User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
I could definitely argue that the wonderfulness in Writers and Lovers, and the sheer range of emotions it made me feel, cannot be summed up in one swift review. Instead, I'll just tell you to get your ass in gear and read this while I marinate in the awesome; then we can all scream at the sky about it together when you finish. Sound good?
Rating: really liked it
Wow! Wow! That’s two “Wows, readers stand up and take notice. I can say with great confidence that I have found my favorite book of 2020. And that’s saying something.
First a little editorial comment; the story is based on the trials and tribulations of a writer, a topic to which I can easily relate. Smooth, elegant prose I loved it. Thrillers and mysteries have much steeper story arcs that help hold the reader in the fictive dream. The arc in this book is all but nonexistent. The evolution of the character and the author’s wonderful prose hold the reader spellbound and help disguise the structure actually makes it disappear. This is difficult to accomplish, and this author makes it look easy.
The prose, the voice, the characterization makes this book the kind that becomes a comfortable old friend and stays with you forever. I can’t say that about too many books. This, after the point of view character (and the author by proxy) disparages one my favorite books/author--All the Pretty Horses. Writers and Lovers is about a 31yr. woman trying to find her way in life while dealing with writing, work, her angst over the dead mother and her relationships. None of these things take center stage and all are balanced equally. Well done. The conflicts all come together at the end in a very satisfying conclusion.
David Putnam Author of The Bruno Johnson Series.
Rating: really liked it
Please don’t do this. Don’t write a novel about trying to write a novel. It’s cliche and insular and lazy. Just don’t do it.
Unless it’s
this novel — this wonderful, witty, heartfelt novel by Lily King called “Writers & Lovers.”
“Writers & Lovers” is a funny novel about grief, and, worse, it’s dangerously romantic -- bold enough and fearless enough to imagine the possibility of unbounded happiness. According to the penal code of literary fiction, that’s a violation of Section 364, Prohibiting Unlawful Departure from Ambiguity and Despair.
The narrator is Casey, a 31-year-old woman clinging to her dream of a creative life after all her MFA friends have settled down, married up and sold out. One by one, they’ve succumbed to law or engineering school. A promising writer she used to room with has become a real estate agent, but she tries to convince Casey that she still uses “her imagination when she walked through the houses and invented a new life for her clients.” Rest in peace, dear friend.
When the novel opens in the 1990s, Casey is living alone in. . . .
To read the rest of this review, go to The Washington Post:https://www.washingtonpost.com/entert...
Rating: really liked it
This is an introspective, intimate story of a woman coming into her own, a struggling writer, struggling to figure out her life. We meet Casey Peabody in 1997 in Cambridge, MA. She’s a mess, grieving the loss of her mother, burdened financially with over $70,000 in student loans and other debt, working as a waitress and living in a rented, mold smelling shed. She’s been struggling for six years to write a novel. Her romantic life is unsteady, reeling from a breakup and now unsure of which of the two the men in her life she should be with.
I had anxiety reading this! Nothing was going right for this woman. She even faces some medical issues, yet no matter what, she remains determined and true to herself. There is just something so genuine and likable about her. Her pompous landlord asks how her writing is coming and says,”I just find it extraordinary that you think you have something to say.” I found his comment to be extraordinary and not in a good way. Who with an iota of empathy would say such a thing? A big jerk! She doesn’t respond but as narrator she tells the reader , “ I don’t write because I think I have something to say. I write because if I don’t, everything feels even worse.” That says so much about the artistic drive, or need or yearning.
A writer writing about a writer - can’t help but wonder how much is autobiographical. I can’t help but think that Lily King knows intimately about why Casey writes, why she is determined in spite of everything. The writing is impeccable. I felt the grief and the sadness and the uncertainty of Casey’s feelings about her romantic interests. I’m not a writer or an artist in any way, but King allowed me get a glimpse of that creative need. I was rooting for Casey all the way. I can’t say I expected the ending. I really wasn’t sure how it would end,but I know that I loved it.
(I’m embarrassed to say that this is my first Lily King book. Embarrassed because my Goodreads friend Candi gifted me a copy of Euphoria as part of a book exchange a few years ago and I still have not read it! It’s been on my nightstand for too long. I enjoyed King’s writing so much here, I really need to get to it. Promise, Candi,)
I received a copy of this book from Grove Press through Edelweiss.
