Frequent PT contributor Matthue Roth's new novel, Candy in Action, is filled with exactly what you'd expect from Matthue Roth—quirk, humor, and more than a few surprises. The book follows a young Jewish pre-med student who models in her spare time; when she receives a little too much attention from an unwelcome admirer, she puts her childhood kung-fu lessons to work. Here, Roth is interviewed by his creation, the novel's heroine Candace Cohen:

CC: So, I don't know how to say this, but…

MR: Just say it.

CC: You're not exactly the sort of person I expected to write a book like this.

MR: Yeah, I'm getting that a lot.

CC: Supermodels, kung-fu…you're an Orthodox Jew. Are you people allowed to think about these things?

MR: One of the basic tenets of Orthodoxy is that the whole world is Orthodox. Models, kung-fu, kosher food, everything…it all comes from G-d. I mean, the Biala Rebbe in Boro Park is probably not thinking so much about Bruce Lee movies. But you watch those movies and you see the way he moves, and you realize there are profoundly religious undertones to what he does. His way of bending his body, it's totally Chassidic. He's letting his body guide him through these movements.

CC: Uh-huh. And, uh, models?

MR: Same thing, different world. I wanted to take a character that I'd have no way to identify with—popular, blonde, gainfully employed—and force myself to get into her head.

CC: And so you got me.

MR: I got you.

CC: So, not to burst your bubble, but is this all just some huge fantasy of yours? Writing yourself over as a cheerleader instead of an Orthodox Jewish geek?

MR: Right after I finished writing Never Mind the Goldbergs, I was learning a lot of Talmud with my friend Haggai, who studies Iaido, a Japanese martial art. And he was teaching me Talmud and Iaido together, and I thought, wouldn't it be awesome if life were like kung-fu films, where there's a dramatic scene and then, suddenly, someone calls out “FIGHT!” and everyone and their grandmothers are kung-fu fighting?

CC: Not only that—they're all experts, too.

MR: Totally.

CC: It's super disorienting. In those films, the grandmothers are all third-degree black belts [laughs]. Thanks for not making me a wimp. It's like, so many authors have a tendency to just, like, put their characters through hell. And I didn't want to be one of those characters—I wanted to be more like Buffy. You know, just like, talking through her personal issues with her best friend, but, at the same time, she's beating up vampires. “My boyfriend is SUCH a pain”—she gets even madder—and, wham, she stabs a vampire through the heart.

MR: But Buffy had its own problems. Even Buffy, which I love, did it. Over the course of the show, Buffy was used and abused by her boyfriends time and time again. She was almost raped. Her mom died, her best friend's girlfriend died…and it made us identify with her, it brought out great character moments; I think the show's writers were geniuses, but, to be frank, they treated her like crap.

CC: So, you wanted to make something that was different? That was the same?

MR: I wanted to create something that was all its own. I wanted to write an allegory for kids so they'd know they're allowed to kick ass. They're allowed to win.