WGBH Forum Network; Jennifer Weiner: Fly Away Home; Harvard Book Store

To have her here with us to celebrate the publication of her latest book Fly away home. As many of you might know tonight's event is one of many fabulous talks at Harvard bookstores hosting this summer. Although this is probably the only one that includes cupcakes. Tomorrow night in conjunction the Shorenstein Center welcoming William Powers into the bookstore to discuss his new book Hamlet's BlackBerry. The rest of the summer also includes events for the likes of Carl HIAS and Colson Whitehead and Gail Caldwell. You can find all of the all of these events and more online at Harvard dot com. The best way to find out of excuse me the best way to find out about all of our events is through our weekly email newsletter you can sign up for that at Harvard dot com. You can also follow us on Twitter which as we know tonight is quite handy. Become a fan on Facebook or you can pick up a paper events flyer on the back book table. So after reading tonight with his Weiner will have time for questions from the audience at the close of the top we'll have our signing right down here at the front of the hall. Please line up down this aisle to my right to your left you can exit the hall at this door to my left your right and you have it which is your coffee already. You can find copies of the book at the back book table and of course my personal thanks for buying a book

from her book coming out two great events like this one. Your participation supports know of the existence of our author event series that of a landmark an independent bookstore. This is the perfect moment to turn off your cell your cell phones if you have done so already. And so finally tonight on behalf of Harvard bookstore I am thrilled to welcome Jennifer Weiner for reading and discussion of her latest novel fly away home in this MS. When our seventh novel we meet Sylvie and Richard Woodruff and their two daughters Diana and Lizzie in typical Jennifer Weiner fashion. We were brought into the complicated lives of three remarkable and diverse women as they navigate betrayal loss and rediscovering the Providence Journal calls the book sharp hysterical thoughtful and bookless says that Weiner's trademark blend of wit and sensitivity distinguishes this timely tale about a family in crisis. Jennifer Weiner as you may know is extremely awesome. She grew up in Connecticut and attended Princeton University but she took creative writing courses with the likes of John McPhee Toni Morrison and Joyce Carol Oates before her career as a novelist as one who was an active journalist writing for Salon dot

com Red Book glamour Elle 17 tons of other places. She is the author of numerous books including good and bad little earthquakes. The short story collection the guy not taken and best friends forever. There are more than 11 million copies of this one as books in print in over 35 countries. And as you know her novel in her shoes was turned into a major motion motion picture starring Cameron Diaz and Shirley MacLaine. Some of you might know that Mr. what Miss Weiner had a cameo appearance in the film as the smiling woman in the Italian market. And she's also here on The Today Show CBS Early Show in the Martha Stewart Show. We're so thrilled that she is here with us tonight and without further ado ladies and gentleman Jennifer Weiner. Thank you. I am I am so sorry I'm late. Anyone who was following me on Twitter knows what happened. I was on a plane and they had mechanical difficulties and they had to deplane us which I didn't know was a word outside of fantasy island.

They're like going to deplane De plane and I'm like really. So yeah so we deplaned and then I hung out in the lobby and answer questions on Twitter which was fun and then they found a new plane for us and I got back on and then I fell asleep. And then there was turbulence and so here I am. And Heather thank you for that lovely introduction. A couple of years ago when I was on tour for Little Earthquakes I had to do a reading at a bookstore that had been flooded and they had to move all the books they had to tear up the carpets and they had me reading in this concrete floored a room that was like their loading dock and it had like a drain in the center and I kept looking around for Jeffrey Dahmer it was kind of freaky and and the poor owner of the bookstore was incredibly apologetic about this and really really embarrassed. And he kept saying how sorry he was he felt so terrible and you know I of course as the oldest child of divorced parents and trying to let him know that it's OK and don't worry it's fine we'll make do. Mom and Dad still love us even though they can't live together. And this poor guy walks through the crowd and stands behind the podium and leans into the microphone and

