Hellooooo! I could not tell you how we got here, but it is indeed JULY, which means it’s time for a new book club book!
This month’s selection is no surprise, as I’ve already raved about it in as many places as possible. It’s Rufi Thorpe’s Margo’s Got Money Troubles.
This book has it all. It’s funny, it explores interesting questions around selfhood and fiction, and the cast of characters is delightfully weird.
What’s REALLY EXCITING about this month is that I TALKED TO RUFI!!!!!!!! Some of my favorite parts of the interview are transcribed below, but obviously, I think you should listen to the whole thing!
On how Margo came to be
It started from a really abstract place. I tend to have ideas and be kicking them around in the back of my head for years and years before writing something. It was when me and my mom saw Wonder Woman in the theaters, and we loved it. We loved the whole island and these powerful women. But then we were sort of turned off by the fact that Wonder Woman is so virginal. She's not this, like, bad b**** who f***s.
And I had this idea of taking the two ways that our culture's messed up about women, like the Madonna whore complex and making a Madonna whore superhero figure who would be a sex worker and a mother. And a good mother! A great mom, but also a sex worker. I was like, what would happen? Would she explode? Like the alchemy of it interested me with it, could it be done?
On money being the crux of the story
I feel like I heard this advice multiple times, but now I wish that I knew exactly who told me this so that I could decide they were stupid! But they [said] that you couldn't use money as a motivating factor in a plot because it's too external, and it doesn't have an interior or spiritual element to drive character arc. But it doesn't make sense! I feel like it's written by somebody that's never struggled with money, because if you're going to write it about how people actually live their lives, then money is a really important part of it. I mean, how many people do I know that have wound up not getting divorced because they cannot afford to live apart from each other? Every decision that everybody makes is actually about money, in my experience!
On the myth of talent
I had a professor in graduate school, and my last semester, she was like, “You're never going to be a writer. You're not good at this. You seem like a sweet girl. Let's brainstorm something else for you to do with your life.” I really admired this woman and she was kind of the whole reason that I came to study there.
So when one of your literary heroes is like, “You're definitely not good enough and you're never going to be able to do this,” I mean, I went home and I cried. And then I was like, “Well, what am I going to do? Just quit because like, this lady told me to?” Like, it's my life's dream!
I was like, if there's possibly a place for me at this table, I'm willing to be the runt. I’m willing to be the worst novelist that's ever published a book. And surely if I just work hard enough, I can be the worst one! It would be such a pleasure to get to write books for the rest of my life, even if none of them were ever very good. That would still be what I choose for myself.
And that was really freeing, because it made me not afraid to mess up. And when I was confronted with rejection, I was like, “I'll get you next time!” But I was not existentially concerned because I had already been like, well, what's it going to stop me, you know? It was really freeing. It was a gift.
Homework from Rufi!
If you are not super interested in the wrestling itself, but [my] book makes you at all curious about that world, your way in is to watch a series on VICE called Dark Side of the Ring. They’re little 30 minute episodes where they give you the usually super tragic backstory of a particular wrestler. It’s sort of like the soap opera-y way in. If you’re not ready to read Bret Hart’s memoir yet, but you want a little more wrestling gossip, Dark Side of the Ring is the homework there.
But also, there is an amazing book called Revolting Prostitutes. It’s written by two sex workers who are smart as HELL. It’s so well-written, and I can’t recommend it enough.
I can’t wait to hear what y’all think of this one!!!!!
See you on Friday!
greta
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Listen: Rufi Thorpe on 'Margo's Got Money Troubles'