The Lunate Interview - Eliza Clark

Interview by Jess Moody

This summer, behind the gasps and the blushes and the horror, the literary community and the wider reading world have been admiring the confident craft of first-time novelist Eliza Clark. Boy Parts, from Influx Press, is a deliciously dark and daring debut. An unforgiving flash of twenty-first century life, sex, art, love, violence: all through the lens (aha) of Irina, a twenty-something Newcastle fetish photographer. Clark, who has previously focussed on short fiction, is also a podcaster and a former student of the Chelsea College of Art. We sat down for a virtual chat, following Lunate’s recent review.

Let’s start at the start. Tell us a bit about the origins and inspirations for Boy Parts.
I had the idea around that Charli XCX video for Boys – I really like the way that looks and thought, well what would this be like for books? It kind of sprung from that.

Much of the book looks at gender, and gendered receptions. How important was the art world setting for exploring ideas about women’s worth, value, reputation? Which came first?
They kind of came together. The idea of the aesthetics of the male gaze – subverting that – it was always going to be about a photographer, and a female photographer. I guess I was thinking about that voyeuristic aspect of photography, the aggressive aspect of that: and then the most extreme kind of woman who would be into that. I was also thinking about the behaviours of male artists like Egon Schiele, Helmut Newton, but also Irina’s namesake, Irina Ionesco: all these artistic inspirations fed into each other.

Thinking about that, it’s interesting to consider Irina’s behaviour with her best friend and sometime lover Flo: who she treats awfully. Is there something there about Irina taking in that masculine aggressiveness, a certain lack of female allyship?
This started as a short story, so originally Irina’s a sole unit. But in fleshing out how she’d actually ‘work’ in the world, I quickly decided, for example, that she could not have a heterosexual man in her vicinity who she wasn’t using in some way. She would struggle to be friends with a man, maybe even a gay man. And with Finch, who’s her friend and a trans man, I wanted to sow the seeds of that being a friendship which wasn’t going to last long.

So, she needed to have a woman who was prepared to put up with her. In some of the friendships I’ve had, I’m much more the slow, forgiving, patient person, drawn to quite angry people: but that makes me feel special to be able to maintain a friendship with them, and one of the only women that they can tolerate. I wanted Irina to have this Alt, who needs to be liked by horrible people.

There’s a wonderful use of humour in a novel with such dark subject matter (violence, sexual violence). How important was Irina’s ‘voice’ and this scathing commentary, perhaps even ‘gallows humour’?
I like to think I’m funny. Irina’s voice was originally a lot more like mine. In the very, very draft stages she was much more self-deprecating, infused with anxiety, a surface-level self-loathing. So there was a process of going back, and stripping that back while keeping the jokes. I lost a lot of jokes at her expense, but was left with those about the people around her. Inside my head are quite noisy and intrusive thoughts, but some of them are quite funny. A really mean joke wouldn’t have come about without it: it’s a nice way to channel this spiky static in the background.

As a counterpoint to Irina’s first person narrative, there’s a real mix of other media and voices: texts, Flo’s excruciatingly brilliant blog and so on. In launching the novel you’ve also put readings on social media, made an accompanying Spotify list etc. What are your reflections on mixing it all up this way – would you do it again?

Well, it’s challenging to read out loud, with all the SMS text speak for example. I did read the audio book — I’m told it’s very good but I’ve not managed to bring myself to listen to myself!

On the choice to include mixed media though, I didn’t really think about it that much: but I do wonder if this is a generational thing? I’m 26, at the border of being a Millennial and Gen Z, using AoL messenger since I was 9: this text talk is not something I’d have a second thought about including at this point of my life, and with the way the world is. I do consider myself a ‘digital native’ as the academics say, and so this is something we’re going to see more and more from younger writers. It’s just not going to be questioned: how the digital world is incorporated into the novel.

The novel itself deals in receptions to art, including a wonderful episode mocking a Guardian critic. So how have you found the reactions to your own book from interviewers?
As we said, I was a little bit surprised about the questions on the digital aspects, those hadn’t really occurred to me. All the North/South stuff and the class stuff, I feel a bit weird talking about it, I don’t want to feel like putting myself forward for spokesperson for working class northerns! My class identity is in a state of flux anyway, now I’m booted onto the literary stage: I don’t know if working class fits me now, though it did when I was writing the book.

I do strongly identify with the north (23 years in total living there) so I’m constantly having to comment on that, and increasingly uncomfortable doing so: worried I’m digging a hole and people going to try to pull me up on things!

It’s also interesting that people aren’t asking me about the other characters much. Not much conversation on the existential embarrassment and horror of poor Eddie from Tesco. I’ve spent most time with Irina, it’s all in her voice: there are questions to be answered about the other characters!

Your use of the parents was interesting: her Dad especially being kept til the end. Was that a conscious choice from the start, or just a by-product of the drafting/redrafting?
I wanted to keep him until the end. The first thing people think about Irina is ‘Daddy Issues’, so I wanted to be a plot twist that… he’s really nice! A little bit weird and Freudian, but the dramatic reveal is that Dad is fine. It’s a good joke for me.

What’s next for you?
I have a second book with Influx in 2022 but don’t want to jinx it too much. I’ll say that the more that I’m writing the book the more niche research required. I spent a whole day on slides in water parks.

Did you have to do much odd research for Boy Parts?
Not lots, but I looked into different personality disorders for example. I also listened to a lot of true crime podcasts to have Irina as a kind of proto serial-killer. I tried to pull out some of those narcissistic traits: I made sure Irina scoring just below the serial-killer diagnostic line!

And finally… what are people not asking you about, that you’d like to be asked about?
I’m noticing that if a book has ‘just’ got queer stuff in it, but it’s not specifically about queer identity, that aspect of the book is being glossed over. All the queer or gay women are never brought up! People want to hear about the North/South but not the queer issues, no one wants to drill down into it. It’s interesting…