Interview with Daniel Uebbing

The Last Cowboy
Daniel Uebbing
Robert D. Reed (2008)
ISBN 9781934759134
Reviewed by Danelle Drake for Reader Views (10/08)

Today, Tyler R. Tichelaar of Reader Views is pleased to interview Daniel Uebbing, who is here to talk about his new book, “The Last Cowboy.”

Uebbing was born in Warsaw, New York in 1982. He grew up in Canandaigua, New York. In April 2003, Daniel joined the Army as an Infantryman. He was stationed in Germany and served two tours to Iraq. Daniel now studies at St. John Fisher College and resides in Rochester, NY. “The Last Cowboy” is his debut novel.

Tyler:  Welcome, Daniel. I’m glad you could join me today. To begin, will you tell us about your book’s main character, Henry Dunn? Is he the kind of cowboy who wears a white or black cowboy hat?

Daniel:  I’d say his cowboy hat is tan, ruffled and rugged. He’s the kind of character who is very rebellious and very romantic—he keeps his own law in his head and his own love in his heart. However, he also represents a certain satirically fabled duality in the persona of American masculinity.

Tyler:  Will you explain what you mean by the persona of American masculinity—is he a satirical version of the Marlboro Man? In what ways is his persona treated sarcastically?

Daniel:  I like the term satire better than sarcasm because there is a certain seriousness to the cowboy as well, which doesn’t necessarily come with sarcasm. He is a red-blooded American, a charismatic character, yet as described in the novel, “no one on TV can say what he is” so he’s also sort of a wooden character, fighting wooden times, keeping his eyes hidden under his hat. And in one scene, he does in fact sleep behind a billboard of a Marlboro advertisement on the side of the road.

Tyler:  Why did you choose the title “The Last Cowboy”?

Daniel:  I chose it because I thought it was one of those great American titles that someone should do justice to. I know there’s been a few other last cowboys, but this one is different because it takes place in the summer of 2001. It’s not about some real historical cowboy; however, the novel is no doubt rooted in history and our national character; rather it is meant to be more satirically exploitive of this iconic character, the rugged individual. Subsequently, when Hollywood came out with “The Last Samurai,” I thought they were getting to close to stealing my title so I just had to get it out there. Also, that goes to show how Japan’s national hero is the samurai, when ours is the cowboy. When I first wrote it, I was actually playing around with “The Lost Cowboy” as my first manuscript was based mostly on dreams, with the cowboy always hallucinating and climbing a grassy hill in his dreams with the girl fading away at the top.

Tyler: Why did you choose for your main character someone who is obviously not a hero, or is there still something admirable about Henry as an anti-hero?

Daniel: Henry Dunn is a very intemperate character, to say the least. Just think Jack Kerouac and William Munny from Clint Eastwood’s “Unforgiven,” fused together. He’s the kid many of us have in us yet we suppress. He’s a lover and a killer, and the face of contemporary delusion. He is the last of a dying breed. He is chivalrous yet crude at times, at the drop of a hat. He is without restraint and he does not get the current system of society. Anti-hero would be appropriate. But also he is a virulent and irascible romantic.

Tyler:  What doesn’t Henry get about the current system of society? Is the novel in anyway portraying what is wrong with American twenty-first society?

Daniel:  He doesn’t get the system of money. He won’t wear the construction hard hat. Rather he tells off his boss and keeps on his cowboy hat and quits. He’s just one of those guy’s who’s had it with society. And in this sense it is like the ultimate societal novel, as it really satirizes every aspect of it in his odyssey. So duly, it portrays a cowboy sticking it to the man, if you will, and also the unruly nature of his behavior, his spirit which goes along with America’s historic obsession with a certain rugged-individualism.

Tyler:  Did you intend to soften Henry Dunn’s character by introducing his relationship with the Kid?

Daniel: I did, to an extent. Also, the kid, if you look in the masculinity chapter in a book called “Race, class and gender in contemporary film, by Benshoff and Griffin,” or many other liberal college books which expose the skewed constructs of Hollywoodized masculinity, you’ll find that the kid holds a psychological pillar in such a character as a cowboy. The kid, the virgin whore, the pop star diva, the sheriff, the deputy, Angie, Angie’s parents, all make up an allegorical characterization of the cowboy, who is on one level, just trying to complete his great American family and get back home, finding a mother for the kid and a wife for him. This is his main mission. The rest is all societal distraction, inherent in his character and in the idolizing Americans who harbor him along the way.