says Here's Jennifer. Sorry about the smell. And all I was thinking was they usually wait til I'm done speaking before they say that. But so I in promoting this book by way home and let me just say that I can and don't endorse it heartily because the cover only sort of looks like a douche at this time. Does anybody have best friends forever with them. Right OK. So can you. Can you hold it up so that we can all appreciate the douche you know so you don't have it with you when you don't travel with it everywhere. It's not your like talisman. Well. OK. All right we'll see there it is OK right so we have two women walking on the beach and one of them looks like she's picking her swimsuit out of her ass crack. And yeah they they sent me the cover my publisher does this that's nice of them they send me the cover and they're like What do you think. And I'm like I think it looks like a douche bag. And they're like it does look like a douche I don't like it totally looks like a douche bag and it looks like that girl is picking a wedgie

and they're like you're wrong and I'm like I'm not wrong. You know and then they're like all the book buyers in the stores really love it and I'm like OK yeah I do Shad's you know I'm like maybe you could use my cross branding with Massengill you know like buy one get one you know. But then they then they sent me this one and I'm like. Motherfuckers that's a douche out again like this girl is like jumping in the air because she's the. Glad that she doesn't have that not so fresh feeling anymore and her mom and her sister like isn't that nice dear. Like I'm really alarmed at some of the feminine hygiene ads because have you seen the one where where the woman looks all embarrassed because it's like she thinks she stinks and it's like really like you know I was I was just very alarmed because my 7 year old daughter was watching that too. But her whole thing is like she doesn't want to panties. She's 7. I didn't think I'd be having this fight with her this soon.

You know it's like every morning it's like you know you wash face you brush teeth gets panties on Britney. You know it's just not easy so anyhow. OK so I'm promoting my my do you book. And I go on The Rachael Ray Show and I bring my mom with me because I like to have my mom with me. And we get out of the car and the security guard says hey you know Guess who just went up on the el. Guess what other guest is here today Rosie O'Donnell. Ok so my mom as careful followers of my blog and Twitter feed might know my mom is a gay lesbian woman. OK so telling her that Rosie O'Donnell is in the building. Is is sort of like telling a fundamentalist Christian that Jesus. That Jesus Christ is in the green room and he is having a cupcake. So my mother says I have to meet Rosie but she's forgotten all about me. Like I'm not even there anymore she's got to meet Rosie so I asked my publicist if this could be possible and my publicist approaches Rosie's publicist and the two of them step into

the hallway and it was like watching two mafia dons try to broker a sit down between the five families. Like I don't even know what is being said I don't know what is being promised but. But eventually it all goes down and my publicist says you know Fran my mom you can go meet Rosie. So I walk right on back to Rosie's dressing room and there is Rosie O'Donnell's of course first have to stare. That's Rissi O'Donnell and she looks at me and she says. Who are you. And I didn't remember. I just slept for me and finally I'm like oh I am Jennifer Weiner I'm another guest on the show I am a novelist and she says What are you books about. And I said well I wrote one about this girl and she was a reporter and she went through this bad breakup and her mom comes out of the closet and Rosie looks at my mother and says Yeah. And my mother says yes. And Rosie says How old were you. And my mom says 54. And Rosie says 54. She says so you're sleeping with men for all those years you know. You're having

sex with men and you think that I don't know this isn't great I feel like there could be more. And I say Oh yes. And my mom says oh rosy the first time a woman's lips touched mine I've never felt such ecstasy. And at this point I like vomit in my mouth a little bit because like. You I just don't want to hear that are you. I don't care how evolved you are you just do not. So I'm like OK I got to go and I go back to my dressing room and I put my Spanx on which is like a good 15 20 minute process. And I got that. They're still talking about sex it's horrifying. I like I blotted the whole thing out I don't even want to know. Finally finally a producer conses like Mr. Donald we need you on the set. So shit Rosie is walking away and she yells over her shoulder at me she'll send me a box and then she keeps walking and she yells Actually I'm rich I can buy em. So I thought that was awesome.

