“What About the Bodies”

Ken Jaworowski is an editor at The New York Times. He graduated from Shippensburg University and the University of Pennsylvania. He grew up in Philadelphia, where he was an amateur boxer, and has had plays produced in New York and Europe. He lives in New Jersey with his family.

Jaworowski applied the Page 69 Test to his new novel, What About the Bodies, and reported the following:

I think I got lucky here: page 69 of What About the Bodies is fairly representative of the thriller's plot, in which good people venture into bad places. On that page, two characters are getting mired in a mess that will put them into debt with a brutal criminal. It’s a harsh moment, and, I hope, a bit of a funny one.

But behind the scene is a serious situation that many, many people are faced with: how to get money in an emergency. Several surveys have found that about half of all Americans wouldn’t be able to secure $1,000 if they needed it immediately. And that’s a reality that too many writers ignore. When I read a novel with a character who impulsively decides to jet across the country or dine in a trendy restaurant without worrying about the cost, I find myself a little put off. Sure, there are plenty of people who can afford expensive things. But there are far, far many more who can’t. And those are the people I like to write and read about.

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Q&A with Ken Jaworowski.

--Marshal Zeringue