Tyler:  Will you tell us more about the Kid and his role in the novel?

Daniel:  The kid is me in many ways, as some of the little sub-stories derive directly from my relationship with my father growing up. He is also a delusion of the cowboy’s. This psychological complex also goes along with the encoded standards of masculinity that you see in old Hollywood films—the guy can do no wrong because he’s got a kid, a certain deluded taint of nostalgia to justify his present actions—he’s just trying to find a good woman for his kid…In short, the book is chock full of internal contradictions, and is also an intentional fallacy and a comedy.

Tyler:  Henry also has a girlfriend he wants to return home to. Would you say then that “The Last Cowboy” has romance in it typical of other Westerns?

Daniel:  Very typical. As I said before, it is on one level a very traditional allegory, tainted with modern problems. It is a tragedy, a comedy, a satire—but if one reads the book to its denouement, he or she will see that it is ultimately a romance. The romance is the grand overture of this novel, I think.

Tyler:  What do you think makes “The Last Cowboy” stand out from other Westerns?

Daniel:  Certainly, as I said previously, because of its contemporary time frame, its bold comment on America, rather than a documentary type exploration of some actual rancher in 1800 something.

Tyler:  What is the response you hope to receive from your readers?

Daniel:  I’m hoping for a shock and awe effect, but without the bombs. I hope they’ll be able to see the satire at work here, while at the same time enjoying the novel for its humor and wit and romance and moments of innocence.

Tyler:  When you said “grand overture” above regarding the romance in the novel, are you hoping readers will cheer for Henry and his woman to be together in the end?

Daniel:  I am hoping they will see the romance here, yes. And I’m sure people will be able to relate at least on a symbolic level. Yet really, he is the Last Cowboy, and I’ve had the honor of putting him to rest, so it’s sort of a lonely road, and I do expect many people will not understand. Therein, enters the book’s duality and realism.

Tyler: What made you decide to write a Western, or a modern day version of one?

Daniel: It was a culmination of all the great American novels I read in high school: Hemingway, Faulkner, Salinger, Kerouac, and one book I did a report on called “Stiffed: the betrayal of the American man” by Susan Faludi. This last one got me thinking just how the American man has been “stiffed” and how I could approach this conflict within a literary setting. Plus, being a cowboy was one of the first things I ever wanted to be as a kid, well, an archaeologist to be exact—Indiana Jones—but that whole nonchalance and simplicity and adventure of the cowboy persona attracted me at a very young age. I’d have my boyscout shirt and my leather jacket and my gun and hat and that’s all I’d need.

Tyler:  Daniel, what would you say were the biggest influences on your book, in terms of other authors, films, or personal experiences?

Daniel:  Well, I believe I answered the authors already but as far as experiences, I’d say being in the military, because there I learned a cross-section of American slang, as well as a general cowboyish way of getting things done.

Tyler:  Will you tell us about your writing process? Earlier you mentioned that you started the book out as being largely based in dreams. How did the characters and your vision for the book change as you wrote it?

Daniel:  I scribbled in notebooks, and then typed it out, inspired by my surroundings, including, the constant CNN hysteria, the great American books I’ve read, the political climate, and of course, my childhood fantasies and memories, as I was very inexperienced, to say the least, when I first scribed this tale.

Tyler:  Do you have plans to write any other books, and if so, will you tell us about them?

Daniel:  I plan on seeing this one through to a film, so I’m going to work on the screenplay and so forth, but when I do get time I would like to flesh out some memoirs such as my experiences in Iraq and Germany when I was in the first Armored Division as an infantryman, a few years ago.

Tyler: Thank you, Daniel, for joining me today. Before we go, will you tell our readers about your website and what additional information they may find there about “The Last Cowboy”?

Daniel:  I’m still working on getting a website up. For now however, I’d tell readers to go to Amazon where they can read some reviews and buy the book. Or go to Robert D. Reed publishers, online at rdrpublishers.com.

Tyler:  Thank you, Daniel, for the interview and best of luck with your screenplay.