But I usually I was actually proud of myself because I don't do well when I meet famous people I tend to choke. It's it's very it's unfortunate. I did an event with Jeff are you Genovese who wrote Middlesex which like won the National Book Award and was an Oprah pick. And and he's this like lovely reserved like really shy man. And I of course you know I want to talk to him because I read Middlesex and it made this huge impression on me. So I decided that you know in order to sort of like work up my courage I need to have a glass of wine first and glass of wine becomes two glasses of wine and finally after three glasses of wine I decide that I am ready and I. I walk up to him and here is my opening line I say you're Jeffrey Eugenides. He says yes and I say I loved your book Middlesex have you guys read Middlesex you know it's OK it's about this person who is born and raised female but it turns out is not the military that has boy parts right. So I say to Jeff are you Janet is I'm like you know when my daughter was born I made the doctor look really

close just to make sure there was nothing extra. And he gets this look on his face of such disgust and the horror. And he says really you really did that. I said oh come on Jeff. I can't be the only one because I can't be I can't be the only one who read Middlesex and made the pediatrician I'm like I don't want to be the mom of Mr. penis. I think he left the party it was just really. So we need to talk about the Bachelorette as anybody is and yes OK it's not my own little private problem that I'm having OK. But the bachelorette I'm going to I'm going to fill you guys in I'm going to give you like the Cliff's Notes version OK Selassie is that it was Jake on The Bachelor Jake was abs and crazy. We didn't know about the crazy he just had abs in the in the show and Jake had to choose. He came on the show to look for love and putting that all in quotes and he had to choose between Tenley who was the sort of lovely sweet the vicious like Disney princess kind of college admissions officer

girl and Vienna. Who was a tramp. And I know this was all an editing and probably the end was very nice and Tenley could have been evil but so he picked to be on the tramp. And they ride off into whatever sunset is available to reality TV show couples and then we move on to Allie who is one of the Bachelorette but had to choose between love and work and picked work. So majorly transgressive right so Alley's back and she's in this house full of bachelors who are competing for her affection. And meanwhile Jake and Vienna break up right. They have this like a horrible horrible break up and so they have to come and be on TV in the middle of valley show. So they're sitting there and they're talking to each other and Jake says well you know to Chris Harrison who's the host of the show is really the problem was that Vienna was just not very supportive when I was on Dancing With The Stars. And I'm like that happened to me once. The guy didn't support me when I was on Dancing With The Stars and then vs. Will you. There For Me when my dog was in the hospital and I'm like these are silly people. And then

takes us to Vienna Well you're nothing but a fame whore and VNS has to take your fame whore and I'm thinking kids. You guys met on a reality TV show. Not like in the mall shop. So. I'm thinking you're both ME MORE's you know and I just imagine like actual horrors like watching the show and being like leave us out of this. OK so then back to Allie So one of the one of the gentleman in the house is this professional wrestler named Justin. But Justin It turns out has a girlfriend a girlfriend who lives in Canada now. I was only familiar with that phrase when used by gay guys trying to tell their moms that they were gay. Like no other girlfriend. Yeah up north. You know like Diddy does or the musical Avenue Q. Yes where there's a song right I wish you could meet my girlfriend my girlfriend who lives in Canada. Her name is Alberta she lives in Vancouver she cooks like my mother and such like go over so anyhow so right. So you know they keep talking about the girlfriend in Canada and then they

show her right. OK so she's on the phone her name is Jesse and she's sitting there with her best friend whose name is also Jesse because in Canada there's only one name for girls and it's Jesse and she's on the phone with Allie and she's like yeah. For two years he said he'd marry me when he came on the show. So Allie you know that the secret is out Allie confronts Justin who gets very very like defensive and angry and goes stomping through the shrubbery and what looked like a stormtrooper boot because he sort of. But it's it. It's awesome TV. But so anyhow so Allie has to give them her interview about the heartbreak that she suffered and she looked at the camera and she says after this betrayal I just don't know if I can believe in love anymore. And I'm watching this with my husband and I say to him you know what else you probably can't believe it is professional wrestling. You know because she's going to want to be like this fake girlfriend in Canada. And then Monday night OK so she's down to three guys she's Roberta who's really cute. Chris whose mom is dead which he mentions every like minute or so you know. And Frank right now I was worried about Frank because first Frank said he was

