Guest Post by Stephen McCauley
I’ve always been charmed by stories of couples who reconnect after
years and even decades apart. I think they appeal to the part of me that likes
familiarity and continuity as well as the part that craves the excitement of
the new. A familiar person in an exciting new context. Probably my
favorite example is Noel Coward’s play Private Lives.
I don’t
think I’m the only one who is attracted to this kind of story. When I mention
the title of my new novel, people often start telling me about cyberstalking
old boyfriends, high school sweethearts, and lost loves. “It’s totally
innocent,” they invariably say. “I’d never do anything.” To which I say,
“Yeah, right!”
In My
Ex-Life, the previously-married couple is Julie and David. When they
reconnect after thirty years, they’re both in crisis and each wants to help out
the other. They still love each other, but David has since come out as gay, so
their love story is not destined to end in another marriage.
I really
loved these two characters who quickly began to feel as real to me as people in
my life. I had no idea how the novel would end, and I’m opposed to manipulating
a “happy ending,” but I really hoped things would work out for them. One of the
nicest things about the response to the book has been hearing people say they,
too, fell in love with the characters.
There’s a
lot in the novel about college essays (I’ve been teaching at the college level
for thirty years) and about Airbnb (I own a couple of short-term rentals). As a
narrative device, I love the idea of people welcoming complete strangers into
their most intimate spaces—their houses. It also says something about the
culture and the economy right now that so many of us are doing this.
In the
case of all the other novels I’ve written (My Ex-Life is my seventh, my
ninth if you count two I wrote under the pseudonym Rain Mitchell) I was happy
to reach the end and part ways with the characters, let them live their own
lives. In this case, I was genuinely sorry to leave them. That said, there’s a
melancholy sweetness about saying goodbye to friends. And since I’m working on
a new novel, I’m in the process of making some new ones.
Giveaway
I grew up outside of Boston and was more or less educated in public
schools. I went to the University of Vermont as an undergraduate and
studied for a year in France at the University of Nice.
Upon graduation, I worked at hotels, kindergartens (see The Object of My Affection),
ice cream stands, and health food stores. I taught yoga in a church
basement and set up a house cleaning service. For many years, I worked
as a travel agent (see The Easy Way Out) and was able to travel somewhat extensively and inexpensively.
Links to visit for Stephen:
No comments:
Post a Comment