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| Photo credit: Girl Well Read and Simon & Schuster Canada. Do not use without written permission. |
Blue Heron Books and Simon & Schuster Canada celebrated the release of Jennifer Weiner's newest novel, Mrs. Everything. Jennifer was interviewed by Marissa Stapley—whose own new novel, The Last Resort, has just landed on all the hot summer reading lists for 2019. Marissa asked Jennifer about her writing process, inspiration, and themes of her newest work. A question and answer period, as well as a book signing followed.
Jennifer Weiner’s most personal novel yet, Mrs. Everything, is a book that has been percolating for ten years, and is one that she's always wanted to write. Inspired by her mother and grandmother, it is a universal female story—being a woman, you don't come out unscathed.
It is a version of Weiner's own mother's story, and she modelled Jo after her. Jennifer's mother, Fran, came out as a lesbian in her 50s after raising her four children. Jennifer had a lot of questions for her mother about her marriage to her father that Fran wouldn't answer so she imagined it, “because that's what writers do.” Mrs. Everything was also born from the ashes of the 2016 election—where we are as women, where we have been, and where we could go back to.
Mrs. Everything has a good girl and a bad girl who both end up in pain. "Do you know women who live without pain, that everything works out?" Jennifer asked.
On the term "women's fiction"
We don't accord it to the same respect when we call it "women's fiction." When Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom earned him glowing praise as well as the cover of Time, Weiner coined the term "Franzenfreude," the divide between how white male authors are treated with such regard while successful female authors are dismissed.
Inspired by Little Women, her Jo's ambitions are more acceptable (except sexuality), and her Bethie not only lives, but Weiner writes about what happens to good girls, what the world does to good girls.
What did her mom say?
"My daughter has a very active imagination." Her mother also thought that Bethie was her.
Weiner said that writers are cannibals, nobody is safe—family members are material. "Well-intentioned cannibals...kindables."
Response to Mrs. Everything
The response to Weiner's work has been "great, but scary." Jennifer is interested to hear what young readers think. "Some things have changed quickly, some slowly, and with the #MeToo movement, not at all," she says.
There is a lot about privilege, hierarchy, colour, freedoms, etc. If you're on top of a mountain and someone is climbing that mountain, they are perceived as a threat when in actuality, they are trying to be equal—it's all a matter of perspective.
Jennifer's writing process
Weiner mused that writing a book is like packing a suitcase with all the things you love, and you leave the suitcase on a corner. The smart thing to do is pack another suitcase. Stapley asked if she was packing another suitcase, and readers will be happy to hear that the answer was YES! Jennifer's next novel will take place over a weekend in Cape Cod, a far cry from a 70 year span that was Mrs. Everything. The heroine is a bridesmaid that was estranged from the bride. When something bad happens, she needs to clear her name. (Eep! Can't wait!)
After getting her daughters off to school, Jennifer walks her dog with her husband and it is during this time that she works through plot and characters. After they get back, she goes to an exercise class, showers, does her social media, and then writes between the hours of 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. or 12 p.m. to 4 p.m., "that's the sweet spot!" Weiner's writing takes place in her "cloffice" which is her walk-in closet that also functions as her office. Jennifer's desk is a vanity with her dog, Moochie, at her feet.
How did she break into writing?
Weiner started her career in advertising and then as a journalist. She worked her way up from a small paper, to a medium paper, and then to a large paper. She got dumped and then wrote Good in Bed.
Can I just say how fantastic it was to be sitting in the audience and soaking it all in? Jennifer is HI-LAR-I-OUS, warm, and smart. She graciously posed for pictures and chatted while signing copies of her books. Thank you, Jennifer, for coming to Canada on your Mrs. Everything tour.
Marissa was a wonderful interviewer and it was lovely to chat with her about her exciting book and baseball.
Mrs. Everything
Growing up in 1950s Detroit, sisters Jo and Bethie Kaufman lived in a picture-perfect house. Jo was a passionate tomboy, with a love of books; Bethie was the pretty, good girl, with aspirations of being a star. She enjoys the privilege that comes with beauty.
Things rarely end up how you imagine them to be. The sisters survive unspeakable trauma and life's tragedies. Coming of age in the time of free love, Vietnam, and women's lib, Bethie embraces the more free, hippy lifestyle, balking traditional roles. Instead it is Jo that becomes a mother, stuck on the sidelines of her life. Neither sister has the future they envisioned, but is it too late for them to live an authentic and purposeful life?
JENNIFER WEINER is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of sixteen books, including Good in Bed, In Her Shoes, and her memoir, Hungry Heart: Adventures in Life, Love, and Writing.
She is a graduate of Princeton University and a contributor to the New York Times Opinion section.
Jennifer lives with her family in Philadelphia.
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