St. Martin's Literary Fiction asked Bryn Greenwood:

Hi Bryn! I’ve seen a lot of comparisons on here to books like Lolita, Tampa by Alissa Nutting, Glass Castles by Jeanette Walls. How do you feel about these comparisons? Were you reading anything in particular to inspire you as you wrote?

Bryn Greenwood If people were comparing my prose to Nabokov's, I'd be incredibly flattered, but I think any comparison of All the Ugly and Wonderful Things to Lolita or Tampa is based on a very passing acquaintance with the stories. Lolita and Tampa are both constructed as a first-person account of a narcissistic pedophile/ephebophile. Humbert and Celeste are predators and their stories are meant to shock, titillate, and disturb, even as they draw the reader in.

As for my book, I firmly maintain that Kellen is not a pedophile (nor an ephebophile), but he has the misfortune of falling for the right girl at the wrong time. From Wavy's perspective, he falls for her at the perfect time: when she desperately needs him. Life's funny that way. My intention in writing the book was not to titillate, but to tell a story about love and perseverance that reflects parts of American life that don't often get seen beyond headlines. As for The Glass Castle, it's actually a memoir, whereas All the Ugly and Wonderful Things is purely fiction. A lot more people would have to pass away before I publish a memoir.

In terms of inspiration, I tend to read very erratically, so that I almost never end up reading something that relates to or is remotely similar to what I'm writing. In fact, when I wrote All the Ugly and Wonderful Things, I wasn't even reading. I was in the middle of a complete home remodeling project. I was spending nine hours at my day job, four hours gutting and reassembling my house, then another four to six hours every night writing in a friend's spare bedroom. I sacrificed both sleep and reading for the house and the book.

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