Rating: really liked it
What a joy to immerse myself into such beautiful writing and storytelling. Casey is 31, a struggling writer who is working as a waitress and saddled with crushing debt. To complicate matters further, she’s dealing with debilitating grief at her mother’s untimely death and estranged from her father.
As Casey struggles to simply survive and complete her novel she dates two very different men, unsure which one is for her (if either). She deals with some medical issues while worrying about insurance. At 31, she is still trying to figure out life, what the future holds, and wondering if she’s somehow gotten it all wrong.
I fell hard for Casey. She’s so likable, I was rooting for her from the first page to the last. I wanted to fold her into my arms and tell her everything would be ok. At certain points I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough to find out what would happen next, which is rare in an introspective literary fiction novel.
I loved her thoughts on books and what a literature teacher should be instilling in her students (how I would have loved to have had a high school teacher who thought the same). I loved the trip to the art museum, reading her thoughts and how emotionally moved she was by certain paintings. I loved the inside look at what it is like to waitress at an upscale restaurant, and how she dealt wih her co-workers and patrons. I loved the insight into a writer’s life. I loved her interactions with two young boys who had lost their mother, boys who stole my heart.
The skill of the author is how relatable and sympathetic she made Casey, even though my life couldn’t be more different than hers. Except for losing a mother. I lost mine a little over a year ago and there were passages that spoke to me on a deep level, as only someone who has lost their mother can understand. I love introspective novels where I get a glimpse into the thoughts and feelings of the characters, their hopes, dreams, successes failures, and insecurities. I felt her pain and rejoiced at her successes, and wasn’t ready for the book to end, although it ended perfectly.
“An author is trying to give you an immersive adventure”. Lily King did just that and I loved it.
I want to end with some quotes I particularly loved:
Casey on writing:
Her landlord says to her: “I just find it extraordinary that you think you have something to say.” (seriously????) Casey is stunned into silence but thinks: “ I don’t write because I think I have something to say. I write because if I don’t, everything feels even worse.” >
On grief:
“I can tell he lost someone close somehow. You can feel that in people, an openness, or maybe it's an opening that you're talking into. With other people, people who haven't been through something like that, you feel the solid wall.”
“I look back on those days and it feels gluttonous, all that time and love and life ahead…..and my mother on the other end of the line.”
“She will want to know that. But I can’t tell her. That’s the wall I always slam into on a good morning like this. My mother will be worrying about me, and I can’t tell her that I’m okay.”
“You don't realize how much effort you've put into covering things up until you try to dig them out.”
Other favorite quotes:
“Nearly every guy I've dated believed they should already be famous, believed that greatness was their destiny and they were already behind schedule….I thought I was just choosing delusional men. Now I understand it's how boys are raised to think, how they are lured into adulthood. I've met ambitious women, driven women, but no woman has ever told me that greatness was her destiny.”
“I…think about how you get trained early on as a woman to perceive how others are perceiving you, at the great expense of what you yourself are feeling about them. Sometimes you mix the two up in a terrible tangle that’s hard to unravel.”
“It's a particular kind of pleasure, of intimacy, loving a book with someone.”
Rating: really liked it
How do you give a five star rating?
For me, it's a combination. It's a little bit how I felt about a book while I was reading it, but it's mostly how I feel about it after. If I'm unable to stop thinking about it: five stars. If it leaves a mark on my brain I can't shake: five stars. If it changes the way I think, even if it's a subtle tone shift, even if it doesn't last very long: five stars.
This is why most of my five star ratings come out of books I initially four starred, or four-point-five starred, or refused to rate.
Because in the other case, I five star a book impulsively based on how much I liked reading it, but I don't come out of it thinking much at all.
Like in the case of this.
I couldn't put this book down. It's beautifully written, I connected with our protagonist hard, I adored the setting (BOSTON I LOVE YOU!), it ate me up while I read it. And for a day or so after, I did wish I was still reading it, because I am constantly in search of that feeling. It's why I read so much. (Too much, you could say, if you wanted to give my branding a boost. #emmareadstoomuch)
But now, a month later (exactly!), I'm left not feeling much. I remember this book, sure, but in the way you remember a conversation you had a few weeks ago or a mundane dream. In a surface-level, simple remembrance way. It didn't leave a mark.
So: dropping to four point five rounded down it is!
