April 29, 2024 • 37 mins
Claire Lombardo is the author of “The Most Fun We Ever Had,” the Reese’s Book Club pick for April. The book deals with imperfect characters, complicated relationships, and dysfunctional families, and it exemplifies one of Claire’s philosophies in fiction: no one’s fully a hero, and no one's fully a villain. Plus, Danielle and Simone sound off on stage names. What’s your stage name? Send us an email at hello@thebrightsidepodcast.com.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hey, right side, besties, Hello Sunshine.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Today is a special day on the bright Side. We're
with Lee Reese's book club pick for April, Claire Lombardo.
There has been a lot of intrigue online about her novel,
and we get to go straight to the source. The
author herself is here with us. It's Monday, April twenty ninth.
I'm Danielle Robe.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
And I'm Simone Boyce and this is the bright Side
from Hello Sunshine.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Simone. How is the weekend?
Speaker 1 (00:30):
The weekend was good. It was really low key, just
kind of hanging out. It was a social battery weekend.
I just recharged the social battery. I went out to
one function, went out to a dinner with my girlfriend,
and that was it. How about you.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
I actually got out of the house the first time
in a while. I went to a group dinner at Boa,
which is way too trendy for me usually. I got
some good walks in and I kept my promise. On Sunday,
I went shopping for some new workout clothes.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Oh amazing. Okay, I can't wait to see you rock
these in studio because I'm going to be inspired by that.
I need to get more, you know, it's all I wear.
Oh same, But the most Monday thing happened to me
twenty minutes before we hopped on this recording. I stepped
on a lego with my full weight, my full weight
into the middle of my foot, and now I swear
(01:25):
I have to go to a doctor. I mean that
I think I have a bruise. This is a little
known phenomenon, the medical emergency that you don't know about
until you become a parent.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
But which same name did you scream out when you
stepped on the lego?
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Nobody? So I'm proud of myself for that. I just
did on one of those like tight lipped grunts that
I saw my mom do when I was growing up.
But now it hurts.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Do you keep order in your house or is it
just chaos always, like with the kids toys and everything.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
No, we try to. We definitely make an effort, but
it's yeah, there are certainly days where it's completely a mess.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Seems hard, it's very hard.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
I see these clean influencers on clean talk and clean Stagram,
and I'm like, how do you have this much time?
Speaker 2 (02:14):
It's hard for me to keep my own one bedroom
apartment together. Like as soon as I try on two outfits.
The whole place looks like a mess totally.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Okay, should we get into our morning drip? Yeah, let's
do it all right. So our girl, Emma Stone, I
love her so much. Poor things, she was a revelation
in that film. Well, she wants to switch things up. Okay,
she wants us to call her Emily, which, if you
didn't know, Danielle is actually her given name.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Nah, hard, pass on this.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
You're not for it. It's like Emma Stone all the.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Way she won an Oscar is Emma Stone. I know,
how are you gonna go back on that? Girlfriend? It's
etched in gold on the statue.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
That's so true.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Late, it is too late for you. We all know
you with Emma Stone. You've been out here for too long.
If you were going to do this, you should have
done this years ago.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
I know. I mean. So that's actually where this all started,
is she started calling herself Emma Stone because Emily Stone
was taken by another sag After member. But now she's
totally eclipsed other Emily Stone. Unfortunately we don't know who
that woman is. But this is I feel like the
ultimate flex, you know, Like she started out with the
(03:26):
stage name, but now she's so big that she feels
like she can just revert to her original name.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
First of all, this is like when somebody has your
Instagram handle that you want when you start a company
or something, and it's already taken, but they're not using it.
Emily Stone somewhere is probably not even acting anymore. She's
not using the name, and now Emma is stuck with
Emma because is anyone going to change how they refer
to her.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
It'll be interesting to see. Maybe she has enough power
to actually make this happen. But this got me thinking
about all the other stage names that you may or
may not know about. Oh yeah, yeah, Allie Portman was
actually born Natalie Hirschlog. Yeah, she's Israeli American. Yeah, she
took her paternal grandmother's maiden name Portman as her stage name.
She said it was for privacy reasons. Okay, this one
(04:11):
is so good. Jamie Fox was actually born Eric Marlin Bishop.
Where do you get fox from? Bishop? You know?
