Still Life with Husband: Q&A with the Author, Lauren Fox. March 4, 2009

Still Life with Husband Written by Lauren Fox Hardcover February 2007 $22.95 978-0-307-26491-6 (0-307-26491-2) Q: STILL LIFE WITH HUSBAND is your debut novel. Where did the idea come from? And how long have you been working on it? A: I had the idea for this novel several years ago. It struck me that men who cheat on their partners receive so much attention in literature and popular culture, but, aside from a few obvious examples women who stray are sort of ignored. I know people whose relationships have been affected by infidelity, and it’s not always the men who are guilty. I started to wonder if I could tell a sympathetic story about a woman who has an affair. It took me five years to write this book, but I had a baby in the middle of that time period, so I took a brief two-year break to wallow in a cesspool of hormonal muck, then to run around after a kamikaze toddler, then finally, when things were slightly more under control, to sit and stare at the computer screen and wonder where my brain had gone… Q: So your narrator is a young married woman. You are a young married woman. Your narrator freelances for magazines. You freelance for magazines. You see where I’m going with this? You’re writing about infidelity. Are you worried you will be confused with your narrator? A: Yeah, and I lifted many, many more superficial details from my life and plopped them into Emily’s story—she lives in my apartment, hangs out at my favorite places, and she has my frizzy hair. Maybe I was looking for a fictional thrill. In fact, I think that, because this was my first novel, I did rely on a lot of those surface elements because they made it easier for me to delve into the heart and mind of someone who’s not like me at all. Fiction is fiction. If I had called the book STILL LIFE WITH HUSBAND: A MEMOIR, well, that would be another story altogether —a much more boring story. Q: Since I already know you are a happily married woman, how did you come to the idea of writing about infidelity? What parts of it proved to be challenging? A: The whole idea was challenging and complicated and even a little bit painful, and I think those are the things that drew me to it. The pull between loyalty and desire, between what’s ethical and what seems crucial for your own survival, and the decision to hurt someone you love—those are really interesting struggles to me, and I liked spelunking in Emily’s psyche, figuring out what decisions she would come to based on what she thought she needed most. I really grew to like her, and sometimes as I was writing the novel, I’d think, “Oh, Emily, don’t do it!” And then, of course, I’d make her do it. Q: I heard a rumor that your husband didn’t see the manuscript until it was completed. Is this true? A: Absolutely. My husband is an insightful reader and a careful critic, but I just couldn’t make good use of his skills while I was writing this book. “Honey, could you read the passage where the wife— hmm, yes, I guess she does look like me!—decides to sleep with another man, and tell me if you think the verbs are strong enough?” In fact, though, hardly anybody saw the manuscript while I was working on it. I felt that I would be too susceptible to criticism. I felt protective of Emily and her complicated world, and I wasn’t ready for anyone to mess with it until I was finished. Q: You started this book before you were a mother, and completed it after. Do you think the birth of your daughter had any influence on the book’s resolution, and do you think it will influence your writing in the future? A: Having a child made me a more productive writer, because when I know I only have ninety minutes to work, I tend not to fiddle around the way I used to when I had the whole day stretching out in front of me. You can’t spend three hours reading about the history of lentils when preschool pickup time is 11:15. As children do, my daughter has also changed the way I think about myself. I’m much less invested in my success or failure as a writer, which has freed me to write exactly what I want to write. I don’t think that my daughter’s birth affected the resolution of this novel specifically, but it is true that, toward the end of the writing of the book, I was closer to the experience of pregnancy and able to imagine that aspect of Emily’s experience more fully. One thing I’ve noticed since my daughter was born is that I find it much harder to think about, much less write about, really awful, sad things. I’m planning to focus on musical comedies from now on. Q: You earned your MFA from the University of Minnesota. Have you always known you wanted to be a writer? A: When I was young, when everyone else was outside playing, I was holed up in my bedroom, filling notebooks with tragic rhyming poems about horses dying in barn fires (“And sometimes in my dreams / I can still hear their screams”) and sentimental tales of blind orphans triumphing over adversity. Also, I’m spectacularly untalented at just about everything: I’m klutzy and bad with numbers and really frighteningly disorganized, and I’m the kind of person you feel sorry for when I try public speaking. It made the choice to be a writer an easy one. Q: What other writers do you admire / who are your literary influences? A: I like writers who play tug of war between humor and sorrow in their work, and I also appreciate a really excellent literary page-turner. So I love Michael Chabon and Lorrie Moore, Alice Munro, Graham Greene, William Trevor (especially The Story of Lucy Gault) and Ian McEwan (particularly Enduring Love and Atonement). Q: The best friendship between Emily and Meg is one most women will recognize. Do you have a real life Meg? A: I’m lucky to have more than one Meg in my life. I have several brilliant, beautiful, hilarious and kind friends whose affection I constantly aspire to deserve. They’re like editors of my daily life: they laugh at the good jokes, help me make sense of the complicated parts, and they tell me when I’m spouting nonsense. Meg is a composite of these women. More than one friend who has read the book has informed me that she knows she is Meg. One actually refers to herself as Meg. I just nod. Q: What’s next for you? A: I’m working on another novel. It’s about three close friends, two of whom are married to each other, and the messiness of friendship and betrayal.

March Chick Lit Info March 4, 2009

Wednesday March 25th we will meet to discuss Lauren Fox’s Still Life with Husband.

We will meet at the Central Square Branch, 45 Pearl Street.

See you then!

Happy New Year! January 2, 2009

January 28^th, 2009 we will meet to discuss The Last Chinese Chef by Nicole Mones.