Bottom line: Reading is weird. But the best weird thing.
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pre-reviewoh, no. i couldn't stop reading this book and now i'm finished and it's 2 am.
review to come from a sleepy me / 5 stars i think (dropped to 4.5 upon reviewing)
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tbr reviewgive me all the literary fiction with boston settings
Rating: really liked it
Boston University Bridge, connecting Boston to Cambridge, referred to as the BU Bridge, is mentioned many times throughout “Writers & Lovers”.
Casey Kasem, rides her banana seat bike over the BU bridge to and from work. Each time Casey crosses the bridge — it feels like a monumental moment —symbolic—
a life in transition….a new start….hope for connection and stability.
As she pedaled across the BU Bridge, often at dusk, I got the feeling it was where Casey measured her healing, her strength…taking personal inventory of thyself.
I’m not sure if this book is for everyone — (I already saw a couple of low reviews —which I read carefully & respected), — but for me — this book was heaven!!! I enjoyed it every bit as much as I did “Euphoria”) ….
Casey is a 31 year old woman….
…..She is struggling to become a writer.
…..She was once a golf prodigy at Duke College —at age 14 —
…..She is struggling to gain financial independence. She has debts.
…..She has medical problems
…..She wants romantic and sexual fulfillment.
Years ago, I once lived in a tiny furnace room with no windows & unfinished walls — for $35 a month —in a large house in the Oakland Hills, while attending school at UC Berkeley.
It was easy to imagine the “Potting Shed” that Casey Kasem lived in. (there was room for a twin mattress, a desk, chair, hot plate, and toaster oven in the bathroom).
Casey’s landlord, Adam, (attorney and friends with her brother, Caleb), took an extra $50 off her rent (besides already giving her a deal), in exchange for walking his dog, *Oafie*, each morning.
Conversations between Casey and Adam were limited —Adam was not the ‘guy’ or ‘guys’ Casey got romantically involved with….(Luke, Silas, and Oscar are the lucky ones) ….
But I had a great laugh over a morning exchange between Adam (dressed for work in his spiffy suit) — and Casey (dressed in sloppy sweats about to walk his dog) …
Adam asks Casey:
“How many pages have you written?”
“Couple hundred, maybe, Casey says”
“I find it extraordinary that you think you have something to say”. (Ouch!!)
Casey had been accepted to attend a writers group for eight weeks, “Red Barn”. But, then her mother died....wishing she could postpone the dates —but it was ‘take it’ now —or forget the opportunity. She took it…….and brought her grief from Bend, Oregon, to Cambridge - making it very difficult to focus on writing.
Luke was from New York…in the workshop with Casey. He told her he lost a child —and that he and his wife were divorced. (Not divorced) — but for a short time —they had a ‘thing’ together. Casey even thought her dead mother brought Luke to her -to help with her grieving.
Later we meet Silas —and Oscar — (and their back stories)
Torn between two lovers —Casey will eventually choose. There was a hilarious conversation about ‘choosing’.
Ha, not wanting to share any profanity-words-to-describe the dialogue between friends and Casey —(as to which guy to pick) — I’ll just add — the many ‘friends’ of Casey’s in this novel were wonderful!
I loved the atmosphere Lily King painted.
One night, Casey was watching other writers in the workshop enjoy the night air. They were rocking in chairs on a porch.
“The Sky was violet, the trees dark blue. The frogs had started up in the pond across the road, louder and louder the closer you listened”.
I found myself listening to Casey’s inner thoughts….’louder & louder’ in the same way Casey listened to those frogs.
I was torn between wanting to plow forward quickly - to slowing down my reading - to savior Lily King’s lovely sentences.
I chose to slow down. 
I loved many ’tidbits’ in King’s storytelling……
Wandering through the Museum of Fine Art...Casey is on a date with Silas.
She remembers her mother use to bring her when she was little.
Casey & Silas drift over to ‘Art of Americans’, and stop at a painting -
‘Sargent’s: The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit’. (Considered the most psychologically compelling painting of John Singer Sargent’s career)...
I also love that painting.
It’s a painting of the four little girls... wearing white pinafores.
The conversation/interpretation about the painting between Casey and Silas was fascinating - I just liked it!!
