ve been making my living as a freelance writer since 1997. Before that, for about 10 years, I was the literary editor for Esquire Magazine and I wrote some then, but I also did a lot of editing.



DTH: What do you normally like to write about?

WB: I really am interested in writing about a wide variety of things. I’ve written a lot of magazine stories, for different magazines ranging from Rolling Stone to the New Yorker to the Oxford American.

I wrote about a neo-Nazi writer down in West Virginia, actors, musicians and some politics and religion. I’m a regular book reviewer for the New York Times Book Review, and I have a lot of fun doing that.



DTH: Where do you normally get your inspirations for writing?

WB: It’s a really sort of primal way to put things into words. And the subject matter is almost irrelevant. It’s just sitting down and trying to articulate things as precisely as you can. For some reason I find that addicting. I don’t know why.



DTH: And so you’re involved with the N.C. Literary Festival this weekend, and you’re speaking with Thomas Wagner, known as Cadillac Man. I read a little bit about it online, but tell me more about that. What can people expect?

WB: Cadillac was a homeless man for close to 15 years here in New York. And he lived under a bridge halfway down the block from me.

We met because lots of us in the neighborhood used that underpass as a shortcut to getting to the subway. And so we met under that bridge in 2002 and became great friends. …

So we were friends, and then I noticed one day that he was writing in these old-fashioned spiral notebooks, and I asked him what he was writing, and he said he was writing the story of his life as a homeless man.

And the reason he was doing that he told me was that he feared that he was going to die out on the streets and he was going to be buried in what they call Potter’s Fields, which is where they bury you when your family doesn’t claim you.

There are thousands of anonymous bodies buried out there, people who were never claimed. It is known as the Land of Lost Souls, which is the title of Cadillac’s book. …

I told him I said if you ever want me to read those notebooks, just let me know.

But I didn’t really think he was actually going to give me one. But about six months later, he handed me several notebooks one day, and he said, “Let me know what you think.” …

I started reading and the first thing I read was this incredible story of his romance, when he was first homeless with this young homeless woman named Penny.

It’s a chapter in the book now.

They fell in love and eventually he ended up calling her aunt and uncle, without her knowing it, so they could come and take her off the streets.

And he said goodbye to her and he’s never seen her again since, and she was the great love of his life.

So I read that and I thought, “Oh man, this guy can actually write!”

And I sent it to former colleagues of mine at Esquire who eventually published an excerpt of it, which helped him get a book deal with Bloomsbury Press.


Contact the Arts Editor at artsdesk@unc.edu.