Writers & Lovers

by Lily King

An extraordinary new novel of art, love and ambition from Lily King, the New York Times–bestselling author of Euphoria , which sold over 400,000 copies in North America.

Following the breakout success of her critically acclaimed and award-winning novel Euphoria, Lily King returns with an unforgettable portrait of an artist as a young woman.

Blindsided by her mother’s sudden death, and wrecked by a recent love affair, Casey Peabody has arrived in Massachusetts in the summer of 1997 without a plan. Her mail consists of wedding invitations and final notices from debt collectors. A former child golf prodigy, she now waits tables in Harvard Square and rents a tiny, mouldy room at the side of a garage, where she works on the novel she’s been writing for six years. At thirty-one, Casey is still clutching on to something nearly all her old friends have let go of: the determination to live a creative life. When she falls for two very different men at the same time, her world fractures even more. Casey’s fight to fulfill her creative ambitions and balance the conflicting demands of art and life is challenged in ways that push her to the brink.

Writers & Lovers follows Casey—a smart and achingly vulnerable protagonist—in the last days of a long youth, a time when every element of her life comes to a crisis.Written with King’s trademark humour, heart and intelligence, Writers & Lovers is a transfixing novel that explores the terrifying and exhilarating leap between the end of one phase of life and the beginning of another. 

Genres: Fiction, Romance, Contemporary, Literary Fiction, Book Club, Audiobook, Adult

334 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 3, 2020

About the author

Lily King grew up in Massachusetts and received her B.A. in English Literature from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and her M.A. in Creative Writing from Syracuse University. She has taught English and Creative Writing at several universities and high schools in this country and abroad. Lily's new novel, Euphoria, was released in June 2014. It has drawn significant acclaim so far, being named an Amazon Book of the Month, on the Indie Next List, and hitting numerous summer reading lists from The Boston Globe to O Magazine and USA Today. Reviewed on the cover of The New York Times Book Review, Emily Eakin called Euphoria, “a taut, witty, fiercely intelligent tale of competing egos and desires in a landscape of exotic menace.”

Lily’s first novel, The Pleasing Hour (1999) won the Barnes and Noble Discover Award and was a New York Times Notable Book and an alternate for the PEN/Hemingway Award. Her second, The English Teacher, was a Publishers Weekly Top Ten Book of the Year, a Chicago Tribune Best Book of the Year, and the winner of the Maine Fiction Award. Her third novel, Father of the Rain (2010), was a New York Times Editors Choice, a Publishers Weekly Best Novel of the Year and winner of both the New England Book Award for Fiction and the Maine Fiction Award.

Lily is the recipient of a MacDowell Fellowship and a Whiting Writer's Award. Her short fiction has appeared in literary magazines including Ploughshares and Glimmer Train, as well as in several anthologies.

Reviews

[emma · Rating 5 out of 5]

How do you give a five star rating?

https://emmareadstoomuch.substack.com...

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.

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)

I didn't think it would linger, but then, four years after the first time I read it, I picked it back up after adoring the author's follow-up. And two months after that, I had to five star it.

The way Lily King writes is like nothing else — something like a literary romance, where the quality of writing is just as high as the emotional resonance it creates. The way you root for her characters to the point of almost pining for them is completely one of a kind. Out of the thousands of books I've read, just a few have made me feel exactly this way, and two of them are by this same author.

That calls for a five star.

Bottom line: Reading is weird. But the best weird thing.

-----------------
pre-review

oh, 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

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tbr review

give me all the literary fiction with boston settings

[David Putnam · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Ron Charles · Rating 5 out of 5]

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...

[EJ · Rating 2 out of 5]

Truly stunned by the sea of 5-star reviews this book has collected. The main character, Casey, is a melodramatic tragedy who can't get out of her own way, but also is asked out by every man she meets. Same I guess. There are some engaging parts, where I was interested to see what would happen next (hence the two stars rather than one) but mostly those were ruined by the fact that Casey is obnoxious. Also, this book is rife with tedious, weird plot threads that seem to be thrown in for no real reason. She's a golf prodigy? Her dad's a pervert? She lived in Spain once with a random dude? Literally none of these things are of consequence to the story at large and yet they are frequently tossed about, as if that'll make her interesting. If you like any of what I mentioned above, have at it. Otherwise, I'd steer clear.