I also loved what Casey said when she viewed the painting:
“If I could write something as good as right there, right where that belt cinches her pinafore. It’s hard to pull my eyes from it. I don’t know why it’s so moving to me, and I could never explain. There’s a madness to beauty when you stumble on it like that”.
I LOVE THOSE TYPE of MOMENTS IN LIFE!!! I live for them, too!!!!
I’m a reader — (never -ever- claimed to be a writer —in fact —I hate writing —always sure I can’t get any of the words right) …. Thank heavens for a little freedom on Goodreads. (We don’t have to all be writers) —some of us just want to share -and connect with others who might be interested in the same books we are.
But this is true:
I thought…
This book…
Was…
***BEAUTIFUL - THOUGHT PROVOKING - INTROSPECTIVE & REFLECTIVE!!***
I LIKED IT A LOT!!!!!!!
I loved my private quiet time with the characters -the college town - the restaurant - (the people, descriptions of foods, wines, plants, customers), the lovely insightful writing -
I didn’t even want to write this review —because I liked this book soooo much —
I loved little things that I’m not sure anyone else would care. I really grew from this book —and its embarrassing to share that!!!! (Makes a girl feel pretty small)
At the museum Casey and Silas were standing in front of Van Hogg’s oil painting....’Houses at Auvers’....then Henri Matisse’s ‘Vase of Flowers’ ...I was in enjoying their museum stroll. I looked up the paintings on google simply to enjoy them....
Those paintings alone slowed down my reading. I was totally enjoying savoring Lily’s new book! And I was feeling sad —wanting to really visit the New York Museum of Art. I haven’t been. I haven’t been to Boston — I haven’t been to Cambridge — I actually had tears feeling the loss of a place I’ve never been -but have wanted to go.
In the meantime, I’m writing a crappy review — (I’m sure I need an editor), —
ha….of a book I *totally loved*!
There was a scene a little too close to home. I had five surgeries for skin cancer two years ago -which many people know (I lost 1/2 of a nose) —
Reading about Casey’s squamous carcinoma —brought back too many memories I’d rather forget. Living with the scars is a daily reminder in itself.
Casey didn’t tell her dermatologist that she used to lie in the sun with baby oil. Ha, not sure I told my doctors, either….(but I figured they knew).
Casey also got a call from her gynecologist who explained she had severe dysplasia on her cervix and needed to come in for a scraping. 
So this young woman — was dealing with the loss of her mother — (remembering the phone calls - memories - and the loved they sincerely shared together ) —
She was faced with too many bills —
Felt rejection — and less than —
She was invited to ridiculously expensive weddings —(only to make a woman feel worse)
She longed for love/ passion and a creative-meaningful life — (so easy to understand!!)
She had medical issues to seriously deal with — (ha —know that one too)
And….
she was trying to finish her novel — (ok, not me —I’m just trying to finish this review)
YEP….I loved this novel!!!!
*** On Writing…. Casey says:
“I try to write something new. It’s bad and I stop after a few sentences. Even though I didn’t feel it at the time, I got into a rhythm with the old novel. I knew those characters and how to write them. I heard their voices and I saw their gestures and everything else feels fake and stiff. I ache for them, people I also once felt we’re stiff and fake, but who now seem like the only people I could ever write about”. 
Thank you Netgalley, Grove Atlantic (always grateful) — and Lily King. (If you plan to come speak in the Bay Area about this book —I’ll attend)
Rating: really liked it
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Wow. I am kind of shocked by how much I loved this. WRITERS & LOVERS is the first book I've read that
truly captures what it's like to be a woman in your late-twenties/early-thirties and
not have your life figured out. When all your friends are in serious relationships or married, with real desk jobs and houses of their own, and you're still working a dead-end job and chasing the dream, while serial-dating like you're still in college, it's hard to be taken seriously.
But this book, it gets that.
Casey is living in New England working a waitressing job she hates while trying to finish up her novel. Her mother has just died, she has health problems but no health insurance, her student loans have defaulted and seem virtually insurmountable, and she's stuck dating two guys-- one a mature "adult" with two young children and a job with the respect and esteem she craves, and the other is in the same boat as her-- struggling to make it, still figuring his life out. She flip-flops between the two, afraid of committing to a course of action that could change her life forever-- for better or for worse.
