New Books In Literature

An interview with Caitlin Barasch, author of A Novel Obsession (Dutton Books, 2022), a debut novel about a young woman convinced that she must be a writer, but entirely uncertain that she has a story worth sharing. Her solution: concoct a real-life romantic triangle featuring her boyfriend’s ex and herself as the protagonists. Caitlin and I discuss how she goes about building anticipatory dread scene by scene, and how plotting is not a dead artform in the novel. We talk about the relationship between obsession and writing, the pleasures of writing awkward sex scenes, the need for more women characters behaving badly, failing to avoid social media in art, and so much more. Caitlin Recommends: Alyssa Nutting, Tampa Mary Gaitskill, Veronica Elena Ferrante, Days of Abandonment Charlotte McConaghy, Migrations  Chris Holmes is Chair of Literatures in English and Associate Professor at Ithaca College. He writes criticism on contemporary global literatures. His book, Kazuo Ishiguro as World Literature, is u