[Angela M · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[JanB · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.”

[Anna · Rating 1 out of 5]

Whiners & Lovers

[Elyse Walters · Rating 5 out of 5]

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)

[Gabby · Rating 4 out of 5]

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

[s.penkevich [hiatus-will return-miss you all] · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘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

[Olive Fellows (abookolive) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Update: Reread this after my first reading of Heart the Lover and yes, it's still great.

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.

[Sophia Judice · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Theresa Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

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

[Dolors · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.”

[Jennifer nyc · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this elegant coming-of-age story about a 31-year-old woman trying to find her place, not only among writers and lovers, but also within herself, after the death of her mother.

Casey is smart, funny, unassuming, and a little lost. She doesn’t have much stability in her life, but she’s not without the support of good people. She tells us this story herself, mostly in the present tense. Her struggles are our struggles, the stuff of life, told with beauty and humor in her specifics.

This book is also a lot about writing; the creative process of it, the publishing and post-publishing experience of it, the sacrifices we make for it, the lives we structure around it; writing as sanctuary and healing. There are some fun meta moments, like when Casey’s mentor advises her to describe the physical experience of emotions rather than state them outright - something that King does from the start.

I think I may turn around and read it again - at least, the beginning.

[Holly · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read this book if you are a lover of books about writers. Otherwise maybe skip this. Practically every character in this book is a writer, and that got old for me. The other focus was the two love interests (thus with the lovers part of the title), but I thought both of them were ridiculous for different reasons. Add on to that the multiple references to the main character's mother's death, which bothered me. I was sympathetic initially but when you find out that at one point her mom left her as a child with her father for a year so she could care for her terminally ill lover in another state - I basically lost my sympathy. And if I had to read one more thing about the main character's waitressing job I thought I was going to scream.

So yeah, I didn't care for this. Other people loved this though, so this might be a "me" problem instead of a "book" problem.

[Rosh · Rating 3 out of 5]

In a Nutshell: A literary fiction focussing on… as the title suggests… writers and lovers. Takes some time to get to the point, but goes mostly well once all the threads become clear. Interesting flawed characters, beautiful lyrical writing. Would have worked better for me had the ending not been so desperate to offer a HEA.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Plot Preview:

1997. Thirty-one-year-old Casey Peabody was once a golf prodigy with dreams of becoming a successful writer. But now, still coping with the death of her mother a few months ago and buckling under student loans from her college days, she stays in a small room next to a garage and works as a waitress. However, she still hasn’t given up on her novel, the one that has been in the making since the last six years. When two men enter her life more or less at the same time, Casey is forced to ask herself some tough questions about what she wants for her future.
The story comes to us in Casey’s first-person perspective.

Bookish Yays:
🖋 Casey. A strange combo of mature and naïve, she sounds and acts her age. It is sometimes tough to connect to characters who are in relatively minor jobs even in their thirties as they are often depicted in a negative mode such as bitter or aggressive or defensive. Not Casey. Her dreams might seem a bit too idealistic at times, but her spirit is more matter-of-fact than whiny.

🖋 The two little men in the story, aged all of five and two. They outshine all the adult characters with their exuberance and innocence. I wish there had been more of them.

🖋 The lyrical writing, offering plenty of fodder for thought. Sample this: “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.” No woman will be able to deny the truth of this.

🖋 The strong undertone of grief without the plot feeling too maudlin. Many of the characters face grief in one way or the other, and it is interesting to see how each of them copes with their heartbreak differently. I also like how subtly the author portrays the sadness. The story hardly ever mentions the pain openly; it is just indicated through the general thoughts and actions of the characters.

🖋 All the details about the writing process: the catharsis of the writing act, the actual process of writing, the frustration of wanting an artistic career, the limited monetary success for most writers… It feels like a realistic portrayal of what it means to be an author.


