Here’s what Eugenides should have added by way of closing: the so-called writer has to wear all sorts of hats: writer, reader, editor, negotiator, businessman, self-promoter, etc. And only the first of these hats should never be worn outside one’s private necropolis. The next two have the odd responsibility of communing — patiently, cautiously, and courageously — with the dead self. The rest must find of way of coming to terms with life among the living.
Todd Hasak-Lowy, “Jeffrey Eugenides’s Killer Advice.”
Writing might initially happen in a vacuum, but books emerge and live somewhere very different. To ignore all this is at best wishful thinking and at worse self-sabotage…Eugenides’s decision to ignore this vast reality is less troubling than another feature of his advice: that it comes from the Pulitzer Prize winner himself. After all, Eugenides can write inside his make-believe casket and enjoy the spectacle of his well-attended funeral, too.
Todd Hasak-Lowy, “Jeffrey Eugenides’s Killer Advice.”

picadorbookroom:

THE MARRIAGE PLOT begins with an epigraph from the Talking Heads’ “Once in a Lifetime.”

With that in mind, we asked Jeffrey Eugenides if he would curate a playlist to be used as a soundtrack to the book. He picked songs that he thought Madeline, Leonard, and Mitchell might have been listening to in the early 1980s (pre-1983).

Click play on the cover above for the playlist to launch in your Spotify player.

Let us know what songs you would have added to the list. We’ve added a Spotify Collaborative playlist to our PicadorUSA Spotify account so that you can add your own Marriage Plot picks. Enjoy!

If you don’t have Spotify, the playlist is after the jump.

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Jeffrey Eugenides: great 80s party DJ, or greatest 80s party DJ?