Writers & Lovers

Really enjoyed this book thank you. Vibrant, believable, characters and an absorbing plot. I will ensure I look out for this author in the future!

Well the title of this novel partly tells what to expect. Camila/Casey is 31 and has been writing her novel for six years. It looks like she has followed at least some of the advice – publicly announce that she is a writer writing, set herself up with a regular writing routine and is (vaguely) in contact with other writers to give herself moral support and encouragement. But the needs of real life are standing in her way. She has huge (and rising) debts from her university years and that means she needs to work full time. At the time of the story this means she works at a busy local restaurant, with long and erratic hours, tiring work where support from a few developing friends is melded with a bullying atmosphere that will end in her being sacked. But money is tight, her accommodation is poor and uncertain, she is isolated from her father, her brother is elsewhere and her mother is recently dead leaving Casey massively distressed with grief.
Casey will recount the tale of how she gets through her innocuous days among ordinary people and we see a gradually evolving picture of the details of her life, albeit through her own perceptions and uncertainties. This is a compulsive tale that pulls the reader along at pace although things are not easy for Casey. Then when a writer friend Muriel invites her to a local book signing she will meet not one but two writers. Published author, new widower with sons, older man, Oskar and younger writer and poet, the largely unpublished Silas. She will start to consider a relationship with both, but both are uncertain about what they want from Casey and she is uncertain as to her attractiveness or entitlement to be with them. But we are told that nevertheless the emotional turmoils and pressures will create the spur (or mental state) where she can finally finish her novel – and even get it sent away to agents.
This is a very clever novel depicting as it does the writing process both physical and mental. The latter with its need to have confidence to invest time in writing with no real certainty that your work will be either good or considered fit for publication. Casey’s thoughts show this dilemma in all it’s painful twitches and unfolding. At 31 she has no successful long term relationship behind her. She would like a partner and home – particularly with the loss of her mother she has a need to build a new secure family space. But she comes from a dysfunctional family and lacks confidence in her own skills to build or retain a meaningful relationship. She painfully second guesses herself, her behaviour, and her ability to attract people throughout the novel – although at the same time we can see she is liked and appreciated by people around her.
But the resonance of this tale that stays is the depiction of her mental state. On top of her other challenges, she is undoubtedly deeply in grief for her mother – and is at the stage where loss is still a visceral matter as well as a mental adjustment of loss to move through. Her underlying depression is clear too – and we see a young woman trying to get on with life through her difficulties mental and practical – but who is so hard on herself, who has an image of herself as a failure, albeit against the quieter other message coming through the tale itself..
King is an extraordinary skilled writer to give us the contradictions with such subtlety in this rolling account. But of particular interest was that she chose to see the issue – not just of the emerging writer – but to meld it with a woman’s wider uncertainties of life. She could have presented Casey as merely gawky, but instead we have a sympathetic portrait of a woman trying very hard to get on with life – and to be a creative achiever too. This is a very fine read – I will be looking for more of her books.

This book wrecked me in the best possible way. The writing is so precise and there are some scenes that just leap of the page with the depth of feeling they portray.

Maybe as a wannabe writer I derived an extra level of positivity from this. I also loved how we saw the writers that Casey loved - we weren't just told that she loved writers and books.

I think towards the end it felt just slightly drawn out but the ending itself was so lovely. It doesn't matter that I didn't care for one particular plot point and I guess that section captured part of the way life is sometimes all build up for something much smaller than anticipated.

Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for the free copy in exchange for an honest review.

Why have I not come across the writer, Lily King, before? I wouldn’t have come across her now had it not been for Susan‘s recommendation of her latest book, Writers & Lovers, and her comment that Elizabeth Strout had said it was “Gorgeous”. I trust Susan’s judgement anyway, but when you couple that with Elizabeth Strout’s recommendation any writer has to be worth taking a risk on and believe me, Writers & Lovers truly is gorgeous.

