Writers and Lovers by Lily King
Casey Peabody is a 31-year-old aspiring writer struggling financially, having health problems, and sorting out her love life. She is also suffering from the unexpected death of her mother. While navigating her life as a writer, she deals with a world that doesn’t understand her writing compulsion. One inappropriate comment that Adam, her landlord, voiced was, ”I just find it extraordinary that you think you have something to say.” Lily King uses characters such as Adam to illustrate how difficult it was for Casey to persevere despite obstacles. Writing was her passion, and she says things such as, “I don’t write because I think I have something to say. I write because if I don’t, everything feels even worse.”
While pursuing her dreams, Casey works in an upscale restaurant, rides a banana seat bicycle to work, and relies on her few friends to meet other writers. She meets two male writers, Oscar and Silas, with whom she has love interests. Oscar is an accomplished writer, confident and widowed father of two. Silas is insecure and unpredictable but romantic. It takes much introspection for Casey to figure out what she values in a relationship, and her creative process develops as she becomes more comfortable in her skin.
I loved the sensitivity of the writing and Lily King’s inclusion of so many literary allusions. It seemed that Casey, the main character experienced the gamut of universal human emotions—loneliness, abandonment, sadness, grief, precariousness, self-doubt, and eventually self-fulfillment. This book was a page-turner, and all of the major and minor characters were just like somebody we all have known.