Bookish Mixed Bags:
📝 The first half is a bit too haphazard. The content is literally what the title says: writers and lovers. But there is also an overlap between the two. So the first 50% or so feels like disparate threads of writers and lovers with no unified narrative. Once the story starts coming together, it becomes a bit clearer to see where the author wants to take it.

📝 This might not be applicable to most readers. But the setting left me confused. The repeated reference to Cambridge made me assume that the book was set in the UK. But there were also mentions of Boston. By the middle, I was so befuddled wondering where the heck the story was set… Google to the rescue! Turns out, there’s a Cambridge in the greater Boston area of Massachusetts, USA. Sheesh! I wish writers would choose places that don’t confuse international readers or make the country clear from the start. (In my defence, I didn’t know Lily King is American. That might have helped.)


Bookish Nays:
✏ The use of the late 1990s is an intriguing choice as that time period was on the cusp of many great changes. However, I didn’t feel much of the era come alive through the writing. Except for the lack of extensive internet/cellphone usage and a couple of random news events, the plot didn’t *feel* 90s enough. A part of this is because the writing is heavily character-focussed, but I would have appreciated a more immersive feel of those beautiful years.

✏ The adult men in the story. More annoying than interesting. Most of the men in the book are jerks to some degree or the other, and it takes some patience to wait for Casey to catch up to what we can already see.

✏ Given the above, the romantic relationships in the book also left me somewhat bored. It was refreshing to see the FMC recognise some signs of being in a problematic relationship, but the realisation came a bit too late, and also, the final *choice* wasn’t really satisfactory to me.

✏ The last one-third or so. Too perfect, with everything sorting out extra-smoothly. Until that point, the book felt like a strong literary fiction work, but these last few chapters turned it into a typical genre fiction novel. Why have so many unrealistic coincidences and conveniences such that every single one of Casey’s problems (and she did have a multitude of them) is sorted out miraculously within a few weeks?


🎧 The Audiobook Experience:
The audiobook, clocking at 8 hrs 15 min, is narrated by Stacey Glemboski. She does a commendable job, making Casey sound believable in every scene. However, the story might be a bit tricky on audio even with its chronological timeline as there are many characters and interconnections.


Overall, though I am not happy with the slightly cluttered start and the neatly-tied ending, I still like the main plot, highlighting the coming-of-age of a young woman who wants to make it big, but is weighed down by her past and present.

This is my first book by this author. I liked it enough but it is too early to say if I am a fan. My next read will be “Heart the Lover”, which is supposed to have a mysterious link to this book even though they aren’t an official series. I’m curious to discover the connection and see how it goes.

Recommended to literary fiction readers.

3.25 stars. (This would have been at least 3.75 stars had the ending been more realistic.)


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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[Canadian Jen · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Writers aren’t thrusters.”
King has a way with words and her stories always are real-Real characters that you can empathize with.
I adored Euphoria and the spell she cast then. She cast another one with the character of Casey. The reality of struggling as a writer; coping with a parent’s death; debt; relationship challenges.and the downward spiral that can happen when one becomes overwhelmed with things that just don’t seem to be going right.
It just rang true in so many ways.

“I know you are drunk on youth and mortality, but this is how you die” this just reminded me of everything going on in the world today and the challenges we are facing in this pandemic.
4 for the story but upping it to 5⭐️ because I appreciate her writing.

[Roberta Berardi · Rating 1 out of 5]

When I bought this book I should have known that a fancy title and a nice cover were going to be misleading...
The following review will contain SPOILERS (although not much happens in the book), so if you intend to read this novel (but please, don't), it's better if you don't go on reading.

I'll be clear from the beginning: this book is obnoxious, probably one of the worst things I've ever read. This novel has almost no plot, but this should never be a problem: many of the best books ever written don't even need a plot to gain power, because it is through the narrative itself, the words, the reflections, the beauty of the language, the depth of the thought behind the story that a book should find its strength. This is not the case of Writers and Lovers. Depth of thought and reflections do not find their place here. We must admit, however, that its title is quite truthfully descriptive: this is indeed fundamentally the unrealistic story of a woman who fancies herself a writer and sleeps only with other (mostly) self-proclaimed writers. She is also a bit racist: at some point she talks about a guy she used to be with, a Spanish boy who "smelled of Europe".