Casey Peabody is, as she tells a gathering of students at the very end of the novel, thirty-one years old and seventy-three thousand dollars in debt. Since college she has moved eleven times, had seventeen jobs and several relationships that didn’t work out. She’s been estranged from her father since twelfth grade, and earlier in the year her mother died. Her only sibling, Caleb, is three thousand miles away.  When we first meet her she is living in Boston and working shifts in a local restaurant in a vain attempt to make ends meet.  Home is what is described as a ‘potting shed’ attached to property owned by Adam, a friend of her brother. Adam, however, is no friend of hers. Actually, I’m surprised he’s a friend of anybody. Two pages in and I’m making a note to myself to the effect of ‘why hasn’t somebody biffed him one?’ The only thing that has been a constant in Casey’s life over the past six years has been the novel that she is writing. This isn’t something that has just come out of the blue, that seventy-three thousand dollar debt has been amassed while she was at college on what we in the UK would call creative writing programmes. While fellow students have fallen by the wayside, abandoned their writing and taken up other jobs, Casey has persisted.

Is Adam impressed?

Is he hell.

‘How many pages you got now?’

‘Couple of hundred maybe’...

‘You know’, he says, pushing himself off his car, waiting for my full attention. ‘I just find it extraordinary that you think you have something to say’.
Maybe ‘biffing’ is too good for him. I’m thinking perhaps extermination?

Actually, the key phrase in that passage is waiting for my full attention because Casey frequently finds herself being belittled or ignored by men who have been brought up to think that the world owes them recognition and should dance to their tune. One of the reasons she is estranged from her father is because he has tried to dictate her career, pushing her to develop her talent as a golfer and scorning her ambitions to write. The only time we meet him is when he and his second wife turn up at the restaurant, Iris, where Casey works, in order to get her to turn over a ring of her mothers, the sole possession she has to remember her by. Then there is Oscar Kolton, a widowed writer with whom Casey enters into a relationship. When she accompanies him to a book reading he cannot cope with the fact that a female author has been accommodated in a larger venue.

‘I am forty-seven years old. I was supposed to be reading in auditoriums by now...I know I have a better book inside me. I have something big inside me. I just. Ever since. Fuck’. It almost seems like he’s going to punch the bricks of the gift shop beside us. Instead he lays his palms on the wall and lets out some jagged breaths.

Nearly every guy I dated believed they should already be famous, believed that greatness was their destiny and they were already behind schedule. An early moment of intimacy often involved a confession of this sort: a childhood vision, teacher’s prophecy, a genius IQ. At first, with my boyfriend in college, I believed it too. Later, 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.
But whatever you’ve been brought up to think, writing a novel is not something that just drops into your lap because it is your destiny, because it is something you want, something that you deserve; it is hard work. For Casey, it has been six years hard work, but it has been six years in which the act of writing has been that which is constant and steady in her life. It has been my home, the place I could always retreat to...the place where I am most myself. Casey, unlike those students with whom she studied, has stuck to what she truly wants to do. However difficult it’s been, she has remained authentic to who she wants to be regardless of what it has cost her and it is precisely that feeling of authenticity which resounds throughout the novel.  I don’t know to what extent Writers & Lovers is autobiographical, but the ‘Writers’ element of the book feels like a lived experience.

However, the book is not just about being a writer but also about being part of a relationship, and relationships have to be worked at as well. You can’t, like Oscar, just take the other person’s acquiescence for granted because they fit well into your life, or drop out for a couple of weeks, as Silas does, without telling them, because you’re having a bad time. Being in a relationship means accepting that the other person has needs and wants as well as you and respecting that; it certainly doesn’t mean being used as a one night stand. When Casey‘s brother, Caleb, visits and, having slept with Adam, realises that the encounter meant so much more to him than to his so-called friend, Casey consoles him by saying, he’s never going to allow himself the option of you or any other guy. He’s not that brave. And that is exactly what it takes to be in a relationship, to commit to it and work at it on a long-term basis, it takes bravery. This is something Adam will never understand, just as he fails to understand the commitment and sacrifice that writing her novel has meant for Casey. (Do you get the feeling I’m not impressed by Adam?)

