Photo by Ash Barhamand
The Assistants (LJ 4/1/16), Camille Perri’s lighthearted first novel, speaks directly—and with a pointed dose of cheek—to the increasing student debt burden on millennials. Here Perri, a millennial herself, discusses her writing process and her thoughts on the current economic and political climate. Would you call that initial pivotal moment for protagonist Tina—when she decides to steal money from her boss—an escapist fantasy or a call to action? CP: I think it is a little bit of both. Escapist fantasy as this is a novel that’s not meant to be a blueprint for assistants on how to steal from their bosses. I did want it to be fun and for there to be that escapist-like, revenge-fantasy element. But beneath the entertainment value, I did want it to address these really important issues that my generation and this country are facing in terms of student loan debt.I do think that there’s hope for change—look at our elections right now. You know, I am hopeful for the future because I think we’ve come to a breaking point. It’s reaching the consciousness of the everyday person, and we all recognize that we’re living in a time of unprecedented income inequality since maybe the Gilded Age or maybe post-Depression.
It makes a lot of sense that women are the focus of this novel; the pay gap means that women are carrying more debt and for longer periods, and it’s far worse for women of color. How did you manage to keep a balanced sense of humor with such a weighty topic? I definitely have my editors to thank for that. They kept me on the right track because I surely could spin out at times. My first draft was a lot more wonky. I had to pull back the politics a bit. It was way more militant, in a way, the voice was a little more aggressive, and there was a moment where I came upon this line and thought “this is kind of funny.” It made me laugh a little and all of a sudden, something in me went, “Oh! This has to be funny!” I realized that I wanted this to be a book version of a modern-day Nine to Five. There was a very conscious moment where I realized I had to go back and lighten it up and change up the voice. I wanted to write a socially conscious novel, but the last thing you want to do is come off as if you’re writing a socially conscious novel. You started as a reference librarian and have worked as a book editor at Cosmopolitan. What lures you in for pleasure reading? Well, up until very recently I’ve been working with books so much that I’ve hardly had time to read for pleasure. A lot of times I have to be careful about the fiction that I read because if it has a strong voice I find that I’ll start mimicking it when I sit down to write. Right now I’m reading Megan Abbot’s You Will Know Me and Laura Lippmann’s Wilde Lake. I have a book here that I haven’t started, Matthew Desmond’s Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City. That’s the kind of thing I like to read for pleasure. I like to feel like I’m learning.We are currently offering this content for free. Sign up now to activate your personal profile, where you can save articles for future viewing
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