in retail but never said what he sold which of course I assume porn. And it's just where my mind goes I'm sorry. OK so there and then but he's like you know I gave it all up to follow my dream of screenwriting So I'm like he was at home and he does he lives at home in the in the basement so. But but he also has a girlfriend which just proves that Any asshole can have a girlfriend because it's like you have no job and you live at home with you. Parents basement that you have. Done so he has a girlfriend and he went back to her Monday night Nicole from Chicago. So then he had to tell Allie that he was going back to Nicole and it was like a but I was worried about him anyhow because the week before last he wore a shirt with cleavage and I just don't need to see men with cleavage like it was just it was it was really low cut it was unfortunate. So somebody last night is like who do you think will win and I'm like when is really a relative term with this like I don't. There are no winners on The Bachelor except Trista and Ryan who got married and Molly and Jason as somebody pointed out they're still together. But I have to what's so

sad to talk about this book now this book that I wrote and it's about a political scandal. And I I remember watching the the Eliot Spitzer mess and I don't know if you guys remember that when he was the governor of New York and he had to go on TV and explain why he was spending $5000 on escorts. You know not only paying for sex but overpaying for sex which is really worse and. And I just remember watching that and just like being struck by so many things and one of them was the whole like $5000 for sex thing like what is a woman doing that is worth five thousand dollars. Should I be doing that thing that is worth $5000. What would the male equivalent of the thing that is worth five thousand dollars be because like I've been spending that much money I want my taxes done to you know I want my windows washed but the money for sex thing is very interesting to me. I have a friend who has traveled extensively and he went to a

brothel in Thailand or told me of a brothel in Thailand where it's six stories high. And as you ascend each level the women become more beautiful and more talented and more expensive. So he's telling you the story of course. All I can think about is what the job audition must be like. Like if I for example were to go apply for a job like I'd show up with my resume and the madam would look at me and say You first floor woman. And I'd be like that but when I have a. Sparkling person tell me very funny you know and I just I had lots of questions like you know do you ever get demoted. Like what if you're a fourth floor woman and then you have a really rough weekend and you're like come in for work and they're like. And then I was like is it handicapped accessible. You know if you want to purchase a sixth floor woman but can't get there like do they bring somebody down for you. And I had all these questions and then the other guy in Texas like where I'm doing a Q&A and somebody is like you know very seriously says if you weren't a writer what would you be and I just blurt out

first or woman at. But it's obviously it's the only other thing that I could do that I could maybe get paid for I don't know. And then and then I retracted and said Law School because it's you know that's then I'm like Oh that's worse but anyhow. But it's a you know Eliot Spitzer thing in there of course is Silva. Still to Spitzer like Ivy League educated had a career had a life standing beside him. Why. And I wanted to write a story that would sort of answer that question is still like why would a woman in this day and age stand by her man and then. What happens after the press conference like is the conversation in the car on the way home. Awkward or the most awkward conversation ever. You know I really wanted to get inside this woman's skin and so I start writing this book about a cheating politician. And then of course I have the John Edwards thing and I just I'm so furious at John Edwards because like I would come up with something that I thought was really funny and satirical and over-the-top

and clearly in the realm of fiction. And then I'd open the papers the next day and it was like well god damn it. It's like it's like OK so he he knocked out the campaign videographer and then he got this other staffer who I think is gay in love with him to say that he's the father. And then he moved them all to a safe house in California that Bunny Mellon's donation is paying for like. What the fuck am I supposed to do about that. And you know and then there's a sex tape. You know and she's like pregnant in there. All I could think of at that point was not just his wife but his daughter because he's got a 25 year old daughter and I'm just imagining like you know if your parents have a sex tape like this you're going to wander across it somehow and I just imagine this poor girl like clicking like dad's pants. But. You know in the end like I say the last year to me really felt like the Year of the scandal like the Tiger Woods thing. Like I reference in this book like a clown car where you open the door and then it's one woman

