Credit: Winky Lewis
As we shelter-at-home and need wonderful, moving books to distract and entertain us, our current virtual book club pick is WRITERS & LOVERS by Lily King. Store co-founder Judy Blume writes, “WRITERS & LOVERS, is exactly the book we need now. Witty and heartfelt, . . . filled with memorable characters.”
We had the opportunity to ask Lily King a few questions about her new novel, hear about how the Covid-19 pandemic is changing book promotion and get some reading recommendations.
Q: What has it been like promoting a novel during this time of closed bookstores and sheltering at home? What, if anything, will you keep in your bag of tricks when we get back to being able to hold in-person events?
A: I had three in-person events before we went into isolation. Then within a few days many bookstores had figured out virtual solutions. It really is amazing how quickly you all have adapted. I’m always so happy when a bookstore that I was supposed to visit on my tour invites me to do something online. What’s great about it is that people from anywhere can come. They can pick and choose the time and the date. It’s really fun in that way, seeing who shows up. I wish I could introduce everyone to each other and we could out go out for a drink after, but that’s another lifetime. It’s easier to hold a room from a podium than from a computer screen. You feel that. There’s an energy in a real roomful of people that doesn’t get created in the same way. Everyone’s mic is off so you can’t hear people’s responses. But the in-conversation format is really suited to the virtual event and if you get a good conversation going it nearly feels real. I had one a few weeks ago and I got so absorbed I actually forgot about the virus for a full hour. That was lovely.
I do think we’re learning that these events really can work, that if the author cannot travel to the store they can still support the store and the store can support them. I like the idea that after this is all over, for the price of the book you could get a Zoom invitation from the store to an online event. I think it would be a real incentive to buy the book at the store that’s hosting it. As a reader, I have loved the Zoom events I’ve attended on my couch in my slippers after a long day.
Q: Very early in the novel, Casey says, “I don’t write because I think I have something to say. I write because if I don’t, everything feels even worse.” Do you share Casey’s position on the purpose of writing?
A: Completely. Writing things down always makes me feel better. But what Casey doesn’t quite understand yet is that she does have something to say. She has a lot to say. We all do. But when you write fiction you often have no idea what you have to say until you’ve written a full draft of the thing. Then you start to get it. Then you can start to shape and highlight those things. But what you have to say in a novel cannot be summed up in a few tidy sentences or bullet points. What you have to say is an experience that usually takes a few hundred pages to evoke.
Q: WRITERS & LOVERS has such a strong sense of place, a little claustrophobic, but also filled with the familiarity of coming home. How does that sense of place interweave with the narrative themes around grief and love?
A: Claustrophobia is one of my trademarks! My first three novels were about families because a family in a house guarantees claustrophobia. I was attracted to the story of EUPHORIA for the same reason: three scientists marooned together in the jungle of Papua New Guinea. In WRITERS & LOVERS I needed Casey to be coming back to the region she grew up in, back to everything that once was familiar and now has a layer of sadness and nostalgia but also great comfort to it. She comes back to the state where she was raised with all its memories of her mother as a young woman, full of life and desires of her own. All that is swirling around in the background when Casey returns to New England.
Q: What are you reading and recommending?
A: Right now I’m reading THE OTHER LANGUAGE, stories by Francesca Marciano which I love. I’m also reading two nonfiction books, THESE TRUTHS by Jill Lapore and EPIDEMICS AND SOCIETY by Frank Snowden, both of which I find intriguing. Recently I loved SUCH A FUN AGE by Kiley Reid, THE REVISIONERS by Margaret Sexton, and WEATHER by Jenny Offill. Next on my list are NOTHING TO SEE HERE by Kevin Wilson and THE NIGHT WATCHMAN by Louise Erdrich and ACTRESS by Anne Enright and SPRING by Ali Smith.
Q: What are you working on now, if you don’t mind saying?
A: I’m working on a collection of short stories, which I am grateful for. I’m not sure I have the stamina right now for a novel.
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Read Judy Blume’s review. If you want to stay up-to-date on store news and features like this one, subscribe to our email newsletter on our website, just scroll down to “Join us” and fill our the contact form.
Every other month or so, we pick a new book for the Books & Books @ The Studios Virtual Book Club. Our virtual book club is a way for us to share what we’re reading with our friends near and far. It’s an opportunity to pick up a new read and share your thoughts (and photos) with other readers online. Follow our book club hashtag (#bbkwbookclub) on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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