Writers’ Workshop graduate speaks to millennials, contemporary society

While his debut novel, 'Private Citizens,' is being hailed as a defining book for the millennial generation, Tony Tulathimutte didn't set out with that goal in mind.

'Mostly I just knew I wanted to write a book ... I was desperate to get back in the game,' Tulathimutte said in a phone interview.

The graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop had been working in Silicon Valley, and he hadn't been writing. To get back at it, he started a short story about a group of friends heading to the beach. That story is now the prologue of 'Private Citizens.'

His initial ambition was to write a good short story. 'I didn't set out saying, 'I'm going to write a sweeping social novel about millennials.''

But that's what 'Private Citizens' turned out to be. The novel calls to mind the work of David Foster Wallace and Jonathan Franzen, two authors Tulathimutte has read extensively. It also is reminiscent of Douglas Coupland's 'Generation X,' a novel Tulathimutte hasn't read, though he is 'aware of (Coupland's) status' as a writer considered the voice of a generation.

For his part, Tulathimutte isn't convinced it's actually possible to be the voice of a generation.

'Unless you're prepared to write a book with 300 million people in it, you can't really explore the complexity of each individual experience.'

Tulathimutte is quite interested in individual experience, however. Readers of 'Private Citizens' come to know its four protagonists intimately.

'Most of the book is traditional, expository narrative fiction ... and in those parts I go really, really deep into people's personalities.'

Some of the book is less traditional. Tulathimutte, an avid reader of criticism, acknowledges that at times 'the narration comes loose of what's going on in the story,' and takes on the tenor of an essay. His character Linda, a writer and theorist herself, provides Tulathimutte the opportunity to take these critical jaunts. 'You want to use the tools of criticism and anticipate any criticism that might be coming down the line ... I like it when a book evinces some self-awareness.'

The novel is filled with words that may be unfamiliar to readers, either because they reveal the author's expansive vocabulary or because they are slang. His copy editor told him there are more than 700 non-standard words in the book. 'When you're writing about contemporary society, a lot of what you think about hasn't made it into the dictionary yet.'

He hopes readers will engage with the criticism and the unusual vocabulary, and he has little time for those who tell him such things take them out of the story, admitting that such objections offend him.

His time in the Writers' Workshop was, by and large, positive. 'Any program that allows you to pursue your belletristic dalliances is something to be applauded and admired,' he said.

One of the unique things about the Iowa program, Tulathimutte said, is its size, especially when one figures in the writers who stay in the community after they complete their MFA. This is good for the writer seeking friends among his or her peers.

'With 200 other writers just hanging around in a 1-mile square radius, you're probably going to find your tribe.'

He believes writers in the Workshop have to remember that they can take or leave any of the advice they receive about their writing. Still, he acknowledges the benefits of having one's classmates and instructors read one's work with care. 'It becomes extremely useful to get out of yourself and see the manuscript as others see it.'

Tulathimutte is at work on four projects, including three books that may blend non-fiction with fiction and his next novel. At the moment, he has the luxury of being able to 'wake up every morning and not feel leashed to a deadline or leashed to a topic.'

The new novel, he says, will delve 'more into the issues of technology and mass culture I explore in 'Private Citizens.''

Book reading

What: Tony Tulathimutte reads from 'Private Citizens'

Where: Prairie Lights Books, 15 S. Dubuque St., Iowa City

When: 7 p.m. Thursday

Cost: Free