then another woman and then another woman a doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo they just keep coming out. And then that the Jesse James Sandra Bullock thing where it's like OK you're this guy you're this motorcycle guy and you marry this woman who is by all accounts like lovely and talented and generous and beautiful and has just won the Academy Award. And you're cheating on her with a chick with a tattooed forehead. Why. But you know as my my best friend Susan likes to remind me like when Halle Berry was married to David Justice he was cheating on her so it's like if Halle Berry gets cheated on like what hope is there for the rest of us. Like what. What more does a man want if you have to she's Can woman for God's sake you know step out on Catwoman. And then the Al Gore thing which like I did not see that coming. That's what she said. You know but I just I like the idea. OK first of all if you book a three hour massage like this you're going to run out of stuff to rob after like two hours and it's just it's just

not going to go well. And you know but I can imagine him like holding the woman down and being like we're going to talk about your carbon footprint but not the sex stuff. It's just so we're all right. So I'm going to read to you a little bit a bit here from Fly away home so basically Sylvie. It has been revealed that Sylvia's husband was cheating on her. They had the press conference which she has attended. Basically I made her decide to do it so her daughters wouldn't have to do that she's going to stand up there with him so that they won't be co-opted into this spectacle. And then she ditches her husband and she goes up to her grandmother's old house in Connecticut and in the scene I'm going to read she's grocery shopping for the first time in years and years because she hasn't been to a grocery store her nutritionist has bought her groceries. So back to the meat aisle for another whole chicken then a box of egg noodles over to the bakery for corn muffin and cinnamon rolls not as good as seals but they looked OK and an OK corn muffin was still good. Wasn't that what men said about sex. Or was it pizza that

even bad pizza still good bad pizza. Probably that was what she was to Richard the cheap freezer burn stuff you pull out from the back of the shelf when you were ravenous and desperate enough not to care. Maybe that girl that Joelle had been fresh baked right out of the oven her cheese all hot and stretchy the dough soft and yielding. So he grabbed a loaf of french bread and a small round loaf of raisin Hala then put on her glasses to peer at a price tag when she noticed a young woman in a Nike visor staring at her. Sylvie dropped her eyes then she raised her chin her jaw set defiantly. Can I help you. Excuse me. The woman began. I was wondering Sylvie cut her off yes she said That's right. I am the woman stared. Sylvie decided some amplification was necessary. I'm Sylvie Woodruff Richard Woodruff's wife and I didn't know he was sleeping with that girl and I haven't decided if I'm divorcing him yet and in case you're wondering we still have what I consider to be a perfectly acceptable sex life. We loved each other. Her eyes were filling with tears she blinked them away. We had two daughters Diana and Lizzie. Diana's the doctor and Lizzie.

Well Lizzie had some problems but I think she's doing better now and this is completely derailed her which I worry about. I do I worry about it a lot and I'm furious at my husband for jeopardizing her. She swallowed the word recovery and swiped at her cheek with her sleeve. I guess what I have to figure out is can I ever forgive him. Can I trust him again. Can we be a family. And I don't know. After something like this I just don't know. I'm sorry. The woman whispered Sylvie held her around Hala tightly. Sorry she repeated Yeah I'm sorry too. I'm sorry I didn't see it coming. I thought I had a happy marriage. I thought I did. We said I love you every night. We never went to sleep angry but you don't know it could happen to anyone. Like getting struck by lightning it could happen to anyone. Her voice was hoarse and loud. She could feel herself sweating as her fingertips sank through the plastic and into the bread. Nobody. Likes to think it but it could happen to anyone. This was not technically true. So we supposed it happen much more frequently to powerful men who had ample opportunity. But at that moment with her heart thundering in her ears and sweat rolling down her back it felt true like a