The main problem is that Casey, the protagonist (the "writer") is a very weak, shallow, and annoying character. She has lost her mum, and this is certainly terrible, but her missing her mum seems to be her only distinctive trait. Shortly after her loss, however, she has had an affair with a married guy she met at a retreat for writers (!). Then she's so heartbroken that he's out of her thoughts (and of the story) around page 50 of 324. We don't really know why she calls herself a writer. She has not managed to finish her magnificent novel in 6 years, she has not written anything else in the meantime, and she has chosen to be a waitress in a place where they treat her like a slave. I say chosen because she has purposely failed an interview as secretary, because she feels she's a true creative artist and cannot spend her time writing "thank you letters". Therefore, she's also an irritating snob. When she's not serving at the tables, she surrounds herself with a bunch of other pretentious self-proclaimed writers (and a few, still annoying, real ones) who are basically either total losers or people who think too much of themselves. Or both. All they talk about are their boring books and their failed love lives.

Among these writers, she decides to date two men at the same time: an established author with some middle age crisis and a broken life (a widower with two small children), and a young perfect idiot fed with glory dreams. None of their characters is well developed by the author, as we only see these two poor devils playing the role of Casey's marionettes. At the end, she chooses the young loser, but only after screwing up the life of the poor widower by spending time with him and his children to the point that they develop a deep affection for her. In spite of this, she dumps him because she doesn't want to be overshadowed by him and bla bla bla, but basically because he's old and mature, and therefore brushes his teeth before sex, which, instead, she likes rough and unexpected.

All pretty terrible so far. But the worst, I think, is when she destroys centuries of pedagogy and, despite stating she resents high school education, she goes to an interview to become a school teacher. This is her chance to come up with some bullshit about how to teach literature in this new age way: the kids should never study context and interpretation, that's boring, they should just think of what *they feel* when they read literature. As a teacher, let me tell you: this is not only silly and. naive, but also offensive. Of course, after saying this complete rubbish, she is hired. The absolute climax is reached when, at a literary festival in her school, she's asked to give a speech and comes up with some cheesy stuff about her own life and how she's had an important loss in her family, several failed relationships, and her only "home" was writing her bloody book.

Now, the bloody book. Again, a very unrealistic scenario: after a few rejections, she finds an agent, makes some changes, gets a contract with a publishing house, which will pay her enough to cover her student loan and a year of rent. Of course. Easy peasy. You write, you complain a lot, you make money.
In the middle of all this useless story, there's a hint at some health problems. She might have cancer. It could have been powerful to see how such a weak and whiny character would deal with the illness, with the idea of death. Maybe she could have even died to make the ending more surprising and deep. But this is just a non-developed plot device, and Casey finds out she's fine, she has nothing serious, life is all nice again. Happy ending for Casey: the young boyfriend who can make her life sexy (but of their "love" we do not do much because she spends more time with the old guy throughout the book), a brand new job in education (although she has no clue about pedagogy), a book that pays at least 80k and will make her famous; a perfect health. She can happily make out with her nice boy in a leather jacket in the parking lot of her new school, after finding out she'll be reach for having written a love story set in Cuba. Bingo!

Did we really need this bad rom com?

[Zoeytron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Casey Peabody, 31 years old, and working as a waitress in Cambridge, has a very full plate.  Her writing aspirations seem to be coming to nothing.  She is up to her eyeballs in debt with student loans, newly dumped by her boyfriend, and her mother has died unexpectedly.  More than plenty to handle, but destiny isn't finished with her quite yet.  

I could have made a meal off the delicious scenes with Casey working in the restaurant, her interaction with the clientele and with her co-workers.  The peek into the ins and outs of what it takes to write, to use what you have in your mind's eye and what you feel in your heart and somehow transfer it to words on paper.  Calling on the flavor of memories.  Likening reading a book to escaping into the author's mind.  

