James Grady Looks Back at George Orwell, Bob Dylan Comparisons (Exclusive)
NEED TO KNOW
- James Grady once appeared in PEOPLE Magazine on the same page as Patti Smith
- His new novel, American Sky, came out on July 1
- In a Q&A, he reflects on his career and how things have (and haven’t) changed over the years
Author James Grady has had an illustrious career — which even landed him in the pages of PEOPLE in the 1970s!
The Six Days of the Condor author — whose book became the Robert Redford film Three Days of the Condor and the current Max Irons TV series Condor — has published more than a dozen novels and three times that many short stories, and has also worked as a journalist and a scriptwriter for TV and film. In 2008, London’s Daily Telegraph named Grady one of the “50 crime writers to read before you die,” and he’s been compared to George Orwell and Bob Dylan by The Washington Post.
His new novel, American Sky, hit shelves and July 1, and to mark the occasion, Grady reflected on his storied career and where it’s taken him.
The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Courtesy of James Grady
PEOPLE Magazine: Tell me what it was like being a PEOPLE magazine person to watch in the ’70s.
James Grady: Opening one of the most important magazines in the world and seeing my photo on that page was the most humbling moment of my life. I didn’t tell anyone besides my Montana family about such luck. I couldn’t. I didn’t want to be “that guy” who brags, smirks, expects adoring gazes.
PEOPLE: Robert Redford starred in the movie adaptation of your book, Three Days of the Condor – what was that like?
Grady: Picture this 24-year-old about-to-be-published author from Montana visiting New York for the first time, riding up in a skyscraper elevator with my just-met editor and finding out that cinematic icon Robert Redford is going to star in the movie based on my novel! It felt like that elevator was racing me toward heaven.
Courtesy of James Grady
PEOPLE: That book and the movie adaptation have now inspired a new show on Amazon Prime called Condor. How does it feel to see your work reach new audiences?
Grady: Millions of new hearts experiencing visions I had back when I was oh so young makes me feel like I did something lasting with my lucky life.
PEOPLE: What’s been the most interesting thing in your long career?
Grady: Knowing that my hard-worked words have helped regular people like me glimpse other possibilities in this crazy and confusing world of ours.
PEOPLE: How is the world changing or not changing in your eyes?
Grady: Too many people have been damaged and denied for so long that they are surrendering to fear and follies thrust on us by self-serving hucksters. Climate change, poverty, the savaged middle class, plagues and the rise of A.I. need to be faced now with far more vigor than when they were first realized back in my youth.
Pegasus Books
PEOPLE: Your latest novel, American Sky, is hard to put a genre label on, but it doesn’t fit the mold you helped create with your first novel that became Redford’s film. What was your thought process on shifting gears from one book to the next?
Grady: We all struggle to keep society from locking our lives in one box. Condor created a way for me to tell stories about our todays. Now American Sky lets me reveal our true yesterdays through “Baby Boomers” growing up so we all can better imagine our tomorrows.
PEOPLE: Your new book dives into themes like corruption and cultural turmoil. Why were those important to write about for you?
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Grady: We live in a world fraught with corruption and cultural turmoil. Writing fiction featuring such facts while telling tales of love, struggle, hope, humor and redemption is how I fight the darkness.
PEOPLE: Publishers Weekly compared your prose in American Sky’s trilogy to Larry McMurtry, and The Washington Post previously compared you to George Orwell and Bob Dylan. Have those greats influenced your own writing?
Grady: Larry McMurtry hooked me with The Last Picture Show. He knew how us heartland kids grew up and showed me how much I had to learn. George Orwell created 1984 as a timeless warning, pushed me to write about politics at its core.
Bob Dylan was a poet of revelations like “How does it feel?” coming out of my teenage car radio, showing me how simple lines can reveal complex realities. I am so lucky to know and learn from their and hundreds of other great artists’ works.
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American Sky is available now, wherever books are sold.
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