It took me a little time to get into Writers & Lovers and that is something that I should remember as a reader; that the act of reading is one of forming a relationship with the writer to bring the actuality of the narrative to life and therefore it should be given the same sort of commitment on my part as the writer gave to it during the actual composition. Once you do give this novel that sort of commitment, it will repay you a hundredfold.

With thanks to Pan Macmillan and NetGalley for the review copy.

I normally avoid books about writers like the plague but the description of this one captured my interest! I was not disappointed. I loved the realism and charm of this novel about a woman struggling to write, navigate her love life, come to terms with the loss of her mother and make her student loan repayments in the 90s. More in video: http://www.betterthandreams.com/2020/05/march-2020-book-reviews/

Honestly I think this is my new favourite book of all time. I'm a sucker for books where I can relate to the protagonist and Casey is basically me (except I'm not a good writer!).

Casey is 31, newly single, mourning her mother and just generally stuck in a rut. She's desperate to finish her first novel but in the meantime is working as a waitress in a restaurant and living in a tiny, mouldy room next to a garage. We follow her as she copes with career stresses, health issues and a difficult relationship with her father and his new partner. The writing was exquisite and I couldn't put this book down. It's just what I needed during these difficult times. I'm off to collect Lily King's back catalogue!

I loved Writers & Lovers. I don't usually go for character-driven stories, but it was impossible not to fall in love with (and relate to) Casey, the thirty-one-year-old writer who refuses to give up on her dream while waiting tables in Harvard Square.⁠
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There could've been no better time in my life to read this book - even though Casey is a few years older than me, I could see a lot of myself in her as she struggled to make ends meet and build a life for herself as a creative. The heartbreak after failure and rejection, the determination to keep pushing through, the loneliness that comes with feeling lost and wondering if what we're doing is worth it - all of this was present and beautifully written in Writers & Lovers.⁠ The author also explores themes like grief and complicated romantic/family relationships, both very much present in Casey's life.⁠
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By the end, I knew Casey so well I couldn't help but cheer when she succeeded, and be sad when things went wrong. I think there were a few loose ends that could've been tied at some point, but overall, it was a lovely read.⁠

This story caught me by surprise but I loved it. Casey is a very relatable character. She's grieving the loss of her mother whilst trying to pay her rent, write a novel and decide between two guys who are both hot and cold. There are lots of lovely scenes in this novel that were brought to life so well, I could picture them on a silver screen. This is one of those books that you can dip in and out of but also devour in one sitting.

Even though I'm young, I feel like I'm getting old really fast. Set in the city I visited so often, I really took a shine to this book and its main character. Casey was tough but soft, sharp though grieving, really likable.

The reviews for this book have been gushing and I wondered whether I should believe the hype - but it really is that good. I got lost in it and read it in three great big gulps. What a writer!

I’m so glad I came across this book! It took a few pages to get me hooked, but once it did, I couldn’t put it down.

We meet Casey at age 31, mourning the recent loss of her mother and having just come out of a short-lived, yet intense, affair. Single, crippled with student debt and waiting tables while she writes her first novel, she’s at a period of uncertainty in her life.

I found Casey to be very relatable and I’d recommend this to anyone in their twenties or thirties who doesn’t feel like they have their life quite figured out yet. King writes very astutely about the issues Casey faces and, like the best authors do, it sometimes feels as if she’s managed to perfectly articulate thoughts and feelings of my own.

At times this read like a memoir, which acts as testament to how realistic the characters are. None of the men Casey dates are idealised (or even particularly appealing, in my opinion), so it was easy to believe that they could be real, flawed, people. I could relate to Casey’s feelings about them and enjoyed her frank observations about her relationships, even if I didn’t always agree with her choices. I also enjoyed reading about the complex relationships she has with people in her family and discovering how her relationship with her mother has impacted her grief.

I am impressed by how perceptively King writes about feelings of loss and longing and I'm looking forward to reading more of her novels.

