Writers & Lovers

One sentence synopsis... Casey is a struggling writer whose life is a series of deaths, tragedies, and grief... yet somehow every man she meets falls over his feet to ask her out. .

Read it if you like... navel gazing writers writing about wrought writing. The main character is like if “Girls” was only about Hannah being a self-centered, obnoxious artist but with Adam Driver as her boyfriend. .

Dream casting... the only person who could redeem Casey on film is the magnetic Merritt Wever. Matthew Gray Gubler as Silas, one third of the love triangle.

This is essentially a story about someone in a precarious spot in life finally catching a break and moving on to more stability. Casey has overwhelming student debt that she can barely afford to make payments on, she's been dumped by her boyfriend, she's not making progress on the novel she's been working on for 6 years, and she is grieving the sudden death of her mother. She works as a waitress at a high end restaurant and lives in what used to be a garden shed attached to the back of a nice house in Somerville. With all the financial pressure and grief, it's not surprising that Casey has anxiety attacks.

Casey's friend Muriel offers to read her novel draft, and from there things start to move. Muriel likes the draft and suggests some changes, which gives Casey new energy to work on it. She finishes the novel and sends it out to publishers to see if she can get a book deal.

In the meantime, she is developing relationships with two different men: Silas, a struggling writer like herself who comes on strong and then disappears repeatedly, and Oscar, an established writer and widower with two young sons, who is a bit overbearing. Neither of these men seem that great to me, but it's clear that Casey will end up with one of them by the end of the book.

I wasn't satisfied with the story this book told, but I did like the details in King's writing. The scenes of waiting tables in the restaurant, of Casey's panic attacks, of babysitting Oscar's kids–all of these were precise, full, and wonderful to read.

I always make notes when I'm reading a book so that I can remember them after I've finished. Sometimes a book can trick you into liking it by having a decent resolution at the end. This book tried. I checked my notes and they read as follows: Slow start, slow middle, pretty man-hating, ok self aware man-hating, predictable plot, and good resolution. This book was kind of grating. The self importance of the main character and her superior attitude towards every male character was over-the-top. I consider myself a feminist and the flagrant portrayals in this book and the complete lack of subtlety was a poor choice. Every male character was unlikable and most of them displayed toxic masculinity as their only trait. That doesn't make me as a reader want her to end up with any of them. Also, for it being a book about an author writing a novel, there were some pretty annoying spelling and grammatical choices/errors. The be frank, I didn't like it. Two stars just for the resolution.

‘So,' he says....'How's the novel?'‘It's all right.' The bees in my chest stir....One conversation can destroy my whole morning....‘You know,' he says, pushing himself off his car, waiting for my full attention. ‘I just find it extraordinary that you think you have something to say.'

Whew. The life of a wanna-be writer is not exactly what you may be imagining. Lily King tells it like-it-is in this story of Casey Peabody, a woman in her early 30s, working to complete her first novel after six long years of work. Casey is deeply in debt from college, her boyfriend has broken up with her, she is working a difficult job as a waitress, and her mother has just died.

Despite all the troubles of her life, Casey is a wise narrator, finding humor in the situations in which she finds herself, and sharing life-truths she has discovered, especially those about writing. Here is Casey, delivering a speech about writing to an audience of young people:

‘All problems with writing and performing come from fear. Fear of exposure, fear of weakness, fear of lack of talent, fear of looking like a fool for trying, for even thinking you could write in the first place. It's all fear....(O)ur biggest fear is public speaking. What I am doing right now. And when people are asked to identify which kind of public speaking they are most afraid of, they check the improvisation box. So improvisation is the number-one fear in America. Forget a nuclear winter or an eight point nine earthquake or another Hitler. It's improv. Which is funny, because aren't we just improvising all day long? Isn't our whole life just one long improvisation? What are we so scared of?'All the things I love in reading fiction are in this book.

3.5. It wasn't bad, just not very memorable. I found myself not caring too much about what happened with the story. I feel like part of the problem was this “love triangle” because I didn't know who to get invested in. I tried both, but ended up caring about neither. And the main character just wasn't as compelling as I wanted her to be. We also spent so much time talking about her writing and book, but we know next to nothing about this book so I found myself not caring too much about the writers or the lovers aspect of this story.

