Drew Perry has completed what many people believe to be impossible. He has written two novels in four years, all while raising two children. To achieve this kind of feat, said Elon University English professor Kevin Boyle, requires devotion and “an unyielding desire to work.”
Perry, an English professor at Elon, read from his second novel, “Kids These Days,” March 19 at Johnston Hall.
The novel, which was released in January, tells the story of Walter and Alice, a young married couple who, just as they become pregnant with their first child, are faced with some bad luck. Walter is unexpectedly fired from his job, so he and Alice, out of options, head to Florida to live in her deceased aunt’s condo. Walter’s brother-in-law Mid hires him, but Walter finds out that what he thought was merely entrepreneurial work in fact involves some shady operations by Mid.
The idea for the book sprouted from Perry’s own fears about fatherhood. To preface his reading to the audience in Johnston Hall, Perry said, “I always write toward what I’m afraid of, because I require a chew toy.” He said we fear what we don’t understand, and he doesn’t understand how to not screw up being responsible for a human being, or in his case, two, every single day.
The passage he read focused on Delton, Mid’s daughter. Her given name is Olivia, but the 16-year-old has decided that, since her father’s name is Mid Middleton, she can take the other half of their last name, make it her first name, and be Delton Middleton. As described by Perry, she is the rebellious but intelligent, scary but sweet “daughter you fear with your whole heart, but also the daughter you hope to hell you have.”
He said the fears he’s had before having a kid have, in fact, been justified. “It’s terrifying,” he said. “I guess we’re good at the day-to-day stuff,” but the “big stuff,” he said, is a different story. His 3-year-old son Tomás has been asking the kinds of questions no one wants to be on the receiving end of.
“He’s asking big questions like, ‘Why do people get hurt?’” Perry said. “I try to tell him the truth as much as I can,” but there’s no exact science in parenting, in answering those tough questions, he said.
“We’re failing him every day, but we’re just trying to fail him as well as we can.”
It was clear to the audience that Perry captured the scariness of parenting and the ups and downs of family life in a humorous but honest light.
Boyle, who began the book on a flight to a family reunion, got halfway through by the time the plane landed. “I couldn’t wait for the family reunion to be over,” he said, so he could get back to Perry’s novel. “He’s great at beginning scenes, ending scenes with things you’re not expecting. Everything’s fresh; The novel never gets stale. Also, I like the humor a lot.”
Katherine Day, a senior creative writing major, looks up to Drew Perry as a writer. She said, “I’d love to be able to write something as real and honest as that one day.”