Social issues and fiction were the overall themes of the Exhibits Round Table/Booklist Author Forum January 20 featuring authors Helen Schulman and Hillary Jordan and moderated by Booklist Adult Books Editor Brad Hooper.
Hooper noted that Schulman’s novel, This Beautiful Life, about a New York City family whose life is upended after a sexual cellphone video of their son and a female friend goes viral, and Jordan’s book, When She Woke, about a stigmatized woman struggling to navigate an America 35 years into the future with similarities to Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, are both stories about family.
Jordan said she got the idea for her book, which deals with the government altering skin color to let the public know what crimes criminals committed, from a 20-year-old conversation with an uncle who said that criminals should turn bright blue so that people would know to stay away from them.
In researching This Beautiful Life, set in 2003 “before sexting and before every kid had a cellphone,” Schulman said, “I felt, as a parent, it was pretty fascinating how your kids can see anything. I was trying to show how easy it is for us to fall down a rabbit hole.”
Responding to an audience question about how often the two authors write, Schulman responded: “I can’t live without writing and I can’t live without reading.” As a caregiver for two elderly parents who works a full-time job, Schulman added that “being a writer ultimately means you can’t sleep.”
Meanwhile Jordan, who writes full-time, said she has been through periods when she didn’t write and “got a little crazy. I just don’t feel good about myself when I’m not writing.”
Schulman revealed that she is in discussions with a Danish producer to adapt The Beautiful Life to the screen.
Jordan said there have been no screenplay discussions for When She Woke. “I think Hollywood is a little afraid of the abortion issues,” she explained.