WRITERS & LOVERS

by Lily King

Writers & Lovers is one of the best fiction books I have read this year. If you haven’t discovered Lily King (the author, not my co-editor), then you have a real treat awaiting you. Her previous book Euphoria was stellar and Writers & Lovers follows suit.

King’s protagonist, Casey Peabody, is at a crisis point in her life. At 31 and newly single, she’s financially on the brink and feeling estranged from her friends who are all getting married and having babies. Unlike her friends who she feels have given up their dreams, Casey is still devoted to living a creative life and finishing the novel she’s been writing for the past six years. Living in a moldy garage in Cambridge, Massachusetts and forced to wait table in order to pay her rent, Casey questions herself daily and wonders if she too should give up her dream. In addition to her turmoil over finances and writing, she finds herself in relationships with two very different men at the same time. One is a famous writer who offers her a safe life with a ready-made family. The other is a struggling writer who always manages to encourage her writing and to bolster her self–esteem.

Writers & Lovers is a coming-of-age novel, but not in the traditional sense. Casey isn’t dealing with making the transition from childhood to adulthood. She, like many “thirty-somethings” today, is grappling with whether to give up her creative, perhaps unrealistic, dream to pursue a more conventional, adult path. I recommend this book whole-heartedly. It is well written and relevant and immensely entertaining. (Liz)

A SECOND HELPING

A refreshingly small story with incredibly emotional depth, the protagonist Casey is heartbreaking and hilarious in turns. King takes an intense look at how the path to creating art can be almost as difficult as the path to finding love.
(Lily)