Joining us today is Chin-Sun Lee. She is the author of the debut novel Upcountry (Unnamed Press 2023), and a contributor to the New York Times bestselling anthology Women in Clothes (Blue Rider Press/Penguin 2014). Her work has also appeared or is forthcoming in The Georgia Review, The Rumpus, Joyland, and The Believer Logger, among other publications. She lives in New Orleans. More at www.chinsunlee.com.
Why do you write?
I write to process
questions I have about the world and myself. It’s the way I examine moral and
social dilemmas or indulge in my curiosities by imagining how my characters
might respond in any given circumstance. In a way, it’s an extension of how
much I loved playing with dolls as a kid (apologies: as I write this Barbie has
taken over the universe). I didn’t just dress up my dolls—or undress them, cut
off their hair, paint on new faces—I put them in situations. It’s
imagination and problem-solving, self-entertainment and exorcism.
What’s the most useless skill
you possess?
I can pick up—and drink
from!—a glass of wine with my toes.
If you could have a
superpower, what would it be?
Teleportation: I would
love to be able to instantly transport objects, people, and myself somewhere just
by wishing it so!
How do you celebrate when you
finish writing a new book?
I am so close to
finishing my second novel now, and when it’s done, the first thing I’m going to
do is clean my house from top to bottom, then have a celebratory dinner out with
friends. After that, for at least a week, I want to do nothing but just read
whatever I want.
Would you and your main
character(s) get along?
Hmm. Of my three main
protagonists, I would get along best with April, for her no-nonsense manner and
caustic sense of humor. Claire was initially based on someone I actually
disliked, so even though I grew to love her as a character, in real life I’d probably
still find her too prickly. As for Anna, the young naïve Korean cult member,
I’d want to either shake her or hug her. Maybe both.
If you could cast your
characters in a movie, which actors would play them and why?
Such a fun question! Carrie
Coon is absolutely my first choice for Claire—she’s wonderfully flinty and
neurotic, but has a humanity and intelligence that could soften the character.
I could see either Reese Witherspoon or Elizabeth Banks play April; both are
sassy blond beauties capable of looking and acting weathered. For Anna, I love
Han Ye-ri, who played the young wife in Minari; she has a quiet
intensity and stillness.
What are some of your favorite
books and/or authors?
Henry James, W. Somerset
Maugham, Paul Bowles, Flannery O’Connor, Jean Rhys, Marguerite Duras, Vladimir
Nabokov, Haruki Murakami, Lucia Berlin, Mary Gaitskill, Javier Marías, Roberto
Bolaño, Denis Johnson, Laurie Stone, Chris Kraus, Ottessa Moshfegh, Rachel
Kushner, Sigrid Nunez, Rachel Cusk. . .the list goes on and on.
What’s the one book someone
else wrote that you wish you had written?
Only one?!—impossible.
This would change depending on the moment, but in this moment, I’ll say that
Roberto Bolaño’s 2666 is a freaking masterpiece. It’s a beautiful mess
at times, but that whole WWII section is feverish brilliance. . .he must have
been touched by the gods while writing it.
Do you think you’d live long
in a zombie apocalypse?
NO. I wouldn’t want to.
I’m so easily terrified, I’d probably take myself out before encountering one
of those ghouls.
Are you a book hoarder or a
book unhauler?
Definitely a hoarder.
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A middle-class ex-Manhattanite, a cash-strapped single mother, and a young member of an obscure religious "sect," become entangled in a Catskills town.
Claire Pedersen and her husband are relocating from NYC to the Catskills--they have found a terrific deal on a property in foreclosure. The house has been in April Ives' family for three generations, but the single mother of three children from two different fathers needs the money. Claire and April are instantly antagonistic, but the sale proceeds, and renovations begin.
Soon after, Claire's husband develops an erotic fascination with Anna, a young member of a nearby religious community called The Eternals. Two marriages--and one pregnancy--swiftly and dramatically end. Claire is left to finish the renovation and salvage the life she had imagined. April, meanwhile, is dealing with her ex who has just been released from prison on a drug charge and the decision of whether or not to let him build a relationship with the son he has never known.
Life "upcountry" means close encounters between disparate social classes: Claire and April navigate mutual dislike and unanticipated empathy. The house remains a sore point for both. Anna is the unhappy fulcrum between the two older women. Shunned from The Eternals since the incident with Claire's husband, she yearns to return to their protection. Anna's strict views on transgression and penance are baffling to April; for Claire, Anna remains the embodiment of her ruined marriage.
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