Writers & Lovers

Writers & Lovers

First edition
Author	Lily King
Country	United States
Language	English
Published	2020
Publisher	Grove Press
Pages	320
ISBN	978-0802148537

Writers & Lovers is a 2020 novel by American author Lily King.^[1][2] This is King’s fifth novel and follows an aspiring writer Casey Peabody^[3] as she strives to move from one phase of her life into the next amidst grief, joy, romance, and artistic fulfillment.^[4] The story also incorporates the game of chess into the storyline.^[5]

Synopsis[]

In 1997 Casey Peabody, a woman in her 30s, struggles to define her life as she is deeply in debt, feels uninspired to finish the novel she is working on, and is still reeling from her mother's untimely death a few months earlier. Shortly after her mother's death she was accepted to a writer's residency. Unable to delay Casey accepted the position and fell in love with a fellow writer named Luke who was also suffering from the death of his child. After the residency Casey learns he is still married and ends their relationship.

Casey is friends with Muriel, another struggling writer who participates in a workshop run by Oscar, a middle-aged widow. Muriel invites Casey to Oscar's book launch where she meets a fellow writer named Silas whom she immediately connects with as he is also struggling after his sister abruptly died. However before they can go on a date Silas departs for a long impromptu road trip.

While working as a waitress Casey serves Oscar and his two young sons. Casey is charmed by his children and when Oscar asks her on a date she accepts. Shortly after Silas returns. Casey is charmed by Oscar's solidity but feels a strong physical connection to Silas. She decides that she is sick of Silas' flightiness and begins to seriously date Oscar.

Casey finally finishes her book and sends it to agents. To her surprise an assistant agent offers to represent the book and make Casey her first client. Casey accepts. Nevertheless things begin to go badly for her. Her landlord reveals he is selling the land she lives on and she will soon be homeless. Oscar offers to let her live with him and his boys but she struggles with committing to their relationship as he shows flashes of arrogance and disinterest in her life. After a confrontation with an abrasive cook Casey also loses her job.

Casey has a cancer scare. After finding out that the lump in her breast is a lymph node she decides to leave Oscar for good and pursue Silas. To her surprise a teaching job that Muriel set up that Casey thought she botched comes through. Casey's agent starts a bidding war for her novel and it sells for enough money that Casey is able to pay off her debts.

After Silas admits that he backed off after learning that Casey was dating Oscar she tells him that she and Oscar have broken up and the two finally begin a relationship.

Peer Review[]

""Writers & Lovers" is a funny and compassionate novel about the cost of sticking with the same dream for what may be too long. It doesn't have the historical reach of King's last novel, the acclaimed "Euphoria," about the life of the young Margaret Mead. But it shares with that novel a fascination with female ambition and with how especially difficult it is for a woman to define the worth of her life when the familiar markers of adult achievement are slow to materialize.' - Maureen Corrigan, Georgetown University, NPR ^[6]

References[]