ELLIE BROWN: This notion of the 20-Year Jinx is really quite bizarre. When did you first have the idea to write this book?
LARRY KAHN: I first heard about the 20-Year Jinx in a high school Civics class. The teacher was joking about the 1980 election, which was still a couple of years away at the time. I wrote a short story with a similar theme in my freshman writing class in college.
EB: Did you start to wonder whether The Jinx was real when Reagan got shot in 1981?
LK: No. I try to keep an open mind about things that can't be proven untrue, like psychic phenomena and extraterrestrial life, but rampant paranoia is not a part of my being.
EB: So you're not worried about the 2000 election?
LK: I'm very worried about the 2000 election, but I don't fear for the next president's life.
EB: (Laughing) So, seriously, what are your concerns about the 2000 election?
LK: I'm afraid that we're going to miss the opportunity to celebrate the millennium by doing something really big. I'm afraid that politicians will continue to get wrapped up in petty issues and miss the big picture.
EB: Revolutionary change, not evolutionary change. That's one of the themes you hit hard in THE JINX. Is that what you really want to see?
LK: I don't want to spoil the book for readers who want to experience the plot twists as they come, and I don't know if we need to go to the extremes that the politicians go to in THE JINX, but yes, I believe that we need to take several steps back, look at the biggest problems facing the country today, and develop innovative solutions to those problems. The Republicans' fixation on cutting taxes for the wealthy boggles my mind.
EB: Who among the current candidates do you think is most likely to bring about revolutionary change?
LK: Bill Bradley. I asked him to write a foreward for THE JINX, but he declined. He is the only one out there talking about making any one issue a national priority, and it just so happens that it's the same issue I believe should be our focus--race relations.