EP 052
October 18, 2022
Laura Warrell on the 20-year journey to write her new novel "Soft, Sweet, Plenty Rhythm".
Show Notes:
This week on the podcast, Angela speaks with teacher and author Laura Warrell. They discuss Laura's new novel, Soft, Sweet, Plenty Rhythm, and the 20-year journey to getting it into the world. Laura's book is about Circus Palmer, a trumpet player and the women in his orbit. They talk about Laura's work to make these characters as rich as the man as at the center of the story. They also talk about Laura's 2019 viral essay, I Gave Up On Love, And It Was One Of The Best Decisions I Ever Made. Seeing as they recorded this in LA , they also complained about traffic.
Laura's essay on Writing While Black can be found here. She also wrote a piece for Lit Hub about her devotion to Jazz.
Angie mentions Lisa Lucas at the beginning of this interview. Here is a NYTimes piece about Lisa.
Follow Laura Warrell:
Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm
by Laura Warrell
$26.04
BUY NOWPassion and risk, fathers and daughters, wives and single women, jazz and soul: a gorgeously written debut (Celeste Ng, best-selling author of Little Fires Everywhere) about the perennial temptations of dangerous love, told by the women who love Circus Palmer--trumpet player and old-school ladies' man--as they ultimately discover the power of their own voices.
"A modern masterpiece." --Jason Reynolds, best-selling author of Look Both Ways
It's 2013, and Circus Palmer, a forty-year-old Boston-based trumpet player and old-school ladies' man, lives for his music and refuses to be tied down. Before a gig in Miami, he learns that the woman who is secretly closest to his heart, the free-spirited drummer Maggie, is pregnant by him. Instead of facing the necessary conversation, Circus flees, setting off a chain of interlocking revelations from the various women in his life. Most notable among them is his teenage daughter, Koko, who idolizes him and is awakening to her own sexuality even as her mentally fragile mother struggles to overcome her long-failed marriage and rejection by Circus. Delivering a lush orchestration of diverse female voices, Warrell spins a provocative, soulful, and gripping story of passion and risk, fathers and daughters, wives and single women, and, finally, hope and reconciliation, in answer to the age-old question: how do we find belonging when love is unrequited?
Passion and risk, fathers and daughters, wives and single women, jazz and soul: a gorgeously written debut (Celeste Ng, best-selling author of Little Fires Everywhere) about the perennial temptations of dangerous love, told by the women who love Circus Palmer--trumpet player and old-school ladies' man--as they ultimately discover the power of their own voices.
"A modern masterpiece." --Jason Reynolds, best-selling author of Look Both Ways
It's 2013, and Circus Palmer, a forty-year-old Boston-based trumpet player and old-school ladies' man, lives for his music and refuses to be tied down. Before a gig in Miami, he learns that the woman who is secretly closest to his heart, the free-spirited drummer Maggie, is pregnant by him. Instead of facing the necessary conversation, Circus flees, setting off a chain of interlocking revelations from the various women in his life. Most notable among them is his teenage daughter, Koko, who idolizes him and is awakening to her own sexuality even as her mentally fragile mother struggles to overcome her long-failed marriage and rejection by Circus. Delivering a lush orchestration of diverse female voices, Warrell spins a provocative, soulful, and gripping story of passion and risk, fathers and daughters, wives and single women, and, finally, hope and reconciliation, in answer to the age-old question: how do we find belonging when love is unrequited?