Southern Literary Review Editor Donna Meredith interviews Phyllis Gobbell, author of “Prodigal”

Novel Summary

It’s the Fourth of July, 2000. In a small Southern town, fireworks light the sky above the City Park, while down the street a smaller flash of light changes everything for 19-year-old Connor Burdette. He has just lost the girl he loves. Now, buying beer at the Back Home Market, he becomes an accomplice to a shooting. Out of desperation, he runs. It will take ten years and a death to bring him back.

Donna Meredith Interviews Prodigal Author Phyllis Gobbell

Donna Meredith: After writing true crime and mystery books, what inspired you to write this novel, which is more literary in tone even though there is gunfire in it?

Phyllis Gobbell: Prodigal was on my mind long before I wrote a word of it. Even while I was writing mysteries, Prodigal was taking shape. It started, I think, when I read Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger, then met him at a conference and heard him speak. This was my takeaway from what he said:  Ordinary Grace departed somewhat from the mysteries for which he was so well known, and he wasn’t sure whether his agent and editors would go for it, but he was simply compelled to write it. His book was set in a small town in the Midwest. I grew up in a Southern small town but identified with so much of Ordinary Grace, the small-town experience with characters who could have been my own neighbors. I loved the literary tone and themes of family and forgiveness. Even though there were deaths, there was a gentleness that threaded through his book. And I thought, I want to write a book like that!

 DM: How long did you work on this book? Did you know the plot arc and character arc from the outset or did they come to you slowly as you worked on it?

Phyllis Gobbell

PG: As with my other books, I started with a sketchy plot in mind, but a clear vision of what I wanted for the ending. The muddy middle, the path to get to the end, is the challenge. Prodigal’s characters were real to me from the outset, but they became more fully realized as I considered what their back stories would be.

I had a first draft of Prodigal during COVID, when I paused my mystery series because I couldn’t travel to an exotic location for another setting like Provence, Ireland, or Tuscany. But something just wasn’t working for me in that first draft of Prodigal, so I let it lie and returned to my mystery series, setting the fourth book, Notorious in Nashville, close to home, unlike the other mysteries.

Prodigal was always in the back of my mind. I made two significant changes before I was finally happy with the story. One change was a new beginning, putting the shooting at the convenience market out there immediately, then fast-forwarding ten years. The other change resulted in letting each of the main characters tell part of the story instead of having the whole story from the point of view of Ivy, the sister.

Donna Meredith

DM: You use multiple viewpoints. I am sure Connor really spoke to you since he is such a sympathetic character. I thought you nailed the need for a preacher’s son to rebel a little. Could you talk a little about Connor? Did you know about his betrayal of his brother from the outset of writing the story?

PG: I did know, from the beginning, that Connor had betrayed Russ, and I knew the sacrifice he would have to make (which the reader doesn’t know until near the end). Prodigal is reminiscent of the story in the Bible, where the prodigal son finds his way home and has to face his past. That’s Connor. The other brother who remained faithful to their father is understandably resentful that his loyalty is not rewarded. That’s Russ. The tension between Connor and Russ is more complicated, as we come to understand, but the plot is based on the age-old Biblical story.

DM: Which other characters really spoke to you as you created their voices?

PG: I have to say that using multiple viewpoints allowed all the characters to speak to me in a way I don’t think I could have achieved otherwise. Each one has a voice in the story, and with each new voice, I came to love developing that character. It was a little like getting into a role on stage, and taking on a new role with each chapter. An example is the scene at the cemetery when Connor is raging drunk, mad at the world. It’s not his most shining moment. Still, I am sure I felt he was speaking to me as I wrote the scene. I’ve never done anything like that, but it was a satisfying scene to write.

 A character who is not part of the Burdette family and does not have a POV of his own was one I particularly enjoyed developing. Every time I encountered Raleigh’s grandfather, Mr. Dalton, he became more significant. Originally, I hadn’t meant to have him return toward the end. He’d served the purpose I intended. But I realized he could do so much more for the story and that the scene at the Back Home Market was absolutely necessary.  

 DM: Religion plays an important role in this story—although you never allow the characters to become preachy. Please share your thoughts on how religion affects the characters.

Phyllis Gobbell

PG: Daniel, Connor’s dad, is preachy, but I think we can give him a pass because he is a preacher!

Going along with the prodigal son story from the Bible, my story naturally touches on forgiveness, and Connor is not the only character who struggles with what forgiveness demands.

In small towns, churches are as vital to the community as schools and law enforcement. Church affiliation is part of how people define themselves. Kitty’s brother feels more loyalty to Joe Ray Loomis, a member of his church, than to his own nephew. Church politics come up in Prodigal, with Daniel and the Chair of the Deacons clashing over the direction Daniel’s sermons should take. Most of the book takes place in 2010, but there is some foreshadowing of how religion and politics are starting to blur.

 DM: Is Montpier, TN, a fictional town? Did you base it on locales you are familiar with?

Montpier is fictional, but my own experiences definitely provided grist for the mill: the parades, the funerals, the neighbors, and how everyone knows everyone else’s business.  I hope residents in my hometown won’t be looking at the novel, trying to see themselves. They won’t. But I think any of the characters in Prodigal, major or minor characters, could have been my neighbors as I was growing up.

DM: What research was required for the writing of this story?

PG: I confess to having little patience for delving into search engines for information, though at times it is necessary.

I had only a superficial knowledge about traumatic brain injuries. For the most part I relied on my friend, Dr. Jim McFerrin, for the details about the how a TBI occurs, the treatment, and the long-term effects, as well as the information about blood matches which figures prominently into an important reveal of the story.

Also, I spent time with Sheriff Ric Wilson who shared his encyclopedic knowledge about law enforcement, autopsies, and the division of responsibilities between the town and the county. He read drafts of chapters, made suggestions, and corrected my mistakes. Though all my characters are fictional, Sonny Bellingham is a Ric Wilson kind of sheriff. 

DM: What question do you wish interviewers would ask you?

PG: What is the purpose of the fireflies?

I hope you noticed how many times the fireflies came up and you have your own thoughts about them. And I hope the symbolism will be clear after the final scene.  

DM: What are you working on next?

PG: I have a draft of another book, which is either a literary novel or women’s fiction or both. The Princess of Almost Alabama is based even more closely on my own small-town experiences than Prodigal. The time period is 1956-1978. My reminiscent narrator, Grace Edley, tells her story from the time she’s two until she’s twenty-two. Inspired by Demon Copperhead, The Princess of Almost Alabama is the story of Grace’s resilience, her quest to find meaning in life through her art, and her desire to change her scars into a map of the future.

 

 

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