As an author myself, I've read a lot of books about other writers and most of them don't get it. They either romanticize writing as being this holy grail of careers (ha) in this carefree bohemian life (ha) where you meet interesting people all the time and drink champers over Proust (ha-ha-ha), or else demonize it as being a career that attracts crazy people who use it as an exercise to exorcise their demons (ha... actually, wait this one is more accurate). Casey falls in the middle of both camps. She hates the pretentiousness of some writers, while also desperately craving that acclaim for herself. She stereotypes people based on what they read (I do this too-- LOL), she feels jealousy about others' success, and she is afraid to read the works of the people she knows, not just because they might hate her if she doesn't like their work but also because it might be too weirdly, creepily intimate (YES).
Besides all the wicked observations about writers and readers and pretentious intellectuals, there's also just some really good observations about what it means to be an older young adult who is still trying to grow up while feeling as if they already should have. Casey is immature but she's trying not to be. The struggles she faces-- even though this book is set in 1997-- are still relevant today, and it touches upon a lot of things that plague women, like fertility, sexism, being taken seriously as a professional, passion, domesticity, anxiety, partner intimacy, and so much more.
This is the first book I've read in a long time that I feel
really gets me. I loved it.
Thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review!4.5 to 5 stars
Rating: really liked it
3.5 stars I have mixed feelings about this one, some parts of this book were so beautiful and stunning it nearly brought me to tears, and other parts of this book were so boring and slow it nearly brought me to tears. I loved the discussion about grief and how it doesn't matter how old you are, losing your Mother will always be terrible and awful and life will not be the same after. I feel like this book was hard to read because it's so depressing, but I could relate to a lot of the things this character was going through. I also love the fact that this book follows a writer, I always love when books follow writers, it inspires me to write.
See this reading vlog I did: https://youtu.be/2OknqgHLvIE
Rating: really liked it
‘
I don't write because I think I have something to say. I write because if I don't, everything feels even worse.’
Frequently romanticized though rarely all that glamorous, the life of an emerging or struggling audience has been a captivating narrative through-out the history of literature. Perhaps it is because we see ourselves in them and can find hope, comforted in the realization that everyone is flawed and runs aground from time to time. While
Writers and Lovers by Lily King isn’t exactly breaking uncharted territory, it is such a blissful encapsulation of the genre delivered in such engaging writing that I found myself unable to stop thinking about it and rooting for King’s heroine, 31 year old Casey Peabody, the whole way. There is something akin to the works of Sally Rooney here, though a bit less gritty and more easily-likeable characters, that I found really satisfying. Or, as emma so perfectly phrased it when recommending it to me, it feels like ‘if Sally Rooney wrote a romcom,’ which is probably the best explanation (she always has the best succinct analysis that hits right to the heart of matters). This is such an adorable and empathetic novel with the right amount of grit beneath it’s welcoming veneer, addressing issues of poverty, misogyny and the ways society pulls you away from the work you truly wish to be doing and King’s lovely story is certain to warm your heart and keep the flame of artistic endeavours alive.
‘
It seems like another problem. And problems are mounting.’
Down on her luck after the death of her mother and an uncomfortable break-up, Casey is six years into writing a novel about her mother that she’s afraid may never come to fruition though it is becoming her last grip to keep her mother alive in her heart. Returning to her college setting in Boston, she now works at a high-end restaurant on Harvard’s campus that takes up most of her time, returning early in the morning by bike to the tiny room rented out by her brother’s friend who clearly looks down on her. You could call it cliched but it never reads as such and it hit me right in the memories of my late twenties scrambling to stay afloat, heartbroken and lonely while one of my jobs was a high-end catering company. Those sections of the novel were such a delight because they are so incredibly accurate and I could practically associate each character with someone I knew. ‘
There are long periods of time when we line the wall and watch the wedding party, each with our own particular cynicism,’ she writes of catering weddings, and oh damn do I relate. What I’m trying to get at here is this novel breathes with reality and the frenetic episodic nature of the book where there are endless problems looming and blooming overhead are cut from the fabric of hard living.
Having Casey be 31 years old opens the novel for some excellent existential ponderings, having your “youth” feel like its fading in the rear-view mirror while the future is awash in fog and you can’t find your map. ‘
It’s strange, to not be the youngest kind of adult anymore,’ she thinks while riding past the college kids in the park, ‘
I’m thirty-one now, and my mother is dead.’ During my own times that made me relate to this book I also lived right on the edge of a college campus, through which I would walk to get to work (and leave poems behind on all the trees) and inevitably contemplate the forward march of time while feeling there was scant to show for it. Basically, I felt this book deep within me and I think it’s a novel that would resonate with anyone of any age (set in 1997, it is awash in sepia tones of nostalgia, with casually placed nods to the time period).