Speaker 2 (04:23):
All the swag that Jamie Fox has I think is
in part because of his name. It's like he is
a fox, you know what I mean? I sound like
I'm eighty five, but he is like Eric Marlin. Bishop
does not have the same ring to it.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
It doesn't. I mean, he clearly knew this was a
strategic move. He knew that it would be worthwhile, that
it would be good for his career. He actually chose
Fox in honor of Sanford and SunStar red Fox with
two ex'es. So there you go. I think the one
that most people know is Lady Gaga. So Gaga came
(05:00):
from what she calls this stronger individual part of herself
that she discovered when she was coming up in New
York City as a young musician. But she was actually
born Stephanie Germanada. I think that name has star power
in and of itself.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
I don't know it has german it, sure, I agree,
But she has so much star power that I'm not
sure it would have mattered for her exactly.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
She was born for stardom. One of our producers told
us this as we were working on this story. Apparently
all of her classmates at NYU put together a Facebook
group saying, Stephanie Germanada, you will never be famous. She
proved them all wrong. I mean, she proved them all wrong.
That's so crazy that they did that.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
That's a huge part of her backstory. She had a
lot of resilience and she was like, I am going
to be famous. She went to every club in New
York City to perform and said it.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
I love seeing those videos of her performing at Lollapalooza
back in the day. Hearing those stories of how she
was lugging around her keyboard herself making her own costumes.
Is that kind of grits and ingenuity that I really admire.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
I got to spend a little time with her backstage
at a few concerts and events, and she is such
an artiste. Like some people are pop stars and some
people are artists, she is truly an artist. I do
have to admit something to you. Tell me it's a
big secret. I have a stage name. I am not
(06:26):
truly Danielle Robe.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
What is the real name? I mean, I already knew this, but.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
I feel like I have to be honest with everybody.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Honest.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
So Robe is my middle name. So it was one
of my given names. It's on my birth certificate. But
my mom is a huge feminist, she always has been,
and so she said, I wanted to name you after
two really powerful women, and it's my two grandmothers. So
Rody ro and Barbara BA and she made up the
(06:57):
name and I started going by it my junior year,
senior year of high school because oh, this is embarrassing.
But I was singing and I had some like a
very small amount of success, but enough that I didn't
want any colleges to find, like any music videos or
(07:18):
anything I was doing because Facebook was so new, and
so I started going by my middle name, and then
it caught on. And now it feels weird because all
of my best friends call me Robe, like it's become
who I am. They forgot my real last name.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
I do call you Robe sometimes, no first name.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
I know last name only, but like all my friends
from fifth grade, sixth grade, they don't have my real
last name. They have Robe. It's so interesting.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Is today the day, Danielle? Are you going to reveal
your true name today?
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Sure? I think it's on the interweb. My real last
name is Willerman, Danielle Robe, Willerman. Oh, oh my gosh, Willerman.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Breaking news. I didn't think you were going to go there.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Wow, neither did I Actually it just sort of flew
out of my mouth. But I feel like this podcast
is one of truth.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
We are truth tellers here on the bright side.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Did you ever go buy a stage name or you've
always been Simone? Boys?
Speaker 1 (08:16):
There were parts of my career where I went by
Simone Danielle. I think because Danielle is my middle name.
I have two middle names. My other middle name is Bonnie,
and that's my grandmother's name, so my mom also named
me after my grandmother. But I guess I sort of
have a stage name in that my name that I
go by professionally is my maiden name. I don't go
by my married name. So yeah, that's the closest that
(08:39):
I'll get to that. But I'm kind of jealous that
you have a stage name, like I feel like I
want one. But I'm thinking maybe I just need an
alter ego name. Maybe that'll scratch that itch for me.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
How about See Money.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
No, See, that's too close. I think I need something
that feels too real. It feels too real to who
I really am. I needed a departure, perhaps something a
little more sinister, you know, like Sasha Fierce. I need
a I like Angelica or like Giselle. I feel like
that conveys like I don't know Franngelica Frienjelica Where are
(09:11):
we getting the friend from? I? No, no, I have
been trying to find an alter ego name generator for
like the past ten minutes. Okay, I did actually ask
chat ept for alter ego names. Are you ready for these?
Speaker 2 (09:26):
What did you type in first?
Speaker 1 (09:29):
I just said my name is simone voice watched my
alter ego name be, which is not the best problem. Okay,
here we go. These are really good. Phoenix Noir interesting.
I kind of like that one, Luna mystique, Nova Eclipse.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Oh, that's really on brand for you.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Oriyan Enigma, Nebula, Veil, Ember, frost Ember.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Why are these all like moon and sun and cosmic?
