Sloane Crosley Meet the Author

Europe but some say it is not enough. We will bring you more

headlines at the top of the hour but right now, it is time for me the

author. Sloan Crosley used to work

in publishing in New York, Then she started writing comic

essays and published two bestselling collections, one called

I Was Told There Would Be Cake. Four years ago, she quit

the day job to write full-time. Her first novel, The Clasp,

is the result. It is part comedy of manners,

part treasure hunt, set in New York, Florida, Hollywood and

a New Yorker's version of France. The New York Times called it

highly comic, highly affecting. Sloan Crosley,

you made your reputation writing nonfiction, a kind of humorously

highlighted non-fiction. Why did you want to write a novel,

why switch? It didn't feel that much

of a switch. I had always wanted to write

a novel. I wrote a pretty terrible novel

in my early 20s Not even in the adorable,

after my death way. And I wanted the freedom

of getting to make things up again. At least when you are writing essays

you have the prop of what really It is quite a challenge creating

an entirely fictional It is also a real estate issue,

which is essays only take up But the novel you have to

continue to attend to every day. You are responsible for everything,

for every decision, the entire world,

but eventually it builds on itself. You saw to forget you are the 1

who did the cue ball break, who They met at college

and are now around 30, they are reaching difficult times

in their lives where they are no longer young and they have to come

to terms with real life. But you do have some things you

brought in One of the key ones is the French

writer Guy de Maupassant and a short Which is tremendously important,

just explain it in the context of the story. What I did first of all

is I had always enjoyed novels that were about other forms of art, you

have a novel that is about opera and a novel that is about painting. This

is a novel that is about the short story. So I'm due to these three

characters with this short story, what it is about essentially is a

woman who borrows a necklace from her rich friend, loses it, decides

to replace the necklace the next day and then falls into debt, at the

very end of the story after her life is fallen into disrepair, the woman

runs into the wealthy woman who runs into the

necklace and the wealthy Roman says it it was class, it was fake. It is

a story that is quite tragic and it has a fable quality about be careful

what you wish for. It is all for naught, and maybe the things that

you want are not the things that you want. All three of the characters

are chasing after. Is, and loosely follow the plot of the short story.

But it is a comedy. Your book is a comedy. Your book is a very

entertaining comedy, looking back on the kids college days, there is an

absolutely ghastly wedding in Florida, then about halfway

through, you reduce what Alfred Hitchcock would call a McGuffin, an

excuse for a plot. Take them off on a treasure hunt to France, which has

a slightly theme park France, entertaining. Why not just stick

with the social comedy. Why the need for plot? In a way can the story is

about the accession about wanting to have an accession. Live session with

wanting to have something that has meaning that is not just

navel-gazing, people sitting around in a bar, do we need that? I don't

think so. How to give them the adventure that they are secretly all

seating. The goonies travel adventure in this road trip through

Paris and France. And I wanted to take that sort of coming of age too

late story that we see these days and make it visual and actually give

them something to latch onto. And so, the necklace that they go after,

that they are looking for in the book, mean something different to

each of them. In the way, it is a symbol of sincerity, his symbol of

actually them, having something real in their lives that may or may not

turn out to be fake. You spent many years as a publishing publicist in

New York, writing bestselling essays. You brought publicist along,

she brought me. She is the wonderfully named citizens segment

of Penguin books. Explain to me, had going on these tours, is different

from your perspective as to when you were sitting in Citizen's seat? I

think especially for novelist and fictional writers, nonfiction, it is

the same reason, there is a bit of East to it because you have the

crutch, of the world. So a certain percentage of the narrative is not

your full, right? And for fiction to promote fiction, you had to

constantly have the confidence that you know what you wrote, that you

are not a frog. You did this, it is OK. It is really hard, to do that. I

have an appreciation for authors that are sitting in this seat more

than I probably used to. Did you sit where citizen is sitting? Yes but

neighbourly crudely put a camera on me! Did you sit there and think that

you could answer the question better? No, will you do have some

perspective, there is a reason why authors don't write their own press

releases, the worst thing I used to always say, what made a difficult

author, was then not knowing what they wrote. But in general it is a

difficult process, authors are not built for it the way that musicians

are built for it. Where performance is part and parcel of what you

signed up for, signed up for not just recording something, but just

playing it in your garage but having it in public. Most other art forms

are the same way, I think it is just us, and maybe the painters in a room

together, ill-prepared for public appearance. If you can make it

through that process for any kind of modicum of grace and humour, I

always feel those are really good authors. You seem to be doing OK.

Thank you for having me.