Audrey is going to help me (and by help I mean pick out everything) order some Chinese food for January’s meeting in honor of both the book choice and the Chinese New Year. If you could – by Monday, January 26^th, please just send me an email and let me know if you are coming to the meeting or not. I just want to have an estimate of how much food we will needJ Also, if you have any eating restrictions or allergies, please let me know as well.

And as many of you know, the Main Branch of the library will eventually need to close in preparation for the Main Library’s move back to 449 Broadway to our brand new (and renovated) library space. We are not sure of a definite date. It will take a lot of time and detailed attention to move a library and obviously, in preparation for our new building, we want everything perfect.

I would like to have a plan for where we will move our book group meetings, in the event we won’t be able to have it at 359 any longer. You can check out the list of branches below, and even Google map them to see which branch looks best for you and let me know your preference at our January meeting. I also will work on seeing if there is meeting space at any other City building in the area (maybe City Hall Annex across the street). In theory, all branches are accessibly by T and a short walk. We can also look at temporarily (or permanently) changing the day of the week we meet. We will discuss in further in JanuaryJ

Boudreau Branch
245 Concord Ave.

Central Square Branch
45 Pearl St.

Collins Branch
64 Aberdeen Ave.

O’Connell Branch
48 Sixth St.

O’Neill Branch
70 Rindge Ave.

Valente Branch
826 Cambridge St.

January’s Book Selection December 18, 2008

The Last Chinese Chef

Nicole Mones

Though not a traditional chick lit novel, The Last Chinese Chef is a gustatory tale of a woman struggling to find herself in the chaos of loss and betrayal. The possibility that her late husband, whom she is still mourning, could be the father of a young daughter in China is almost unfathomable, but Maggie McElroy is determined to know the truth for both of their sakes.

In order to help finance her quest for the truth in China, she accepts a magazine assignment to interview a Chinese-American chef, Sam, who is on his own journey of food, family and honor. Through Sam and the story of his family, excellent Chinese cuisine and a great deal of personal strength, Maggie discovers her own personal strength.

Beyond a good story – The Last Chinese Chef brings up an interesting topic: what women from two different sides of the world will do for love. What a grieving woman would do for the memory of her husband and what a woman would do for the future of her daughter is intriguingly played out.

While reading this book – be prepared for serious Chinese food cravings. With the beautiful, descriptive imagery, you can almost smell the Chinese food cooking. In honor of both our book choice and Chinese New Year, we will meet Wednesday, January 28^th at 7pm (our normal time and place) for discussion and some authentic, mouth-watering Chinese food endorsed by our very own Audrey Huang.

We’re Famous! December 10, 2008

Check out the Chick Lit Book Group article in the Boston Globe – the last page of the new pullout “G” section or here!

Choose your own adventure… December 1, 2008

This is without a doubt the most original chick lit book we’ve read to date – a choose your own adventure chick lit book – Junior high series style – Pretty Little Mistakes by Heather McElhatton. We all get so busy over the holiday’s that this book should provide some relief – you can read all the stories – or just stick to one if you are too busy. Regardless which you choose, I can not wait to get together on December 17th at 7pm to hear all about it. Whatever you do – please do not go to Amazon or Barnes and Noble for any reviews – it could ruin a storyline for you – trust me!

Queen of the Road Q&A with Doreen Orion October 10, 2008

Doreen Orion, the author of our October book Queen of the Road, will be making a special phone “appearance” at our October 22 meeting! Ms. Orion will phone in to our meeting at around 7:30pm to answer any and all questions and comments from the group.

This is a fantastic opportunity to really speak with the author and learn more about her writing and her book. We are not a shy group – so this is going to be a lot of fun.

To continue with the theme of road trips and adventures, I wanted to invite you all to bring your favorite road trip snacks to the meeting (totally not mandatory – d o not feel obligated). I will bring enough for of my own favorites (surprises) but by all means if you can’t drive more than an hour and half without gummy bears we’re more than willing to eat them with you!

Women’s National Book Event in Boston 10/25/08 October 10, 2008

Last month I had flyers for an event sponsored by the Women’s National Book Association.

October 25^th from 2-4:30pm at “The Library” of the Hotel 140 in Boston MA (Clarendon Street) we will celebrate National Reading Group Month with yummy treats, new authors, assorted give always and opportunities to buy books. If you are a member of the WNBA it is $15 (or if we get at least 5 members of the CLBG (Chick Lit book group) to attend. Regular admission is $20 but we have to purchase tickets by October 18^th.

If you would like to attend, please send me an email klinehan@cambridgema.gov and I can reserve us tickets. Just let me know by Wednesday October 15^th. Since the event ends at 4:30 I am suggesting we all traipse out for a cocktail afterwards in the area.

Run – Ann Patchett October 1, 2008

Real Simple Magazine’s No Obligation Book Club is in fact reading Ann Patchett’s Run. I really enjoyed this book; we just discussed it at our last meeting briefly. Patchett is also the author of Bel Canto – one of my top ten books (or at least top 50). Ann Patchett will be visiting the Winchester Public Library (see previous blog post on that event. If you plan on reading this book anyway, you might be interested in what others have to say about the novel and Patchett’s writing.

Tickets for Julia Alvarez! October 1, 2008

Cambridge READS presents Julia Alvarez, author of How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, on October 16th at 7:30 at Sanders Theatre, Quincy Street in Cambridge.

Please let me know by 5pm if you would like tickets for you and a friend – if I don’t hear from you today, I will have some extra tickets, so no worries.