It's a particular kind of pleasure, of intimacy, loving a book with someone.

[*TUDOR^QUEEN* · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 rounded up to 4

I was immediately drawn into this book by the intense sorrow of the main character, Casey Peabody. I confess I have a thing for melancholy in storytelling. My favorite movie is "Terms of Endearment" because I love when my heartstrings are pulled. As the book begins we get a strong sense of sadness in Casey. She is living in a garden shed, all that she can afford due to the crushing college loan debt she is only paying minimums on. She has been trying to finish writing a novel for the last six years. She has a regular practice of getting up pre-dawn for some dedicated writing time, before hopping onto her bicycle and pedalling to her waitress job at The Iris. A huge part of her sadness is because her mother suddenly passed away in recent months. Her mother had been on a trip with friends, and there was no conclusive medical reason as to why she died without warning in hospital. Casey is still reeling from this, along with the financial burden that weighs so heavily upon her. At the beginning of the book when Casey was riding to her waitress job on her bicycle, just feeling as if she would fall apart physically, weeping... she had me hooked in emotionally.

Oddly enough, my favorite parts of the book were when Casey was waitressing at The Iris, an upscale eatery. I loved reading about all the little behind the scenes details of how a restaurant runs, and the many intricate steps to setting up the dining room before clientele arrive, taking the orders, serving, dealing with the chefs, etc. Being a waitress has to be one of the hardest jobs, and Casey worked her butt off at this dual level establishment. My favorite glimpse into working at The Iris was when she was carefully setting up an outside deck area with candlelit tables, the view complimented by lots of greenery and flowers.

An area of conflict in the book was Casey deciding between two very different boyfriends. Both were writers. Silas was a young, up and coming "never been published" writer like Casey, who drove a lime green LeCar, still unsettled and finding himself, just like Casey. At the other side of the spectrum, Oscar was already a successful published author who had book signing tours, a beautiful home, and was widowed with two young sons.

Casey clearly had a lot of stress and sadness to deal with. She would have a "clenching" regimen going up and down her body to somehow deal with her anxiety. She also had difficulty sleeping. I kept thinking, "she needs someone to take care of her".

Casey's brother Caleb visited briefly towards the end of the book and for some reason this section had me disengaging. For me, it detracted from the story, didn't add anything to it. It had me slightly skimming.

In summation, I have a thing for "quiet reads" and I would include this in that genre. Books that don't make a big splash, but speak to me about the simple movements, pleasures, and tragedies of daily life. The technical writing style was good, but not as free flowing and easy as I would like. I would rate this somewhere between a 3 and a 4.

Thank you to Grove Press who provided an advance reader copy via NetGalley.

[luce (cry bebè's back from hiatus) · Rating 5 out of 5]

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“I don’t write because I think I have something to say. I write because if I don’t, everything feels even worse.”

In Writers & Lovers, Lily King portrays an intimate and profoundly heartfelt slice of life that brims with wry humor and precise observations on grief, loneliness, identity, and creativity. This is truly a gem of a novel, a wonderful display of bravura. King seamlessly blends together realism and romanticism, capturing with humor and tenderness Casey’s everyday experiences and struggles.

“[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.”

Writers & Lovers transports its readers to Massachusetts in the summer of 1997. Casey Peabody, our narrator, is in her thirties and attempting to navigate life after her mother’s sudden death. A recent heartbreak has made her feel all the more lonely and vulnerable, and Casey clearly longs to feel that she belongs and that she has not wasted the last years of her life writing a book that will never be published. While most of her friends have abandoned their creative pursuits—opting for more sensible careers and or starting their own families—Casey remains devoted to her writing and to the idea of one day becoming a published author. After her mother’s death, Casey feels even more unmoored and unsure of herself. She finds herself observing the customers who eat at the restaurant she works for, yearning for a connection of her own. Eventually, Casey grows close to two men, both of them writers, one is famous and a widowed father of two, the other is around her age.

“I have a problem with that sometimes, getting attached. Other people’s families are a weakness of mine.”