There is a really great romantic angle to this as well, with Casey caught between dating both Oscar, an older already successful novelist, and one of Oscar’s students, Silas, who is Casey’s age and a bit of an adorable dork driving around in a car about to collapse. Sally Rooney fans will enjoy this angle as it reminded me a lot of her, but if you didn’t like Beautiful World, Where Are You? you’ll be glad to know this is almost the opposite of the relationships in there (ie. nobody is into torture porn and when the older man is mistaken for her father with the waiter calling her his ‘
little girl’ it doesn’t make him horny but embarassed). Jokes aside, I quite enjoy Rooney and the the intricacies and flaws of her characters, so while these are well written I occasionally thought they were almsot too likable. Though the dynamic between them is always great, and King does build suspense over who Casey will end up with. Oscar's adorable children are fantastic too. King does well by looking at how uncomfortable it can be to introduce children into a new relationship, even with best intentions, because now young lives are getting attached to a relationship that might fail.
‘
Are you more of an adult because two men are giving you the illusion of self-sufficiency?’
Even with the love angle, the problems of being a woman in society are certainly woven through the narrative. Being taken less seriously as a writer to straight up sexual harassment pop up frequently, layered into the novel without much attention as if a quiet commentary on how normalized it is in society (there is an excellent commentary on how women authors must appear plesant and open in author photos while men can look brooding, mean, or overtly “serious”) Even when it is blatant, such as with toxic cooks at work, other men rush in to tell her she’s the one being rediculous and that they didn’t mean anything by being sexually aggressive or dehumanizing beyond some laughs.
‘‘I hate male cowardice and the way they always have each other’s backs. They have no control. They justify everything their dicks make them do. And they get away with it. Nearly every time.’
Though Casey also finds it is simply hard to be taken serious as an artist, and watches gloomily as all her MFA friends quickly give up on their pursuits of art for marriage or banker jobs. ‘
I just find it extraordinary you think you have something to say,’ her landlord tells her right at the start of the book. One of the best parts of the book is the way Casey never let’s anything crush her dreams, even when she is completely emotionally crushed, and she is such a plucky indie film author heroine in the best ways. When her gynecologist asks ‘
So, you gonna write the Great American Novel?’ she retorts with ‘
You gonna cure ovarian cancer?’
Though this novel is soft and warm, it is not without its depth and hardships. Beyond issues of poverty, the issue of loss is at the center of the book with everything revolving around it. Her mother’s absence has gone through her ‘
like thread through a needle,’ as poet W.S. Merwin wrote, ‘
everything I do is stitched with its color.’ The writing of her novel becomes a form of therapy, and writing it about her mother keeps her close and alive despite knowing she is not. Though, it seems, this is not enough and King reminds us that actual therapy is sometimes needed and nothing to be ashamed of. ‘
This is not nothing,’ her therapist tells her. ‘Of all his strange responses,’ she thinks, ‘
this is the one that helps me the most. This is not nothing.’ It is a moving reminder our problems are never nothing, they are real to us and we are allowed to feel them, acknowledge them, and have them be acknowledged.
King uses geese as a wonderful symbolism for hope in the novel, and I love the way they are threaded through the story, their presence indicative with the passage of time both seasonally and away from the death of her mother.
‘I love these geese. They make my chest tight and full and help me believe that things will be all right again, that I will pass through this time as I have passed through other times, that the vast and threatening black ahead of me is a mere specter, that life is lighter and more playful than I’m giving it credit for.’
This hope keeps the novel afloat in the darker sections and keeps the reader right there along with Casey in her struggles. It makes for a beautiful read and I’m thankful to all the amazing people on here who encouraged me to read this. It was interesting coming to this after Five Tuesdays in Winter and seeing how stories such as
Timeline felt so similar to this book or how what happens with the brother and landlord here is much more effective than the expanded upon version in
Hotel Seattle. This is a very charming novel that I found to be extremely comforting to read these past few weeks. It is a great piece cozily nestled into its time and place and, while admittedly very white, shows the struggles of young adults quite well. I loved following along with Casey on her journey and feeling inspired by her. There are many highs and lows in this novel, but they all feel very earned and even the ending doesn’t come across as trite or overly happy as it does seem to build to it effectively. A wonderful novel, and I am certainly a King convert now.
