Writers & lovers : a novel

Title:

Author:

Summary:

"Blindsided by her mother's sudden death, and wrecked by a recent love affair, Casey Peabody has arrived in Massachusetts in the summer of 1997 without a plan. Her mail consists of wedding invitations and final notices from debt collectors. A former child golf prodigy, she now waits tables in Harvard Square and rents a tiny, moldy room at the side of a garage where she works on the novel she's been writing for six years. At thirty-one, Casey is still clutching onto something nearly all her old friends have let go of: the determination to live a creative life. When she falls for two very different men at the same time, her world fractures even more. Casey's fight to fulfill her creative ambitions and balance the conflicting demands of art and life is challenged in ways that push her to the brink. Writers & Lovers follows Casey -- a smart and achingly vulnerable protagonist -- in the last days of a long youth, a time when every element of her life comes to a crisis. Written with King's trademark humor, heart, and intelligence, Writers & Lovers is a transfixing novel that explores the terrifying and exhilarating leap between the end of one phase of life and the beginning of another."-- Provided by publisher.

Edition:

First edition, First Grove Atlantic edition.

Physical Description:

324 pages ; 22 cm

Genre:

Bildungsromans.

Romance fiction.

Subject Term:

Waitresses -- Fiction.

Authors -- Fiction.

Triangles (Interpersonal relations) -- Fiction.

Life change events -- Fiction.

Geographic Term:

Massachusetts -- Fiction.

Publisher:

Grove Press,

Publication Date:

2020

ISBN:

9780802148537

Publication Information:

New York : Grove Press, 2020.

Call Number:

KING

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

Item Barcode	Collection	Call Number	Status	Item Holds
33607003471029	Adult Fiction	KING Lily	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

#ReadWithJenna Book Club Pick as Featured on Today
Emma Roberts Belletrist Book Club Pick
A New York Times Book Review's Group Text Selection

"I loved this book not just from the first chapter or the first page but from the first paragraph... The voice is just so honest and riveting and insightful about creativity and life." --Curtis Sittenfeld

An extraordinary new novel of art, love, and ambition from Lily King, the New York Times bestselling author of Euphoria

Following the breakout success of her critically acclaimed and award-winning novel Euphoria , Lily King returns with another instant New York Times bestseller: an unforgettable portrait of an artist as a young woman.

Blindsided by her mother's sudden death, and wrecked by a recent love affair, Casey Peabody has arrived in Massachusetts in the summer of 1997 without a plan. Her mail consists of wedding invitations and final notices from debt collectors. A former child golf prodigy, she now waits tables in Harvard Square and rents a tiny, moldy room at the side of a garage where she works on the novel she's been writing for six years. At thirty-one, Casey is still clutching onto something nearly all her old friends have let go of: the determination to live a creative life. When she falls for two very different men at the same time, her world fractures even more. Casey's fight to fulfill her creative ambitions and balance the conflicting demands of art and life is challenged in ways that push her to the brink.

Writers & Lovers follows Casey--a smart and achingly vulnerable protagonist--in the last days of a long youth, a time when every element of her life comes to a crisis. Written with King's trademark humor, heart, and intelligence, Writers & Lovers is a transfixing novel that explores the terrifying and exhilarating leap between the end of one phase of life and the beginning of another.

Author Notes

Lily King is an award-winning American novelist. She was born in 1963 and grew up in Massachusetts. She received her B.A. in English Literature from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and her M.A. in Creative Writing from Syracuse University. She has taught English and Creative Writing at several universities and high schools in the States and abroad.

King's first novel, The Pleasing Hour was published in 1999, and was followed by The English Teacher and Father of the Rain. Her latest work, Euphoria, won the inaugural Kirkus Award for Fiction 2014, the New England Book Award for Fiction 2014 and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award.

(Bowker Author Biography)

Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

King's, elegant, droll follow-up to Euphoria traces an aspiring novelist's effort to find herself after turning 30 and losing her mother. After a series of lovers and moves, Casey Peabody ends up alone in Boston, Mass., with nothing to hold onto. Her commitment to writing each morning keeps her at a dead-end waitressing job that barely covers her grungy rented room and the minimum payments for the massive debt she incurred for her undergraduate and graduate degrees. Her devastating grief for her mother, whose unexplained death occurred while vacationing abroad, can only be assuaged, she feels, by finishing the novel she's been working on for six years ("I don't write because I think I have something to say. I write because if I don't, everything feels even worse"). She begins dating the successful writer Oscar Kolton, as well as one of his students, and finds new inspiration in the romances ("Usually a man in my life slows my work down, but it turns out two men give me fresh energy"). Facing the impending loss of her apartment, she fears that living with one of her lovers would expose her "blighted" dysfunction. While King's resolutions of Casey's financial, emotional, and creative challenges don't feel uniformly convincing, the nimble, astute narration appeals. This meditation on the passing of youth is touching and ruefully funny. Agent: Julie Barer, the Book Group. (Mar.)

Library Journal Review

King, a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist for Euphoria, delves into what is frequently first-novel territory but with the skill and assurance of a seasoned pro. As the title suggests, the narrative follows Casey, a 31-year-old writer living in Boston, who is attempting to complete her first novel while debating between two potential romantic partners, both of whom are also writers. Successful author Oscar is widowed with two sons, while Silas is a quirky aspirant with whom Casey shares a strong sexual charge. A stressful day job as a server at a high-end restaurant, a recent heartbreak, health and financial concerns, and grief over her mother's recent death all add to Casey's dilemma over whether to choose the more stable and established Oscar or the seemingly less reliable Silas. With the novel set in the 1990s, missed and unanswered phone calls drive the plot in ways that wouldn't be possible in today's world. VERDICT While never minimizing the seriousness of Casey's personal problems, the book is also funny and romantic and hard to put down, full of well-observed details of restaurant culture and writer's workshops. It's hard to imagine a reader who wouldn't root for Casey. [See Prepub Alert, 9/9/19.].--Christine DeZelar-Tiedman, Univ. of Minnesota Libs., Minneapolis