This novel gives us a glimpse into a particular period of Casey’s life. From her day-to-day activities and worries to the sorrow she feels at her mother’s death and the anxiety brought by her writing, her job, her college debt, and health concerns. The wry wit that characterises her inner-monologue mitigate the many trials and misadventures, Casey, experiences throughout the course of the novel. While the romantic relationships she forms along the way does play a role in Casey’s journey, this novel is first and foremost about her writing. From the process of creating a story to how it feels to write, Writers & Lovers is very much a love letter to writing. Casey’s reflections on writing reveal her relationship to this craft as well as the different ways in which the public and publishing industry view male and female authors. King’s meditations on life, grief, and creativity demonstrate extreme acuity and insight.

“What I have had for the past six years, what has been constant and steady in my life is the novel I’ve been writing. This has been my home, the place I could always retreat to. The place I could sometimes even feel powerful, I tell them. The place where I am most myself.”

Casey is the novel’s star and I found her voice to be hugely endearing. Despite her dalliances with melancholy, deep-down she remains hopeful that she will publish her novel. King captures Casey’s idiosyncrasies, her quirks, the way she thinks and expresses herself, in such vivid detail that she felt very much like a real person to me. The characters around her too came across as fully fleshed out individuals whose story doesn’t revolve around Casey herself. They are nuanced and multifaceted, regardless of how often they crop up in Casey’s narrative. The restaurant scenes were so realistic that they reminded me of my unfortunate time in F&D (it truly feels like a microcosm).

Writers & Lovers is a deeply affecting and ultimately hopeful story about a woman’s determination to pursue her dreams, in spite of societal pressure and of other people undermining her capabilities as an author or life choices. The author’s prose, the setting, the characters, the subject matter, all of these spoke to me. While reading Writers & Lovers I was struck by a sense of nostalgia while reading this, perhaps due to it being set in the 90s, which is still lingering over me as I write this. I found myself desperate to see how Casey’s story would conclude and unwilling to part ways with her.

“It’s a particular kind of pleasure, of intimacy, loving a book with someone.”

Inspiring, witty, delightfully intertextual, full of heart Writers & Lovers is a truly luminous novel that I can’t wait to read again and again.

PS: the first time I tried reading this I hated it so I can see why it wouldn’t appeal to everyone. At the time I was in the doldrums and took Casey’s romantic expression too seriously. My apologises to the 40 people or so who liked my original review of this but I now love this book (what can i say, i'm a turncoat 🤡).

re-read: loved it just as much <3












ORIGINAL REVIEW (29/09/2019)

DNF at 20%

“When he kissed me he smelled like Europe”


...the guy happens to be Spanish so yes, of course he smells like Europe. Us Europeans have a very distinctive smell...
I just wander what this type of pointless description is trying to achieve.
Unsurprisingly, I've come to conclusion that this book is not for me.
Not only did I dislike the writing style but I found the story to be both trivial and banal. The narrative tries, and fails, to come across as a subversive story that follows the mundane trials experienced by an unpublished female writer (yes, we will be reminded in a few not so subtle ways that we are indeed reading of a writer who is a woman, not a man) whose personality is the usual blend of pathetic and alienated. She is treated badly by everyone around her, and we should feel something for her because she can't seem to get any writing done and she's also been dumped by her sort of lover....She makes a series of self-pitying and puerile contemplations regarding her own writing, writing itself, and her ambitions and desires. Yet, these observations lacked a distinctive voice, seeming to originate from no person in particular.
There were certain scenes that lacked clarity and cohesiveness, I wasn't sure when they started or ended as the narrator was too busy playing her own violin to make any sort of sense. I'm fine with narratives that rely on introspection but here our narrator's mental meanderings seemed merely superfluous additions that added little to no value to her character or her history.
Plus there were phrases such as the following that I really disliked:
—“that book made my nethersphere sore” (whatever that might mean)
—“They're the eyes of someone very tired and very sad, and once I see them I feel even sadder and then I see that sadness, that compassion, for the sadness in my eyes, and I see the water rising in them”
–My body aches from my throat to my groin.I want him to slide his fingers into my bathing suit and make all the heaviness and misery go away ” (the one that made me quit this book for once and for all).