I'm glad I read it, but I will never think about this book after this review.

I was a little slow to get into this one but I ended up digging it! Really loved the insights about men feeling entitled to greatness. In some ways it's the kind of literary fiction about literary fiction that makes some people roll their eyes at literary fiction. But it's lovely on a sentence level and has interesting characters.

I will say that I thought it would appeal to me to read a book set in the Boston area but it started to feel almost...too set in the Boston area. Like why are you namedropping specific streets so often. It's fine.

Casey Peabody is a writer labouring over her novel for the past six years — long after her peers in writing class have moved on, married up, gotten their real estate license and put their novels away. In that time she's endured listening to male writers who feel they should already be famous, men dismissively wondering what she could possibly have to say while living in a potting shed that smells of loam and rotting leaves. She's barely covering her student debt working as a waitress serving grabby patrons at an upscale Harvard Square eatery and occasionally walking her landlord's dog. Getting health insurance only seems to reveal a litany of potentially life changing ailments at the hands of indifferent doctors. And still she writes.

Amidst all this Casey finds herself caught between two men. Oscar is an older widower with two precocious but adorable kids. He's an established and successful writer who has invited her into his little life. Meanwhile there's Silas, a high school teacher and struggling writer with a chipped front tooth and a rusted out car. Silas is a bit flaky and bails almost immediately after a first date.

All of this paints a bleak picture of the struggling creative class in America. So much so that I distrusted how it all ends. I felt manipulated even as I cheered Casey's every decision and win. It felt like a bit of fantasy in an otherwise grim accounting, and if King's writing didn't completely beguile me I'd otherwise begrudge her upbeat ending.

In the meantime the book has been optioned by Toni Collette for her directorial debut and I can't wait.

When was the last time you came to the end of a book and found tears forming at the corners of your eyes and wished you could start reading it all over again? The “plot” of this novel is thin - we meet a young woman writer, Casey, whose working a dead-end restaurant job, whose deeply in debt, who is very close to being evicted, who is finishing a novel she's been working on for six years, who is torn between two men, both or neither of which may be right for her and is mourning the death of her beloved mother a year before. And yet by the time I got to the end, Casey was someone I wanted to keep close, to read more about her, to watch the rest of her life unfold. The last time I had a similar feeling about a fictional character was Olive Ketteridge. I can't recommend this book highly enough. It is a gem. Lily King is my new hero. I liked and admired Euphoria. But I LOVED Writers & Lovers.

This was probably one of the worst books I have ever read.

Not because it was inherently bad, but rather because it had so much potential that was wasted by the lack of character development and tangents that made no sense.

I could not relate to this main character even though we have had many similar experiences. She just has no fight in her. She just lets herself get walked over all the time. Watching life pass her by.

The last part of the book (10%) was the best not because it was ending (which was also great), but also because the main girl finally grew a backbone.

I had high expectations of this. I do not recommend.

I really judged a book by the cover on this one. I was expecting it to be my joker based off the title, cover page, share a name with the author, set in a northeastern town; but I was wrong. I think maybe if I was in a different headspace and could focus on the book more I might like it more, but I really don't know.

High hopes,deep fall.

The premise of this book was so good. All the praising reviews,the summary and quotes led me to believe I would love it and I was so sure of it. Finally,I thought to myself,a mature story with a female protagonist (almost) around my age. I couldn't wait to finish the previous book I was reading to start this one.

I picked it up with much excitement,but right off the hook I found the writing different from anything I've read before,which isn't necessarily a problem. Still,somehow I couldn't connect with it at all,despite reading it in my native language. The phrasing is simple,straight to the point and written in present tense for the most part,yet I got confused and frustrated by the structure,because even though it seemed easy to read,it felt difficult and distant (just like the characters) for some reason. I wrote this off in the beginning as maybe this writer and/or writing style isn't for me and continued with some struggle.

