Authors: Toby Devens
Happy Any Day Now (30 page)
Eventually—after emerging from the initial swamping wave of grief, and bolstered by good reviews for
Mercy, Lord!
—I was ready to write again. But I had a child to support and care for, and over the next decades, even after my second marriage, my time and energy went to the family and job I loved. Still, ideas brewed, and eventually I left my job to write a book that literally demanded to be written,
My Favorite Midlife Crisis (Yet)
. After that, another I couldn’t turn away—it had my heart—
Happy Any Day Now
.
Q. What do you most like about the writing life?
A. When the work is going well, you get something like a runner’s high. I assume serotonin or another pleasure hormone is surging, because everything around you fades and you’re totally absorbed in the joy of writing. Also, when things in the real world are falling apart and you feel helpless to change them, your ability to shape a fictional world, steer your characters’ destinies, give them satisfying resolutions to their problems can be sanity-saving.
The feedback from readers is incredibly fulfilling. After
My Favorite Midlife Crisis (Yet)
came out, I received so many revealing and touching e-mails via my Web site. Readers identified with the characters and thanked me for giving a voice to women “of a certain age.” One wrote that her husband had walked out of their marriage earlier that week and she’d been despondent. Finally, she forced herself out of the house, wandered into a bookstore café for a cup of tea and a browse, and picked up
Midlife Crisis
. She said that the book gave her hope that there could be happiness ahead for her. For an author, it doesn’t get better than that.
On the practical side, it’s nice to be able to work in sweats and slippers and make your own schedule. And I like the balance of the solitary—it’s just you and the laptop when you’re writing—and the camaraderie with other writers.
Q. What writers have you particularly enjoyed and been inspired by over the years? And are you a member of a book club?
A. The first who made an indelible impression was Louisa May Alcott. I loved
Little Women
so much that, as a preteen, I wrote a mercifully short play based on the story and drafted my friends to act in it.
Later on, I became a big fan of the three Johns: Updike, Cheever, and O’Hara, who did such a wonderful job of vividly capturing specific times and milieus. Dorothy Parker is an idol. She displayed amazing versatility: short fiction, poetry, screenplays, book and film reviews. Everything was clever and frequently, in the case of her stories and poems, heartbreaking.
I love Susan Isaacs’s voice.
Compromising Positions
was to me a breakout novel. Her savvy, witty woman protagonist was a new phenomenon and readers were captivated by her. Since I tend to write about bright women who use humor to brave their way through crises, that first Isaacs book was a personal inspiration.
There are certain authors whose talent transcends their genres. I’m addicted to Daniel Silva’s Gabriel Allon series, Elizabeth George’s Inspector Lynley novels, and Laura Lippman’s Baltimore-based Tess Monaghan books. These writers are masters of the spy and detective formats, but, bottom line, they’re simply fine writers.
Among the younger crew, I’m especially impressed by Tana French, whose Dublin-set stories are riveting. I have a review of her
Faithful Place
at the salon page on my Web site, at www.tobydevens.com. Maggie Shipstead made a marvelous debut with
Seating Arrangements
. Karen Thompson Walker’s
The Age of Miracles
is a stunning first novel.
As for nonfiction, Nora Ephron is a hands-down, thumbs-up favorite. In a tribute to her in my blog, midlifepassions.blogspot.com, I try to explain why her work resonates so deeply with women of all ages and backgrounds. Other nonfiction writers I’m always eager to read: Anne Lamott, Doris Kearns Goodwin, and Erik Larson.
I am a member of a couples book club, which is a hoot. The mechanics of coming to a consensus about what we want to tackle next is always fun and surprising because we try to move outside our comfort zone. We chew over the books during dinner. Once I nearly slung the soup at a dear friend. He literally hated a novel I adored. The back-and-forth gets pretty heated. But a really rich chocolate dessert always produces the peace that passeth (mutual) understanding.
Q. What is your next novel about, and what might we expect from you over the next several years?
A. First, I’m heading to the beach. And not just to stretch out on the sand. I like to have my settings—the medical practice in my first book; the invented Maryland Philharmonic in my second—work almost as characters in my stories. And what’s better than a beach town where an intruder from the past is about to make waves?
My protagonist is in her mid-forties, with an interesting history and a future in jeopardy because . . . Well, I’m in the early stages. I know it’s going to be exciting and fun to write and, I hope, like my other novels, exciting and fun to read. Even when the roof caves in (as it does literally and figuratively in this one)—especially when the roof caves in—if you survive intact, you gotta laugh.
That’s the immediate project. Over the next few years, more novels, because there are always stories percolating, and not writing is never an option.
CONVERSATION GUIDE
QUESTIONS FOR
DISCUSSION
SPOILER ALERT: The Questions for Discussion that follow tell more about what happens in the book than you might want to know until after you’ve read it.
- First, did
Happy Any Day Now
make you laugh? What were the funniest parts for you? - What is your overall reaction to the novel? Does it seem fresh and original? Do you care about the characters? Is it the kind of novel you want to tell your friends about?
- Judith Raphael is almost fifty and facing some major challenges in her life. Do you like her, even when she is obsessing about her situation? Her life circumstances might be quite different from your own, but can you relate to her anyway? Why or why not?
- What do you think of Judith’s mother, Grace? What do you most admire about her? Discuss her role as immigrant, garment worker, mother, and as her own woman. What has she retained from her Korean origins and what about her is purely American?
- Judith has changed over the years, but Charlie seems to be the same man he was decades before. Think about your first serious romantic relationship. Do you have regrets about the way it ended? How do you think your life would have been different if you had wound up with your first love?
- Judith’s grandma Roz was not happy with her son’s choice of Grace for his wife. Kiki was determined Charlie wouldn’t marry Judith. How much influence should a mother or father have over the choice of a child’s spouse? Discuss guidelines for good relationships with daughters-in-law and sons-in-law.
- Richard Tarkoff is Judith’s beloved mentor, who has had and will continue to have, through his gift to her, a huge impact on her career as a cellist. Has a mentor of some kind, professional or personal, ever helped to shape your life?
- Discuss Judith’s experience while growing up as one of the few Asian kids in school. Did you know kids in school whose ethnicity set them apart? Were you one of them? Care to share stories of what you remember, or what your own children have gone through?
- Why do you think Grace is willing to take another chance on Irwin? If you were free to accept him back in your life, would you welcome back a former husband or lover?
- Do you find the resolution of Judith’s relationship with Geoff satisfying? Why do you think they agree to move in together but not necessarily get married? How do you envision their future?
- Judith develops a case of performance anxiety that threatens her career. How do you feel about speaking before an audience? Do you (or does someone you know) have a phobia or fear that limits your life? What can you do about it?
- Have you ever had your fortune told, and did the predictions come true? Do you think Lulu Cho is a fraud or the real deal?
- The novel ends with a party. Describe the best party you’ve ever attended. What do you consider essential for a good party?
- Grace tells Judith that the next fifty years will be the best ever. Whatever your own age, do you agree that life keeps on getting better?
