On a sunny May afternoon, EW’s Los Angeles offices are catching literary fever.
The mood is excited, anxious, slightly overwhelming.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: To start, let’s talk a little bit about what these books are.
Credit: Elisabeth Caren for EW
I say, “Mom…!”
[Laughs]Evvie Drake Starts Overis a book about a woman who’s a young widow.
It’s a little romantic.
She has some addictions and she likes to read a lot.
She has a well-meaning, meddling neighbor who just wants to fix her.
We watch these two people grow… and deal.
What was your path to writing this book?
Was it hard to get it published?
I didn’t even know I was interested in writing until I was nearly 30.
One of them wasThy Neighbor’s Wifeby Gay Talese.
I read that and I was like, “This is very male.”
Because I wanted to read about that.
Can you talk about how that evolved for you?
And it was the opposite gender from mine, and I was intrigued by it.
But then I started talking to a lot of men.
The stories started to feel there was a lot ego involved.
Not in all the men, but in a lot of it.
Women felt more complex and interesting.
Taffy, what about you?
When I turned 40, a lot of my friends started telling me they were getting divorced.
I wanted to do that story forGQ.
I wanted to do the story of a divorce especially now.
Whereas now, it is staying home and hoping that somebody likes you which is equally horrifying.
He said, “It’s just not the kind of thing we do anymore.”
That was in late 2016.
I finished it pretty quickly.
And then it has this wonderful turn in its approach.
I originally had these stories in my head as separate things.
Then I had a separate idea about a baseball player.
I’ve always been fascinated by broken-down athletes I don’t know why.
I moved them into the same house.
But I started to sit down and write it, actually, in National Novel Writing Month in 2012.
And I wrote it for six days, and then my apartment flooded!
Four years later, I picked it up again in earnest.
And I don’t know if you noticed, but the fall of 2016 was kind of heavy!
[Laughs]
I heard about that.HOLMES:I needed a place to put some mental energy.
I love finding stuff like that out.HOLMES:And I couldn’t get anywhere with either one of them!
You’re all entering the literary landscape.
There have always been distractions.
That, to me, is terrifying.
That’s what I think.
That can be done in a quiet way, and it can be done in a busy way.
But I don’t think that books have an obligation to address the moment.
All writers do but unintentionally.BRODESSER-AKNER:I agree with that.
Were there concerns about getting it right, or not divulging too much?BROOM:Absolutely.
The entire act of being the baby child of 12 and telling this story felt like a major transgression.
It took me a really long time to give myself permission to write the story.
That provided a level of detachment, in a way.
But even now it’s horrifying.
I have dreams about it, because the smallest thing can make someone uncomfortable.
I’m trying to tell a story, which I think of as this epic, big story.
Readers have to come to know them.
It was hugely difficult and remains really difficult.
[Laughs]HOLMES:So it’s your reactions that you have dreams about?BROOM:Yeah.
It’s their reaction to things.
It’s very, very tricky.
You mentioned telling a bigger story that your family gets at larger themes.
Having read your book, that’s absolutely true.
The house, particularly, is such an iconic symbol of the American dream.
What was it for you about that house?
Or that it’s doing something for them.
De’Shawn, your book has, for lack of a better word, such a vibe.
Knot, your protagonist, loves Charles Dickens.
Who are some of your inspirations?WINSLOW:More recently, Edward P. Jones.
But Toni Morrison was the first for me.
Those are the first names that come to mind.
Linda, what about you?HOLMES:I am a romantic comedy fiend.
Nora Ephron is one.
[Laughs] I do also read books, I just want to say.
Some view it as a little condescending.
People read when they have time to read.
I would never be ungrateful for that, or have any sort of problem with it.
But for me personally?
I’m extremely lucky to have written this book and published it.
Read it at the beach.
Read it in book club.
Read it in the tub.
Someone told me she read [the galley] in the tub, and it made me so happy.
That’s a beautiful thought to me.
What about the rest of you?
We have a nice mix here of types of books.
Are you worried about being slotted into a category?BRODESSER-AKNER:I mean, I always am.
I’m a woman.
My name is Taffy.
[Laughs] That ship sailed long ago.
But when people ask me I’ve never understood “beach read.”
I understand when it’s used aggressively, but my tastes don’t change at the beach.
We never talk about the fact that everyone reads on the toilet.
Mostly, it’s being used to put my book on lists… and, yo!
[Laughs]TADDEO: I hate the beach.
Beach reads from people who hate the beach.
I burn like a lobster.
Lisa, you were called out a few times there.
How do you hope to stand out as an author?
She was like, “God, that’s pathetic.”
I was like, “Why is it pathetic?
You did the same thing with a broker.”
Just don’t call him."
I just think we should be less judgmental.
That’s my hope for the book.
De’Shawn, you appeared in aNew York Timesfeature heralding great new male black authors.
The piece argued that we are entering a new, exciting era to hear those voices.
What did it feel like to be a part of that?
It was a good feeling that someone wanted to showcase that there is a difference.
It’s very unfortunate that we get separated, we get weeded out or however.
But it was a great moment.
Your story is historical and you span several decades.
So on and so forth.
I asked my mother as many questions as I could come up with.
Sometimes she had an answer, and sometimes she didn’t.
That’s when I made it up.
Not so much now, but [growing] up, I didn’t go to daycare.
That’s the way she spoke to me.
And until I went to school, I spoke that way too.
So the dialect came easy.
I was befuddled by that for weeks after.
What place, what thing, is too young for history?
It’s an oxymoron.
Just finding people who wanted to talk about the history of this place.
There was no one paying attention to New Orleans East.
It never appeared in any of the narratives.
People were literally boiling their water; coyotes were running, according to stories.
I don’t think of these people as voiceless at all, whatsoever.
I think of centering their voices as they exist in my world, every single day.
That’s a beautiful note to shift into our lightning round on!
Last great book you read?HOLMES:I just readSay Nothing.
Oh God, I loved that book.HOLMES:You know the book!
I loved that book.
It is a book about the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
It’s a fantastic book.
It’s nonfiction, but it feels like really well-written fiction in many places.
I would compare it to Lisa’s in that way.HOLMES:Yeah.
They’re all books!
Lightning round to Taffy.BRODESSER-AKNER:I recently rereadThe Human Stainby Philip Roth.
I am never not in awe of his sentences and of the buildup and the disgust.
It’s kind of where I was going with, “This has happened before.”
I was reading about the crisis of political correctness in the ’90s.
“America is over!”
That was always a goal to me in writing.
What if you could surf an entire book in one, crazed breath?
[For me,] it’s two I can’t read one book at a time.
I wouldn’t call it ADD; it’s just me.I was rereading James Salter’sLast Night.
I don’t really love his novels but his short stories, I think, are among the best.
And Carolina Setterwall, who just wroteLet’s Hope for the Best.
I don’t think it’s out yet, but it’s also about a young widow.
And right now I’m readingMrs.
It’s my fifth or sixth reading.
I always love it.
It’s Me, Margaretby Judy Blume.BRODESSER-AKNER:The Pistachio Prescriptionby Paula Danziger.TADDEO:The Standby Stephen King.
I’ve always been a depressive.WINSLOW:I wasn’t a child reader.BROOM:Aesop’s Fables.