I don't want to go over the plot like so many did before me,I think everyone got the picture already. Let's talk about the characters as I dropped a crumble about them above. I love getting lost in a story,growing passionate and experiencing intense emotions,rooting for the people in there. I think my main obstacle for this here was that practically none of the characters were loveable for me and to go even further,the reason for that in my opinion was that I didn't get to learn much about them because of the writing style. Many many paragraphs of prose,very little conversations. The only character whose internal thoughts I got to know was the main character Casey,obviously,which were extremely cynical. I didn't know enough about the love interests to be appealing,let alone charming. The guy she chose in the end was barely in the book. I caught myself wishing she wouldn't choose anyone,but get her life together instead.

On the bright side,I liked Casey's friend Muriel Becker,who's also a writer. Everyone in this book is a writer... I'm usually good at remembering names,but here I needed to take notes because of the tidal wave of characters mentioned. I think that was totally unnecessary,cause half of them never showed up again.

The pacing was terrible. I was considering dnf-ing at several points up to 40%. The recurring descriptions of people's orders at the restaurant our protagonist works at were getting on my nerves. I learned a lot about being a waitress,but not much concerning the other characters' personalities. The plot only “picked up” around half of the book,but I was still waiting for something bigger to happen. Neither of the lovers were fleshed out enough and I felt like I was completely lost in time. Therefore some things I couldn't wrap my mind around regarding them. Everything happened so quickly with Oscar,the widowed writer. He asked Casey out immediately after being served by her at the restaurant. He kissed her right on that date,talked about her "baby-making hips" after,said he loved her,asked her to move in with them etc. Then he had an existential crisis and turned inside. I was so glad she broke up with him. I adored his sons though. Silas on the other hand,while closer to Casey's age,seemed unreliable and a bunch of details were highlighted like his chipped tooth and smell that weren't the most attractive attributes. I just didn't understand. Why?? I kept wondering where the affection is coming from,because I couldn't feel any between all these characters,and it gave me the illusion that I left something out. There was another male character in the first few chapters that gave me a headache: Luke. Two broken people getting tangled in each other - never would've worked out. I had a feeling Casey was,maybe unconsciously,leading them all on. Exactly why she should've sorted her stuff out first,but I understand the story has a starting point and it has to go from there.

The funny thing is,I never got to learn the name of Casey's deceased mother. I thought maybe she named the protagonist of the book Casey was writing after her but that was never directly confirmed. Then there were some random things that made me do a double take. For example being a golf prodigy and her real name cause it's not actually Casey,which I didn't exactly understand why she hasn't changed since the nickname was given by her perverted father. Her idea of how to teach literature was ridiculous too and the whole book was about how she can't write for different reasons. Well,she never even really sat down and tried.

The last couple of chapters and some wisely written lines made up for this ride,but the main character could've done those things much sooner and it felt a bit miraculous. Also feeding your mothers ashes to geese felt so freaking off,the description gave me a morbid sense of feeling. The last sentences provided a nice meaning and explanation,I still feel wrong about it.

The thing I love about the Tournament of Books is that I get to experience books I probably would not have picked up on my own. It is also the thing I dislike most about TOB. I also have a bad habit of reading the book on the list that I have the least amount of interest in last. I really should read them first. Alas, I went into Writers & Lovers predicting I would not enjoy it and I may have made myself a victim of a self-fulfilled prophecy here.
That said, I didn't dislike or hate it. It's just not my type of book and I had to push through most of it. It reminded me of why Oklahoma! is my least favorite musical of all time- why does Laury have to choose between two duds? Wishy-washy Curley and violent Judd? Were they the only two men in OK?
And here we have a similar situation. Self-absorbed Silas and stuck in his ways Oscar. Oscar's children literally grated on my nerves. A therapist, at one point, tells the main character she reminds him of a donkey that starves to death between two bales of hay. It's more like she's starving to death between two empty troughs. Honestly, why couldn't she just take that moment to BE? Work on the novel, figure out her future, find a new place to live and get a job. Isn't that enough of a to-do list? Why can't we have fully developed female characters that put themselves first, and romance when they are emotionally ready?
Points for the David Byrne cameo.