1. Where did the idea come from for the book?
The Second Daughter grew out of an image I had one day when I was yelling at my kids: that later on I might regret how much I yelled at them (even when they most definitely deserve it, I might add!). All the pressures of parenting young children can easily turn you into somebody you don’t really want to be, and I suddenly imagined the painful regret of realizing, only years later, what I might be losing by giving in to those pressures. This image of parental regret crystallized into a particular line of dialogue which now appears near the very end of the book. Once I had that line, all I needed to do was to work backwards and construct a story that would lead to that character saying that line … But while it grew out of that image it’s also about a lot more. The Second Daughter is also about the complex dynamics of a growing but disintegrating family, where the disintegration is fueled both by a mismatch between the parents and a mismatch between their two daughters. I happen to know quite a number of families with mismatched spouses (I’m sure we all do!) and a surprising number of women who did not get along with their sisters, at least while growing up. (I don’t know, maybe I’m just hanging out with the wrong sort of people!) But finally it’s also about the sense of humor one can have about growing up through such a situation. That just comes out of my own general worldview: the world is filled with darkness but at the same time, at least when it’s appreciated through a certain point of view, it can be pretty funny. (Or some aspects of it, anyway.) A kind of dark humor, I guess; or maybe a light seriousness. Such a fine line!
2. What genre(s) does your book fall under?
Contemporary fiction, literary fiction; perhaps women’s fiction, too, though it definitely appeals to both men and women readers!
3. Which actors would you choose to play your characters in the movie?
Theodore Gale (the father): Oliver Platt, but with a full beard
Helen Gale (the mother): Audrey Hepburn (but with no beard)
Regina Gale (older sister): Maggie Gyllenhaal
Debra Gale (the “second daughter”): Natalie Portman
4. How long did it take you to write the first draft?
I first spent several months interviewing a number of people about their mismatched parents and a number of women about their complicated relationships with their sisters. But once I sat down to write, the very first draft came quickly — maybe three months or so. Of course that draft was extremely rough, and was only the first of several more very extensive revisions. I was lucky to have a number of people to serve as readers and critics of those early drafts — which helped improve the manuscript considerably.
5. What other books would you compare this story to?
Some that come to mind include Jonathan Tropper’s This is Where I Leave You and Sam Lipsyte’s The Ask, or Home Land. These are similar to The Second Daughter in terms of tone, style, and humor. Lorrie Moore’s stories (Birds of America) come to mind too, since The Second Daughter aims to achieve her nearly perfect balance of humor with emotional depth. Other comparisons come from movies: The Second Daughter is sort of like The Royal Tenenbaums meeting The Squid and the Whale meeting Hannah and (one of) Her Sisters … One reviewer of the novel on Amazon said The Second Daughter was like Jane Austen having written Revolutionary Road instead of Richard Yates; another reviewer compared its characters to those of Jonathan Franzen’s (The Corrections) and Dickens. And I swear I didn’t pay either of those reviewers!
6. What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?
The most important thing, I think, is its balance of humor and depth, of humor and poignancy. One Amazon reviewer said the novel had him “laughing through the pain but weeping with the joy,” which has it about right, or at least that’s what I was aiming for. The Second Daughter also turns out, in the end, to be a rather unusual love story, or rather two different love stories — though just which love stories they are is something of a surprise. And finally there’s a bit of a mystery element too, concerning precisely who is telling the story. So you’ve got humor, depth, love, and mystery — all in one nice, inexpensive volume!