4.5/5
Rating: really liked it
When referencing the book
Woodcutters, Lily King writes that Thomas Bernhard "manages to simulate consciousness," and that is truly the most accurate way I would describe
Writers and Lovers. Lily King does an impeccable job of leading the reader into the mind of Casey Peabody. I felt like I really understand her. I understand how she views the world and its inhabitants with a healthy dose of cynicism and wit. I became emotionally attached to her. This book is very melancholy, yet feels a warm hug. It is real and honest and raw and passionate. I love reading about artists; it always invigorates me. While not the most exciting plot, I could not put the story down purely because the writing is so fantastic and I fell in love with Casey. The book definitely has a character-driven plot, which means that every character is so well crafted. I was amused by the ubiquitous self-absorbed-tortured-writer-"no one understands me" archetype. I recommend this book to anyone who has experienced a great loss and is looking to heal, who feels like everything has gone wrong, or just anyone who enjoys lovely, soulful, heartfelt writing.
Rating: really liked it
Even if time is scarce to read these days, I could have finished this book in two days.
But I didn’t want to. I made it last, oh yes, I made it last as much as I could because I didn’t want it to end.
I went back to highlighted paragraphs and reread whole sections, savoring the quality of King’s writing, the familiar echo of her protagonist’s voice, the fear and angst reverberating underneath the humorous tone of her thoughts. It all sounded so true, so valid, so spot-on.
Novels like this one are rare.
Novels that are obviously written with as much heart as talent.
King possesses both besides the double quality of being a careful observer and a passionate reader. Her love of the written word is elating. Her need to express life through art, through writing, can’t be separated from the way she lives it.
And so does Casey, the narrator of this story, a 31 years-old aspiring writer that faces the end of a phase in her life and stands hovering over the abyss of uncertainty, not sure of her value or place in the world, not wanting to let go of her youth but knowing deep down that time is running out to make the right choices.
Buried in debt with no healthcare plan like too many Americans, working endless hours at a restaurant, struggling against the sudden death of her mother, torn apart by two potential lovers, overwhelmed by anxiety and fear of the future, the only thing that keeps Casey standing is the novel she has been writing for six years. A novel she is too afraid to let her best friend and published writer read because she is terrified it might be rubbish.
“I don’t write because I think I have something to say. I write because if I don’t, everything feels even worse” Casey responds to her egotistic landlord when he sneers at her for trying to write a book.
That’s precisely how I felt when I spent time with King’s novel. I felt better when I opened the pages and buried my nose in them. I rooted for Casey to succeed at her attempt to have her voice listened to, not only in her novel, but also in her real world after so many let-downs starting with her own father.
“Writers & Lovers” is a book about finding one’s way staying true to the things that keep one’s world turning. It’s about discerning what it’s important from what it is not. Infused with droll wit, it’s also an elegant caricature of the artistic scene dominated by egocentric writers, editors and male wannabes that channel their competitivity through art without really listening to what others have to say. Last but not least, this is also a book about craving love, family and learning to trust one’s instincts.
Geese have a new acquired meaning to me after having been in Casey’s head. I can’t help but smile at King’s craftmanship. At her rhapsodic justice. What an end. Some readers might have felt a bit deflated by it. I admit it might be the one part that doesn’t ring true in the book, but I couldn’t help but feel elated for Casey, she is the kind of heroine that deserves such an outcome in a world that is brutal, specially for those whose position in it is fragile and yet they dare to hope, to defy the odds and give a shot at what they know deep down they should be spending their life doing. Live, write. Live.
“I received an ARC from Grove Atlantic via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.”
Rating: really liked it
3.5 stars. I found this to be an uneven novel. Lily King won a bunch of awards for her book Euphoria, which I downloaded a long time ago but never read. Now I’m not sure that I want to read it. Other people have rated the writing of this novel as wonderful, but I’m not impressed except with how she described one of the men wooing her—he’s a successful writer/widower/father of two who, like so many people, can only see what he doesn’t have and what he hasn’t achieved as he compares himself to other writers.
