In an email interview, she confessed the Marilynne Robinson-sized hole in her reading, and the book her high school boyfriend would be glad she got to. SCOTT HELLER<\/p>\n
What\u2019s the last great book you read?<\/p>\n
I finally read \u201cBel Canto\u201d<\/a> and I just \u2014 ugh! \u2014 luxuriated in it. What a pleasure.<\/p>\n What books are on your night stand?<\/p>\n \u201cThe Violence,\u201d by Adriana E. Ram\u00edrez. \u201cKill Dick,\u201d by Luke Goebel. \u201cBaldwin: A Love Story,\u201d<\/a> by Nicholas Boggs, is just outstanding. I\u2019m taking my time with it.<\/p>\n What book might people be surprised to find on your shelves?<\/p>\n Probably more surprising is what\u2019s NOT on my shelves. I consider giving away a book the highest form of praise. When I love something, I urgently must put it in someone\u2019s hands. I have given books away to strangers next to me in restaurants if I finish while dining alone.<\/p>\n Describe your ideal way to procrastinate from writing.<\/p>\n Filling out questionnaires!<\/p>\n What\u2019s the best book you\u2019ve ever received as a gift?<\/p>\n In college my friend Indira gave me \u201cThe Complete Stories\u201d of Zora Neale Hurston. It changed my way of seeing the world.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Great Gatsby\u201d was an inspiration for \u201cLast Night in Brooklyn\u201d \u2014 but so was the musical \u201cCompany.\u201d Explain.<\/p>\n I adore \u201cCompany.\u201d Sondheim at his best. But the gender-swapped production<\/a> a few years ago didn\u2019t work for me. I hadn\u2019t considered how much that story relies on the protagonist being a man. Which got me thinking about \u201cGatsby\u201d and how much of that book hinges on how a man would size up a situation and even tell a story. And then my brain was off to the races.<\/p>\n You described the novel as a \u201cfield guide to friendship.\u201d What do you mean?<\/p>\n Social media created this illusion that relationships can be managed online. Not really true. I wanted to capture how much knowing people \u2014 in a real way \u2014 happens over the course of being in the trenches of life together. Experiencing those awkward, friction-based moments that happen when out and about.<\/p>\n Would you call it an anti-Brooklyn-novel novel?<\/p>\n Ha! I think that would describe my first novel<\/a>. This is more of a look at what we traded in for the \u201cupgrade.\u201d<\/p>\n What is an \u201c\u2018insuperiority complex\u201d and how does it figure in your book?<\/p>\n It\u2019s what develops when a person is consistently overprepared and yet constantly underestimated. It creates feelings of tension and frustration and, if not tended to properly, it can result in outbursts of rage. But in my book, mostly the characters are trying to work out their IC on the dance floor.<\/p>\n Are there any classic novels that you only recently read for the first time?<\/p>\n Much to my high school boyfriend\u2019s chagrin, I resisted reading \u201cThe Hitchhiker\u2019s Guide to the Galaxy\u201d until about two months ago. Is that a classic now?<\/p>\n What books are you embarrassed not to have read yet?<\/p>\n I have not read \u201cGilead\u201d or \u201cHousekeeping\u201d and I should really walk around with a paper bag of shame over my head until I fix this.<\/p>\n What\u2019s your favorite book no one else has heard of?<\/p>\n \u201cWidow Basquiat,\u201d<\/a> by Jennifer Clement, is beautiful and no one seems to know it when I bring it up.<\/p>\n What\u2019s the last book you read that made you laugh?<\/p>\n \u201cLong Island Compromise\u201d<\/a> gave me a few good chuckles.<\/p>\n The last book that made you cry?<\/p>\n There were moments in \u201cThe Gods of New York\u201d<\/a> that actually made me weep. I was moved by Jonathan Mahler\u2019s accounts of New Yorkers unafraid to make hell to fight for more. He tells one story of a 10-year-old homeless boy named David Bright. He was going to school hungry, but still managed to become a giant pebble in Koch\u2019s shoe. It just \u2026 got me.<\/p>\n Who is your favorite fictional hero or heroine?<\/p>\n All these years later and it\u2019s still Anne of Green Gables.<\/p>\n Have you ever gotten in trouble for reading a book?<\/p>\n Yes! \u201cMy Sweet Audrina,\u201d<\/a> by V.C. Andrews.<\/a> My mistake for leaving that where my grandmother could find it.<\/p>\n What\u2019s the most interesting thing you learned from a book recently?<\/p>\n Turns out societal collapse is a predictable science! \u201cEnd Times,\u201d by Peter Turchin,<\/a> was illuminating, if sobering.<\/p>\n In the movie version of your book, what song should be playing over the end credits?<\/p>\n