Life After Death: Lenahan's First Major Work of the Millennium is Underground Cult Smash

(PHILADELPHIA, USA)  It was the long hot Summer of 2000, and Andrew Lenahan's declining presence in theatrical and literary circles had some fans distinctly worried.  Over a year had passed since Lenahan's blockbuster performance in Martin Donoff's Entre Nous.  His latest Lexicon entry, "Andrew Lenahan's Epoch", was critically and popularly well-received but did allowed only momentary satiety for the masses ravenous for a new work of greater substance.  Little did they know the bounty they were about to enjoy.  Lenahan's return to Pennsylvania from Florida in July left many questioning what his next move would be.  In truth Death had been finished earlier than most believed, but few could question its tsunami-like effect when it finally hit the public in serial form later that year.

No Contest

Fans of Lenahan's 1998 satire Andrew Lenahan's Name knew well his fondness for writing contests, and particularly for winning them.  Lenahan was made aware of the first annual Experimental Forest short story contest, and decided to give it a go.  However, in keeping with traditional Lenahan absurdism, there must always be a twist.  To win a writing contest is simply not enough... one must win by submitting an incomplete work, or an utterly inappropriate one.  For example, Name won an essay competition without actually being an essay.  Submit a haiku to the short story contest, then?  No, Lenahan decided to write a three-part story and submit only the first part, without any indication that there was more to come.  "The first part of Death doesn't come to any conclusion at all.  Chet is up on the roof, and hears a voice calling him, and that's it." remarks Lenahan.  "It's amazing that it won anything in that form, really."

Patriot Games

Early rumours of the project which would eventually become Death hinted at an influence from J. K. Rowling and her famous Harry Potter series.  But Death would never end up at King's Cross.  "I read the first Harry Potter book late that summer, and found it to be one of thest children's books I'd ever read, right after C. S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia.  But all the rumoured connections between Death and Harry just weren't there.  In fact, most of Death was written before I even read Harry Potter.  As a response to all the speculation, I dressed as Harry Potter for Hallowe'en that year." said Andrew with a hint of a smile.

So if the inspiration for Death didn't come from Rowling, where did it come from?  "The most notable thing about Death, when looking at the rest of my work, is how unapologetically American it is.  It's set in America [this is never specified in the story - ed.] and the main character is very American in nature, which of course has both good and bad points.  Even the writing style is closer to straightforward American than anything I'd written before.  It's fast, it's funny, it's not particularly serious despite the grim title and cover art.  But to get this sort of effect, I couldn't have readers reaching for their British slang dictionary twice every sentence.