The first 40 to 45 percent of Writers and Lovers is a snoozefest. Casey has been working on a novel for six years and is in massive student loan debt because she spent her twenties traveling and not working. She spent her eight weeks of a retreat mooning over a guy and not writing. Now she’s waiting tables to pay the minimum on her bills each month.
Her mother died a while back, and she’s still processing that. Her father is a nightmare. While Casey gets along with her brother, he lives across the country. Even with these hardships, I didn’t love the character, although I did empathize with her anxiety and sleeplessness.
Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book, which RELEASES MARCH 3, 2020.
For more reviews, please visit http://www.theresaalan.net/blog
Rating: really liked it
Click here to hear my thoughts on Lily King, this book, and all her other books over on my Booktube channel, abookolive!
The below review originally appeared in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:
On the shortlist of things one should never, ever say to a writer, “I just find it extraordinary that you think you have something to say,” would rank in the top three. Yet these words are carelessly hurled at the hopeful novelist Casey Peabody by her pompous Boston landlord early on in Lily King’s new novel, the aptly titled “Writers & Lovers.” Highly anticipated following her celebrated 2014 work, “Euphoria,” Lily King’s new book is a slightly “meta” account of a young writer struggling to complete her novel.
It’s 1997 and Casey spends her days waiting tables at an upscale restaurant, and her nights attempting to get her first book down on paper while she battles anxiety, self-doubt and grief. An educated and capable woman in her early 30s, she’s suffocating under heaps of student debt and grieving the sudden loss of her mother. A child golf prodigy, Casey long ago gave up a potentially lucrative career within the sport to pursue a life in the arts — and to put some distance between herself and her father. The sport is permanently soured for her, but we get the impression she deeply misses the former feeling of mastery as she presently flounders.
The majority of her writer friends have long since switched over to “real” jobs, only furthering the feelings of isolation and self-ridicule as she toils away, wondering if there will ever be a next phase in her life. Her desire to finish her novel — a project inspired by her mother — is strong, but calls from debt collectors and punishing shifts at the restaurant test her resolve.
As if her existing stressors weren’t enough, two men materialize in her life, one with whom she shares a chemistry that scares her, and the other whose life contains everything she covets. Ms. King strikes a balance between these two simultaneous love interests as easily as she did in “Euphoria” by avoiding the typical irritants of the love triangle dynamic and letting the situation instead provide further insight into Casey’s unattended demons. She inevitably must choose between the two men, but not before she spends time answering questions about her life she didn’t even know she had.
This is unquestionably a story about writing, but the prose is mostly barren of any mention of Casey’s writing process. There is no obsession with word count, no staring off into space in an attempt to pin down the perfect word, no fist-shaking at the shapeless creative enemy, writer’s block. Her writing is personal, something she keeps close to the chest. Even in conversation with another character about her work-in-progress, Casey desperately wants to change the subject. Speaking about her novel, she says, makes her “feel flayed alive.”
Yet the act of writing is still the center point around which the narrative revolves. Writing is Casey’s constant yet silent companion, the most complex relationship she has in the novel. The majority of the narrative space is refreshingly dominated by Casey’s attempts to navigate the social politics of her restaurant job and make the right choice of man, but we get the sense that her writing is what helps her cope with these matters. It is the means by which she resolves the internal conflict of her past and present, and her way of putting into words all that she can’t say to the people around her.
Throughout, we’re tempted to forget the real writer here is Lily King, disappearing behind the story of Casey’s first novel being born. What at first appears to be a surface-level, nostalgic venture into the life of a starving artist in the ’90s slowly becomes an examination of all that writing demands and provides. In this novel, writing is both passion and hardship, reprieve and punishment. It allows Casey to close earlier chapters of her life and open to a blank page.
“Writers & Lovers” is a triumph of a novel, as witty as it is profound. A queen of nuance, Ms. King hides an arsenal of emotional power behind quiet, intentional prose. Nearly every word of this novel seems carefully and deliberately chosen, rewarding close readers and promising re-readers an even deeper experience. Most significantly, although Ms. King’s portrayal of a writer’s life is brutally honest, it urges all of us to personally take on the agony, but also the sublime ecstasy of the writer’s journey. After all, we all have something to say, it’s merely about finding the right words with which to say it.
Rating: really liked it
Whiners & Lovers