natural disaster an earthquake a tsunami and her only mistake was that she'd been in the way anyone. She repeated. The woman finally opened her mouth again. I just I wanted to ask. I parked next to a Camry with its lights on and I wondered if that was your car. Oh. Well that could have been anyone to Sylvie said feeling her face burn as the woman backed away. I'm sorry for your troubles the woman whispered. Oh no said Sylvie her old social graces take in taking over No I'm I'm not myself right now. She tried to give a little my Isn't this an amusing misunderstanding laughed but it sounded more like a sob. Really I'm fine. The woman nodded managed a weak smile then fled in the direction of ethnic foods. Sylvie stood for a moment her hands on the handle of the shopping cart that had not gone well. So that's a little bit Thank you. And now I will take questions questions from the audience. My favorite part of every night

somebody must want to know something. Yes. How do I find I use my journalism background I mean honestly journalism taught me so much about being a good observer and listening to the way people talk and watching how they stand and you know just body language and close details. Being in people's houses seeing people's cars like all that stuff that you just sort of pick up you know working a beat and the other thing journalism did I think was really sort of de romanticized the writing process in a good way because when you're a reporter and you have to write a story and it's due at 6 o'clock you can't really go to your boss at 6:00 and be like you know I am sorry but my muse has not spoken to me about the sewage board hearing that I covered. So there's no story. You know your boss does not care about your muse and so you just have to write and really get used to writing. Writing on deadline writing for length writing every day writing more than one thing at once. And I think all of that was excellent excellent training for writing novels. So I

I consider myself really lucky to have had a life in newspapers and I I feel bad because you know people for years people are just like you know I want to be a novelist what should I do and I'm like well if. You can't find a way. You know if you can't find somebody to like be a patron of the arts for you and support you while you write that novel like journalism is great. But I don't know where the jobs are anymore I think they've all moved online and you know so that's where people have to go but no I would I would recommend journalism highly to anyone who wants to write novels. It worked for me. Yes. Did you ever question or re scratching your scratching OK. Oh you do have a question. OK. You scratched it out. A novel around reality based TV. Is that the question. Oh my God. You know for years I've had this fake show that I've tried to get into my books where it's called Diet Island. OK. And it's a cross between Survivor and The Biggest Loser because. OK. Have you noticed that everybody on

Survivor loses loses weight or at least they used to now they're giving them too much food. But they used to lose like a lot of weight. So I had this idea that it would be a contest you would drop 20 people on an island with like a bag of rice and a book of matches and Vaseline for the chafing and you would eat they you know they would they would have to survive and then the winner would be the one who lost the most weight. Like maybe they wouldn't know it was a weight loss competition like maybe they think it was like Survivor but it would diet Island Can't you see that. See I don't ever want to write a book about it or actually do the show. Like I think that would be kind of fun. Like I need I need a good kicker like diet island like where where fat goes to vacation or something like that. I don't know. I also have an idea for a movie called Black Pope where it's where there's a black pope as the title implies and that's all I really have is the title and the kicker but the kicker is don't tell him he that it can't. That's all I got I got nothing. But I think I could do it I think that's enough.

My brother is a producer in Hollywood and he works in the same building as the weigh ins brother so every time I go visit him I threaten to go pitch black pope and he's like Don't do it. God. See I actually there was actually more to where there'd be like twin brothers in like one of them was like a really good devout like a bishop or something like you know he could legitimately become pope but then he had like that the ne'er do well brother who was like trying to make a cheap porno movies and like you know and then like there'd be some big mix up in the bad brother would have to like be the fake pope for a weekend and I did. I have this little thing and nobody liked it. Black Pope somebody over here. I can't believe I just hope that none of you guys better steal that. Yes. My family. Oh Lord love them. Well let's see. I am the oldest of four and my my mom is gay and she discovered this. Like I said she was 54 and she

