Writers & Lovers

Casey Peabody is a writer labouring over her novel for the past six years — long after her peers in writing class have moved on, married up, gotten their real estate license and put their novels away. In that time she's endured listening to male writers who feel they should already be famous, men dismissively wondering what she could possibly have to say while living in a potting shed that smells of loam and rotting leaves. She's barely covering her student debt working as a waitress serving grabby patrons at an upscale Harvard Square eatery and occasionally walking her landlord's dog. Getting health insurance only seems to reveal a litany of potentially life changing ailments at the hands of indifferent doctors. And still she writes.

Amidst all this Casey finds herself caught between two men. Oscar is an older widower with two precocious but adorable kids. He's an established and successful writer who has invited her into his little life. Meanwhile there's Silas, a high school teacher and struggling writer with a chipped front tooth and a rusted out car. Silas is a bit flaky and bails almost immediately after a first date.

All of this paints a bleak picture of the struggling creative class in America. So much so that I distrusted how it all ends. I felt manipulated even as I cheered Casey's every decision and win. It felt like a bit of fantasy in an otherwise grim accounting, and if King's writing didn't completely beguile me I'd otherwise begrudge her upbeat ending.

In the meantime the book has been optioned by Toni Collette for her directorial debut and I can't wait.