Limitations on Young Adult Fiction: An Interview with Chris Crutcher

Abstract

Chris Crutcher's latest book, The Deep End (January 1992), deals with a child murder and a therapist who works with the victim 's four-year-old brother. Strong stuff suited to the beginning of a decade where at least one in every four children lives in poverty. His first book, Running Loose, appeared in 1983 and broke the boundaries of the sport novel for teenagers by stressing fairness and team play over winning. Stotan (1986) drew on Crutcher's knowledge of competitive swimming, and The Crazy Horse Electric Game (1987) his experience teaching in an alternative school in Oakland. Each novel moves the protagonist and reader closer to the absurdity of an adult world which fails to protect young people from family abuse (Chinese Handcuffs 1988) and ridicule (Athletic Shorts 1990), and accidents which kill (Running Loose) or maim (Crazy Horse Electric Game). Crutcher's prose moves like a skilled swimmer—direct, strong, and even. It's hard to put down. The reader is drawn along because there are no breaks. Chris Crutcher grew up in Cascade, Idaho, and attended Eastern Washington State College, where he majored in swimming but received degrees in sociology and psychology. Between jobs in Spokane, he wrote Running Loose, which he sent to his friend, Terry Davis (Vision Quest), who passed it on to his agent. Crutcher now works as a family and child therapist in a mental health center specializing in families involved in child abuse. I interviewed Crutcher at a Children's Literature Association Conference, where he gave a presentation that included a discussion of the ending of Chinese Handcuffs, which originally concluded with the murder of the abuser, but was changed to eliminate the murder. I thought his experiences might illuminate some of the limitations of writing young adult literature. The following interview took place on January 21, 1992.