Writers & Lovers has been doing the rounds on my Twitter feed, the beautiful book cover reeling me in and I was so glad when I came across it here on Netgalley. I thoroughly enjoy character driven stories, so you can imagine how much I enjoyed living through Casey's journey. This intimate tale of a young woman dealing with her grief was heart breaking and yet, wonderfully funny at the same time, something about her reminded me of a close friend so it really resonated strongly. I felt myself get lost in this book, drowning in Casey's sorrow alongside her, and rooting for her happiness when romance came into play. The book's realism is what I feel sets it apart from other novels which deal with the character's struggles of being a writer, alongside something as intense a feeling as grief, all whilst trying to grasp onto life and navigate the every day stuff. Both shining bright and gloomily dark, Casey's story is one that deserves to be read.

A wonderful read that I got through in one sitting! I'll no doubt end up going through Lily King's backlist now and keeping an eye out on what she's doing next...

This is a contemporary novel set in the Boston/Cambridge area of Massachusetts in 1997.
We are in the head of protagonist Casey Peabody, who at the beginning of the book, is an aspiring writer, reeling from the emotions of a recent love affair and grappling with the grief of her mother suddenly passing away.
The novel is about so many different aspects of Casey’s life and emotions, but ultimately it is a snapshot of this moment in her existence and we are taken along for the ride.

When we first meet Casey she is talking about her mother’s sudden and unexpected passing while on a trip in Chile. This event brings up a cocktail of emotions within Casey, where she is replaying the last moments she had with her mother, and thinking back to her childhood and the relationship they had together. Her death brings back the feelings of abandonment that Casey felt many years ago.

Casey is also coming off the back of a rollercoaster love affair with someone she met at a writing camp, and we see her trying to get over this while beginning to form relationships with other men. There are two love interests in the novel. However, King does such an effortless job of making this not your typical love triangle, but instead making the character dynamics seem realistic and creating situations that are relatable and normal to result in Casey having power and independence in her decision making and owning her feelings. These two men represent different things that Casey needs and wants in her life and through getting to know them she is getting to understand herself and explore her own desires.

This is a book set in the book world about writing, which is a trope that can be done very badly. In this case, Lily King does it beautifully. She talks about books and words and writing in such a passionate and engaging way, through Casey, that I was hanging on her every word. Casey is writing a novel and has been for the last six years. We get scenes where she is talking about reading and writing, which is done in a way that celebrates the act and demonstrates that not everyone will get the same thing out of a piece of writing and that is ok.

In amongst all of this is the discussion of Casey’s mental health. Throughout the novel Casey describes her feelings and her reactions in a way that doesn’t romanticise or draw attention to them, but it becomes clear that she suffers from anxiety. Casey finds ways to cope with this herself as well as with her group of supportive, emotionally intelligent and inspiring friends.

Lastly, I just loved Lily King’s ability to write a scene. Every location in the book and every interaction felt so visceral and cinematic and played out like a movie in my mind. We were following Casey’s journey here but I felt like each one of the characters could have had a novel of their own.

There is so many more elements to this book and so much more I loved. I already want to re-read this and I know I will get even more out of it on a second read. This has become a new favourite

Writers and Lovers by Lily King
8/10
Grief, love and self-belief.

A writer writes a book about a writer writing a book... and gets it so RIGHT (see what I did there 😆). Writers and Lovers tells the tale of 31 year old Casey and we meet her in 1997. She is grieving the recent unexpected death of her mother, falling for two very different men at the same time and trying to finish the novel she's been working on for the past 6 years. Her job as a waitress hangs perilously in the balance along with the renting of the potting shed in her brothers' friends back garden she calls her home. Life has not gone to plan.

Although this sounds like a rather depressing setting/premise for a book I can promise you Lily has worked wonders here with a character that you instantly warm to and root for. Casey has much she could sit and wallow about and although this does happen at various points in the book it always feels right and never overplayed. I genuinely cared about Casey and analysed her decisions like I would a dear friend. And as I watched her journey I was there in the ups and downs- cheering on the highs and wanting to embrace her in the hugest of hugs during the lows.

It's a book about writing a book... but not really... really it's about love in all its many forms and- the most important one- loving yourself.