met this woman named Karen. In the. They met in the swimming pool of the West Hartford JCC. Are there Jews in years and even. OK good thank you you could explain us arrest them later at the J. They met at the J and you know for years I would come home and my mom would say hey do you want to come swimming I'd be like oh hell no. And she'd say it's not catching and I say they haven't proved that. So Karen was kind of awful like she was sort of like the first girlfriend she was much much younger than my mom and she didn't like men which was a problem because I have brothers I have a sister and two brothers so like but I remember bringing my my then fiance home and she looked at him and she said I don't have much use for your kind. But you you're different. You've got little delicate hands. And. So for my husband does he. So for years I'd be saying hey does a kid was so a lot of people want to know how my family feels about basically being

fodder for my my books and my stories and they're mostly really OK with it. You know my deal is like there are writers who say that you can never let your family like you can't worry about what they're going to think of your books because you're writing for posterity and you're writing for the ages and blah blah blah and I don't know where these people go for Thanksgiving but like I got to go home. So I think anybody gets to like anybody who shows up in a book they get to read it when it's in galleys and basically if there's a problem they just tell me and I change it and I've been able to sort of use whatever I want with the one exception. My mother's life partner Claire sister Carla has a thing for amputees and I really want to use that in a book and. Why have so many questions like. That first of all. You go to Carla and Claire's parents house and you look through the books and it's like it's like a pictorial history of prosthetics because there was like the guy in the 80s with the hook you know in the guy in the 90s with like the mechanical hand and so I was like I just I want to know first of all

where do you meet amputees like do you do you hang out outside the prosthetic shop and like wait for like a likely prospect and be like hey handsome you need a hand with that. I know but you know she just like she is adamant she's like you can't use it you can't use it and then like she made me like she I finally was like oh yeah I won't use it but you just have to tell me what it's about so she made me sign a tablecloth in a clam shack promising that I would never use it but then she told me it was a sex thing and I could even hear anywheres. But you know like they're you know they're all cool I have two daughters. Lucy had similar underpants and Phoebe who's not potty trained yet so you know they're both they're both very nice and interesting and lively girls they're both very funny and they have curly hair that I don't know what to do with because they got the Jew fro from my husband and I just Lucy the one thing I can use in her hair that works is called Mixed Chicks conditioner.

And I feel like guilty buying it because like I mean she's not mixed but it works so I don't know I I feel like I'm supporting the community in some small way. Did you want to do anything more specific. No. It was a black pope seat in the first scene where the brother would be doing OK. You know this is good OK. He's going to like he's trying to convince his girlfriend to like do you like the amateur porno So she's in the shower and he's like OK baby just like to be sexy be sexy she's like very business like you know giving herself a shower and she's like just be natural just pretend I'm not here so she starts giving herself the breast exam She's got the card hanging from the shower head. It is like not that natural. Yes. Aha. Right about the fame part. Right. Yeah.

Really. Well let me let me just offer a disclaimer I hardly ever look this good. And this is sort of looking good for me but like I never it's very rare that somebody will ever like recognize me out in the world from my author photo and when they do I know it's time to get a better author photo with even more airbrushing. But the. Being a writer isn't like being like any other kind of famous person because you're not. It's just the picture. You know like even. Well I don't know maybe social media has changed that because if you're like on Facebook and on Twitter and you're interacting with people and I think that maybe they start feeling like they do know you in in a way that sort of the exact opposite I think of like a movie star's mystique. I think that that was sort of like you know the movie stars of the the you know like Cary Grant and Gretta Garbo it's like we didn't know them and they were these big beautiful mysteries that we wanted to solve then. And then there's me that's like you know tweeting about like who I'm stuck next to on the airplane.

But I I think that the I think you're asking about sort of fame in the process right. Like I think the thing that's changed as sort of the books have you know have gone on and have sold it's sort of you know that there's an audience waiting. Like when you're writing your first book and you're like all alone in your spare bedroom and you know in your sweatpants because you've been dumped and you're writing this book because you have nothing else to do because you have no more social life which was my story with good in bed. You know you have all these daydreams of like you know I'm going to get an agent I'm going to get an editor I'm going to a huge publishing contract and you know people will will phone over me and they'll. At my feet and you know even if you do get the agent in the editor in the publishing contract the people following your feet does or does not happen that much because really you only get to sort of like put on the author clothes like a couple weeks a year when your book comes out and you're on tour and maybe you get to be on TV. But the thing that happens is after that first book you know there's people waiting you know your agent is waiting in your editors waiting and your readers are waiting and you don't want to disappoint them. And you

