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Wednesday, November 11, 2020

Writers & Lovers by Lily King

Lily King's recipe for Writers & Lovers will entice all readersstart with raw, confessional honesty, add a passion for gourmet food, spice with good and bad sex, mix well with poor judgement, and finally roast all the characters at high heat. If you're looking for a fun escape from these dystopian times, here's your time machine to 1990's Harvard Square. 

A couple of years past thirty, Casey Peabody lives in a dingy room above a garage, working double shifts as a waitress to afford a few early hours to focus exclusively on her literary novel. Unpaid student loans and credit card bills are tossed directly into the garbage. She bikes to work, past squawking geese on the Charles River, her tears mixing with the incessant rain. Casey is mourning her mother's recent death, failed love affairs, and a traumatic childhood. She writes both to escape and to find herself. Her true name isn't even Casey.

"You don't realize how much effort you've put into covering things up until you try to dig them out."

I recommend reading Writers & Lovers slowly to savor the perfect sentences. This a writer's book, expertly crafted but still easy to read. The writing never distracts from the story-telling nor slows the pace. Humorous interludes, passionate moments, and sumptuous descriptions of food brighten the shadows of the backstory. The characters are equally enticing as flawed. It feels so real and familiar. This marvelous book captures, more than any other I've ever read, the hardships and rewards of the writer's life and gives me hope to keep working on my own novel. 

Writers Disclosure: I have a personal connection to Writers & Lovers. After moving from Cambridge, Massachusetts to coastal Maine, I met Lily at the school our children attended. She looked so familiar, but I couldn't place her until reading her latest book. My husband and I had celebrated anniversaries, special birthdays, and graduate school degrees in the gorgeous rooftop garden of the old Upstairs at the Pudding in Harvard Square. Lily had been the perfect waitress, remembering everything without writing it down...until now. Brava, Lily!

My author interview and review of Euphoria (Lily King's previous novel).

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@Barrie Summy

12 comments:

  1. Wow! Sounds fantastic! I'm looking forward to reading. And I love your connection with the author. And, yes, I could use an escape. :)

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  2. Barrie, you'll love this book! Thanks for hosting and for the nudge to review. I'm looking forward to visiting the other posts...once I've done my Spanish homework.

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  3. I'm ready for a good book for an escape right now. Thanks for the review. - Margy

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  4. How cool that you know her. Tweeted and shared.

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  5. I enjoy food TV so much that I'm surprised I rarely get to it in book form. My wife's even more of a foodie than I am..and she reads way faster.

    This one might make it on a Christmas list...

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  6. I LOVED this book! My favorite part of your review was the disclosure--how fun!

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  7. Isn't that fun meeting the author. Great review, duly added to my list. Although, our library is pretty backed up these days.

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  8. I can apprecite, "This a writer's book, expertly crafted but still easy to read." Actually very much my kind of read. Thanks for sharing, Sarah.

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  9. The above "unknown" was me. I forgot to sign in. Time for an afternoon nap.

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  10. Yeah I liked this novel which I read in May 2020. Entertaining and rewarding. Coming of age tales always seem to get me and Casey was an interesting protagonist. I too liked King's last novel Euphoria ... and thanks for the author interview with that. Very cool that you met Lily in Maine.

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  11. Oh my! Perfect and even a writers book which my neighbor teacher and friend Pat Hampl taught me to love. My Spring Valley ladies book club to which I add the only diversity to is a member adjourned till we can meet outdoors next April will give us time to choose a book to read next summer as a group. I've been working to influence them on the subject of what good writing insists of and the fact that dissecting the protagonists is important but it's not the only thing. Small towns like where I live are still rife with gossip. If this books subjects and writing are to say and I'm sure it will be I'm going to have a lot of fun after I recommend it for next summer and me and my lady friends discuss it :-) Ray

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  12. What a fun connection to the author!

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