An Interview with Sam Riviere

I anticipated reading Sam Riviere's debut novel Dead Souls for months after reading the description on some publishing site somewhere. A picaresque haranguing the poetry world in the vein of my beloved Roberto Bolaño and Muriel Spark? Bring it on. As I left my apartment the day of the book's publication to head to the bookstore, a package delivered to my apartment waited for me in the entryway. I pried the bubble mailer open as I walked, as curious as Charlie Bucket wondering if his Wonka Bar contained his golden ticket, only I had no memory of ordering a candy bar, let alone a Wonka, metaphorical or otherwise. Inside was nothing other than a copy of Sam Riviere's Dead Souls. The same book I was currently en route to purchase! I have no idea what this sort of serendipity means in relation to Sam's novel, which skewers the poetry and publishing worlds of Britain (and by proxy, the United States) with layers of ranting, hypnotic monologues, and dialogue with a touch of grounding in the form of the recurring setting of a bar on London's Waterloo Bridge. But I did know, as I intuited from Dead Souls, Sam values conversation in his work and life, and that I wanted to have one with him.