Manifesto Padi

Wawancara dengan Mark Bowden tentang Buku Finders Keepers
The challenge was to understand Joey...

Inilah hasil wawancara singkat saya dengan Mark Bowden via e-mail. Bowden adalah jurnalis naratif terkemuka yang menulis Black Hawk Down. Saya mewawancarainya untuk me-review tentang Finders Keepers, satu-satunya buku dia yang telah diterjemahkan ke dalam bahasa Indonesia.

Wawancara ini merupakan salah satu bahan tulisan saya berjudul Peruntungan Joey, Kesialan Joey. Tulisan ini (edisi unedited) dimuat di blog ini dan dimuat di website www.pantau.or.id.

Tanya jawab tidak diterjemahkan.


When and where Finders Keepers was published as an article first?

"Finders Keepers" was originally published in three parts in The Philadelphia Inquirer Sunday Magazine, 1985.

What’s the different between Joey Coyle Story (article) and Finders Keepers (book)?

The book is essentially the same as the articles, with the addition of a chapter about the trial and acquittal of Joey Coyle, and an epilogue about the aftermath, the making of a very bad movie, and Joey's death.

How did you get idea to write Finders Keepers?

I helped to cover the incident as a staff reporter at the Inquirer when it happened, and decided right away that when it was over I would like to pull it all together into a narrative.

The story about Joey Coyle was happening at 1981. When did you start to write it, and how much time you need to report it and write it?

Other than the reporting I did while it was happening, I did not begin to work on the narrative until years later. I probably spent four or five months on it.

How did you reconstruct this story accurately? Did you use a tape recorder?

I had the police records, the trial transcript and transcripts of Joey's statements and those of witnesses. I tracked down and interviewed all of the principal characters who would talk to me. I tape recorded those interviews.

Did you outline before start to write it? What’s first: outline or materials?

I always outline my stories before writing. I gather materials, then outline, then write.

How do you go about choosing a structure for this story?

I chose a basic chronology, but moved back-and-forth a little to separate out the police story from Joey's. I just thought this made the most sense.

How many sources did you need and interview to reconstruct this story?

I no longer recall. All of the major characters in the story were interviewed.

Did you face some troubles to write this story? How did you handle it?

I had some difficulty sorting out exactly what happened from day to day after Joey found the money, because his memory was faulty. I kept after him, and used the information from other interviews to prod and organize his memory.

I know most of your books about politics, wars, or wars against crime. Was it easier to write Finders Keepers than other books?

The process is the same. "FK" was a much simpler story than those I wrote in later years, and because I participated in covering it as it happened, I began the work with a pretty strong overview. The challenge was to understand Joey, why he did the things he did, what explained such irrational behavior. But overall I would say that this short story is the simplest of my books.

Mario “Sonny” Riccobene is a character that makes me curious. You used his words and quoted it in dialogue scene with Joey Coyle. But this character was not exposed clearly in this story. Is he real? and how did you get interview with him and verified his verse?

The presence of Riccobene in the story is disputed, so if you look carefully at that passage, you will see that I note the sources for the various versions of events -- some say he was there, some say no. I personally believe he was there. My account of what he said and did is based primarily on my interviews with Joey, Pennock, and Behlau.

I’m curious about Joey Coyle now. How does he do now? Do you interest to write about him now after 1 million dollar incident?

As I noted in the epilogue to the book, Joey lived for another ten years or so after this incident. He had increasing problems with drug addiction, and committed suicide near the time when the feature film based on this story -- "Money For Nothing" was released.

Thank you very much.

You are welcome!