It's summer 1976 and Shay is marrying her fiancé Andrew on a remote island off the coast of Virginia. Shay has recently "escaped" from the New York City chapter of the Synanon organization, and everyone on the island for the wedding (especially Andrew's rick blue-blood East Coast family) is wondering if she's really free and clear, or if the cult will try to mess up her wedding.
Synanon was a real cult -- started as a alternate substance abuse treatment facility called Tender Loving Care, it soon grew more nefarious -- and Beaird weaves these real historical details into her novel. Just wait until you read about The Game. 😬
Back in June, I got to talk to Beaird over Zoom for a piece for the Chicago Review of Books. The interview's out today also! In addition to being a wonderful writer, Beaird is a generous literary citizen and a fantastic interviewee. Head over to CHIRB at the button below to check out the piece!
Here's an excerpt:
Rowan Beaird’s sophomore novel, Tenderness, begins with an absolute banger of a first line: “Shay was no longer in the cult, but still, it made her wedding guests nervous that she was bringing them to an island.”
So right off the bat, the wedding guests aren’t the only ones who are nervous. We readers are too! Is the bride actually free of this cult? Is the cult going to interfere with the wedding? Where is this island and how does one leave, if one must? It all adds up to a biting sense of unease that engages us immediately: A master class in how to do a first line.
No comments:
Post a Comment