know and you want to sort of always be pushing yourself and challenging yourself as a writer but you also want to give your readers enough of what they love you for in the first place and you know me keep them happy and that I'd say is the interesting tension is sort of you never have that freedom of sort of writing that first book all alone in the quiet of your head again. And that I think like you know it's not like you're getting bothered for autographs in the grocery store but I do think that that as as you become sort of more and more popular as a writer that is the thing that you lose and that's sort of the thing you have to fight to retain somehow is the sense of it's just you and the page. Was that helpful. OK good. Yes. Was I happy with the movie. I was yeah I mean the one thing I wasn't like the one like quibble that I have is that I wanted Toni Collette to be bigger because like when they cast it when they cast her I was thrilled because she'd been in Muriel's Wedding and she gained 40 pounds and I was like OK fantastic but

she's going to gain weight to play Rose who's supposed to be bigger. And I would get these calls from Hollywood and they'd be like OK she gained 10 pounds to gain 12 pounds. She gained 15 pounds and then they they called and they're like she's hit the wall. And I was like there's a wall. Was. I was familiar with the wall. Q I don't believe it. Yes you know I was like do they need me to come out and help her because I feel that I could do this and you know I can I'll bring some Krispy Kreme Zen like a black pope and you know. But the thing that I did like I have a friend who's a film critic and she gave me like a really good piece of advice when the script was sold and people were like well are you going to adapt it and my friend said a novelist trying to adapt her own material is like a mother trying to circumcise her own son.

She said Let someone else do the cutting. And I said OK. I just had a baby and I just sort of like made up my mind in my head I was just like I told the story I wanted to tell in the book it's done it's between the pages It's in bookstores now what's going to change it. I'm going to let the movie be the filmmaker story. And if it's GREAT that's fantastic and if it's just ok it's still going to bring people to my book. And that's a good thing. So yeah I really was pleased. I was I was glad they kept the characters Jewish because I figured that would be like maybe something they would change. I was glad they shot it in Philadelphia instead of like going to Canada with like a styrofoam Liberty Bell you know to find all those Canadian girlfriends. Yeah I was I was really happy but I thought that's the advice like when other friends who are writers when their stuff gets optioned I'm like cash the check quickly. Try not to think about it too much because that the truth is like the vast majority of things that get optioned never get made so you just sort of like take the money and smile politely and are grateful and then just go on to your next book. I mean

there have been legendary stories in Hollywood about authors who like wasted like Wally Lamb I think is sort of the classic cautionary tale who spent years writing a screenplay for She's come undone and there been so many actresses and directors attached and it still hasn't gotten made and you just wonder like you know could he have written a great book with with that time. So but yeah I was I was happy yes in the purple. One or two more. OK go. When I consider having another of my books you know I'd love it. I mean but but honestly like I don't want to be greedy like I had what I think was just about the perfect experience of sort of the book to film thing and you know but it was also really stressful I mean it was sort of like you know you're you're in the press like a million times more with a movie than you are as just a writer and that was you know it was a I'm a private person. It was ok not really but you know I would like it OK. I would die and die would not kick it out of bed for eating crackers. Yes my favorite character Wow. Oh

God you know it's like asking a mother to pick her favorite child like you're really not supposed to do that in public. Or you know I I like Jeannie Siegel from good nobody Janie Siegel of the carpet Siegel's who's like you know I like that moment where it's like she's this rich girl who's sort of hostile and make it on her own because her father has cut her off and she's. I like that moment when she and Kate are going to go apartment hunting and kids like you know we're going to be walking a lot so wear comfortable shoes and she makes you know first off she writes wear comfortable shoes and she thinks for a minute writes buy comfortable shoes. So she was fun. So that's it I'm get the hook. I'm going to sit right there. I'm a sign your books. Thank you all for coming. Thank you.