This interview from 1997 originally appeared in the Vol. 10, No. 1, edition of The Beacon Street Review. You do not tempt the evil eye.
Literary success is so totally random.
I had a really lucky summer. It was really nice, but I do think it's important not to take it too seriously. Released in July by Dial Press, the 288-page novel, set in the 1950s on Cape Cod, portrays an unusual and tender romance between Peggy Cort, a spinster librarian, and James Carlson Sweatt, the world's tallest teenager. It earned McCracken a National Book Award and also a place on Granta magazine's list of the 20 best American novelists under 40. But McCracken's is not an overnight success story.