Reading all of this made me laugh, and I'm not sure that was the intended effect behind their inclusion. I just found this to be a sloppy and predictable tale of an alienated woman who is unsure of her place in the world. This is one of the many recent releases that attempt to provide us with a self-aware look into the life of a writer...and similarly to Bunny it tries to make fun of writing in general.
If you are looking for a thought-provoking novel featuring the ups and downs of a creative mind, in this case a photographer, I would recommend Self-Portrait with Boy. If you want to read of a book narrated by a restlessly detached protagonist maybe you should pick up something by Ottessa Moshfegh.

ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

[Ashley (semi-ia, exam szn) · Rating 4 out of 5]

SUCH a banger. rtccc!! i can see myself rereading this in the autumn!

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i need to balance out all the classics that i'm reading with a litfic (i barely started any of them

[Lisa (NY) · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 shining stars - Update - 7/6/25 - It is rare that I reread a contemporary novel, especially one that I read just 5 years ago, but after reading King's new novel, Heart the Lover to be published in October, I couldn't resist. This time, it was was a deeper, more enveloping experience. I was awed by the way King encapsulated Casey's experience. I loved it - loved it - to my core.
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[3.9] Casey is mourning her mother's recent death and is stuck. She is having trouble with her writing, her restaurant job and the two men in her life. There is not a lot that happens in the first half of the novel and when things start changing, it is fairly predictable. No matter - I really enjoyed this novel! I like King's writing and the way she encapsulates a young woman on the cusp of change.

My ARC was discovered at the Strand Book Store in NYC.

[Tina Loves To Read · Rating 4 out of 5]

I normally do not read a ton of Literary Fiction books, but I really wanted to read this book. I am not sure if it was everyone else's reviews of the book or the cover. I have to say I am really glad I did want to read this book because I really like it. The book Writers & Lovers follows Casey Peabody getting over her Mother's death, finding love, getting through health issues, starting a new job, and writing a book. If you have been thinking of picking this book up you should give it a try. I got an e-copy of this book was kindly provided to me by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Eridiana · Rating 1 out of 5]

I've read around 500 books in English so far and I'm here to tell you that this one had the worst writing I've ever been exposed to, which is ironic since it's supposed to be about writing. Either I got a first draft instead of an advanced reading copy, or the world has gone mad if that got published AND featured on Book Of The Month. I've honestly never seen such a disjointed messy writing jumping from one sentence to another with no connection or a natural flow that the polished novel is supposed to have. Countless times it made me stop and think: "Wait, what? Who is that? What is happening? Why did they say this? Why is this mentioned here?" and so on. It made me feel utterly stupid and illiterate which I am not.

This book basically consists of two parts:

1. Casey working at the restaurant. Pages and pages of descriptions of the customers, what they look like, what they order, how many tables are taken. I had to skim over most of it in order to stay sane.

2. Casey dating two guys at the same time. Am I too old-fashioned to think of it as cheating? I think not. It made me hate the protagonist and think of her as a selfish and cruel person. Yet the narrative portrayed it as something totally normal. It's interesting that Casey's mother, father, and brother were cheaters as well. I guess it runs in the family.

Thanks to Netgalley and Grove Press for this eARC.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

“I just find it extraordinary that you think you have something to say.”
These words are spoken by our protagonist’s landlord after Casey, our protagonist, tells him she is writing a novel.

Just the words a first time novelist needs to hear. But he doesn’t bother Casey much. He is nothing compared to the grief and stress with which Casey is struggling. She meets these head on and with self-awareness, honesty and aplomb. As the stressors build she becomes very anxious but with the support of good friends, she continues to move forward with her life and her goals, getting out of debt, completing her novel, and choosing the right man for herself.

This novel is beautifully written and I was completely charmed by the lovable and insightful narrator and protagonist, Casey Peabody who, despite dealing with anxiety and grief on a daily basis, maintains a sense of humor and honesty with herself and others. We are privy to her thoughts as she narrates her struggles with grief, men, money and the writing process. Casey is my kind of human, authentic and truthful always.

