Some writers, like Danny McBride, have their finger on the proverbial pulse of masculinity; From eastward and downwardsFrom Kenny Powers to Jesse Gemstone, McBride has an unmatched ability to create flawed people who make us laugh and laugh with identification. In his first short story collection exciting stories of modern menMcBride focuses his gaze on men at various inflection points, grappling with life’s most mundane and ordinary problems – the relentless march of time, the indiscriminate nature of tragedy, the trap of vanity – and coping gracefully but not sympathetically.
“All these people are incomplete or disappointed in themselves,” he told me. “I think it makes them insecure about how they might let other people in their lives down; sometimes they react by putting on some hard cover or doubling down on their bullshit behavior. I think it’s interesting to start with a character who ultimately isn’t thrilled with what they’ve become and then just see how it unfolds for them.”
from each story exciting stories Just like the next film, ‘McBride’ is as unique and undeniably unique: we meet a husband and father who decides to take up magic in middle age, an actor avenging the death of his dog, and a man facing a fate worse than death – baldness. “It’s about understanding where they’re coming from, not even about justifying it,” he says of his characters’ often questionable choices. “Everyone is just trying to figure out who they are and what they’re doing. With men my age, we all grew up watching Rambo and now we all work at Geico. It feels like you’re trying to (reconcile) what you were doing with maybe a heightened version of what you thought you were supposed to do during your upbringing, or what you saw in TV and movies as a kid.”
McBride suggests that the universal reality that we are often less special than we think is a hard pill to swallow, but accepting it can be liberating. “We’re all raised on this myth that we all matter and we can all change the world, and then you hit the wall and you’re just like, Fuck, I don’t know if I really matter as much as I thought I did and I don’t know if someone can change the world. That’s the cruelty of reality,” he says. “You also realize how short our time is here and that it’s passing fast, and you won’t live forever.”
McBride talked to us about seven books that have shaped his writing and his worldview.
blood meridiancormac mccarthy