This is such quotable novel. Here are just a few examples out of many:

Casey on grief: I'm both the sad person and the person wanting to comfort the sad person.”

Casey on a particular predicament for women:

“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.”

Casey on reading:

Casey is looking for a job and learns of an opening at a high school for an English teacher. She has never taught a class in her life. In an interview. Casey remarks, "Talking about characters in books is exciting and soothing to me at the same time." She goes on to talk about the importance of involving the students in what they are reading, and says that questions that pull the students out of what they are reading miss the point. "You want to push them further in, so they can feel everything the author tried so hard to create for them....An author is trying to give you an immersive adventure.”

Casey on writing:

"The hardest thing about writing is getting in, breaking through the membrane. The second hardest thing is getting out. Sometimes I sink down too deep and come out too fast. Afterward I feel wide open and skinless."

Apparently, Casey’s landlord was wrong. Casey has a lot to say that is meaningful, perceptive and recognizable the moment you read it. I would like to have a glass of wine with Casey but, alas, she is a fictional character though there were times that she felt so real to me that sharing a glass of wine with her did not seem out of the realm of possibility.

[Mimi · Rating 5 out of 5]

A warm blanket of a book.
Writers and Lovers tells a quiet story without much tension or drama, and yet I couldn't put it down.

The sense of feeling lost in one's own life was conveyed incredibly well.
Lily King has a kind of compassion, a kind of gentleness with her characters I don't think I've come across before and which made me care in turn.

This book is by no means perfect. I wish everything hadn't been wrapped up quite so neatly; this happiest of endings didn't really fit in with the tone of the rest of the book.
But the feelings it evoked in me are 5-star feelings, and that's honestly all I could ever hope for in a book.

[capture stories · Rating 3 out of 5]

"I don't write because I think I have something to say. I write because if I don't, everything feels even worse."

Casey, a going to be debut writer, finds her life at stake with a mixture of faith to keep, debts to pay, housing to secure, healthcare to obtain, sandwiched in between a love triangle and panic attack. Writers & Lovers spill out on a real-world that is fierce and a fight to win for. Just like any fresh graduates, Casey embarks on a journey to fulfill a life of her own, almost breaking her at a tenuous point. When bread is the wager, romance is just a luxury. At 31 years old, she grips anxiously to her dream of publishing her first novel, hopes undeterred by her friends who some had settled for a life of ease, chosen different path, married, and had successfully secured a writing career. Even some had changed their course of studies from writing to law or engineering for a safer route- security of a stable future.

Lily King had created a heroic character despite the chaotic turn of events. Bits of weird plots thrown in here and there had made the book less favorable and presented a flat tone, lacking enthusiasm, even uncanny flow of events. Notwithstanding, King skillful crafted words that shed light on Casey's story, a precarious experience to survive, for love, be love, care, and receive care. Episodes perplexity of emotions shot through with fear of dropping something so precious and fragile, a bad outcome, but no, that's not how the story ended. There's an adhesive force in even the smallest courage, a chance that one can embrace and finally, could turn out good. Instead of pulling readers away from the cruel reality of modern life, King placed a connection that Casey's story is not far-fetched at all; perhaps, it is relatable in so many ways.

Upon finishing the read, I couldn't help being nostalgic, but wistful, about how I was at that age and stage of life when I too was feisty to keep the dreams, things cherished, and the desire wanted to be heard and seen. I still am, now.

[Jenny (Reading Envy) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm so, so torn. On the one hand I think it's a very accurate capture of various versions of what it looks like to make writing your life (not easy, not pretty), several depictions of grief, multiple characters struggling with relationships, but overall the reading experience is fairly mundane if I'm being honest. On the one hand, we want books that accurately capture life, don't we? Or maybe it needs to be more than that to lift me out of my own life? I am struggling. I so loved her last book.

Thanks to the publisher who provided a copy through NetGalley. It came out earlier this week, on March 3, 2020.