This feels very you.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
It really is interesting. Our producer Tim says these sounds
drag queen names, which I mean, I can't.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
I can't deny the similarities here.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
It's epic.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Oh my god.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
After the break, we're talking with Claire Lombardo, author of
this month's Reese's book Club pick, The Most Fun We
Ever Had.
Speaker 4 (10:19):
Stay with us, Danielle.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
Today is a very special day because we're talking about
the April pick from Reese's Book Club. New York Times
best selling author Claire Lombardo is joining us all the
way from Iowa City. She's the author of the Most
Fun We Ever Had, And we.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
Had so much fun reading the book as a Chicago
and it really made me feel like I was back
at home. It's a family drama set mostly in Illinois
and follows a married couple's forty year love story. It
includes the messy lives of their four very different daughters
and a grandchild who was given up for adoption. It's
a deep dive into complicated relationship dynamics, the perils of comparison,
(11:09):
and what it means to love a partner, to love
your family, and to love yourself. Claire, welcome to the
bright Side.
Speaker 5 (11:17):
Thank you so much for having me. It is a
delight to be here.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
Well, I imagine it must be pretty fun to be
Claire Lombardo right now, because The Most Fun We Ever
Had was published back in twenty nineteen, but it just
became a Reese's Book Club pick this month, and we
talked to Reese on our show. She just lights up
when she talks about being able to amplify the work
of female authors like you. So, how has the RBC
(11:41):
selection impacted you? It's been incredible. It's I mean, like
you said, this book is it's a five year old
paperback at this point, and to see the new life
that has been breathed into it overnight has just been
so incredible, Claire.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
When I talked to authors, they tell me that it's
the hardest thing they've ever done. And most of these
women are also mothers and entrepreneurs, and they still say
just getting this book birthed was the hardest thing they
have done. Why did you have to get this story
onto the page? This is your first book. Why did
(12:19):
you choose this one?
Speaker 5 (12:21):
You know, I didn't know that I was writing a
novel when I started writing this novel. I didn't set
out to write a novel. Writing was always sort of
on the side past time for me. It was something
I did after my you know, nine to five job
that it always just brought me pleasure. But I started
social work school, a graduate school in my mid twenties,
(12:42):
and about the same time I started writing this novel,
and very quickly these characters kind of took over the
rest of my life. And so I guess the bigger
and bigger the story got in, the deeper and deeper
I got into it, the harder it was to ignore it,
so it did kind of just become this thing that
I to pay attention to and then ultimately finish.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
You worked closely with unhoused individuals in Chicago as a
social worker. How did that inform your writing?
Speaker 5 (13:09):
Yeah, I mean, I gosh so much. Most of the
people that I was working with had never been given
a chance to tell their own stories. They had never
really you know, they had sort of been on the
fringes and not been paid attention to by a lot
of people. I was working primarily with parents and kids
in the Chicago public school system, and their lives were
(13:29):
incredibly complicated in many, many, many different ways, and I
think sometimes just being able to validate that for someone
is an incredibly powerful thing. And so in my kind
of helping people to you know, it's a matter of
asking the right questions, or asking one hundred more questions
than you might need to to kind of get the context,
(13:51):
get the backstory, and to understand where people are coming from.
That's very much a part of my writing process.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Now.
Speaker 5 (13:57):
It's something that I do, you know, terrogate my characters,
so to speak, in a similar way, so I can
get to know them, you know, as well as I
can and empathy.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
That's clearly something that you lead with.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
I hopes.
Speaker 5 (14:10):
Thank you, I hope so it's it's important to me. Yeah,
I think it's one of the most critical things that
we can bring, you know, as writers and as readers.
I write a lot of difficult and not always particularly
likable characters. The big thing for me as a writer
was learning how to love them even when I didn't
like them particularly, and I do think that all is
(14:31):
you know, kind of stems from from having empathy for them.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
Claire, you talk about making this pivot from social worker
to author, and you make it look so easy. Was it?
Speaker 2 (14:42):
No?
Speaker 5 (14:42):
I mean, I'm thank you. I'm glad to hear that. No,
it was very messy. It's I think people are always
a little nervous about me talking to their teenage children
because I'm like, I dropped out of school twice and
everything turned out fine, but it didn't feel fine or
easy at the time, and certainly wasn't an easy or
(15:02):
advisable decision to drop out of school twice as I did.
I mean, ultimately, I'm obviously very grateful that I did.
But I think and I explore some of this with
the Grace character in particular and the most fun we
ever had. It strikes me as really bizarre now at
thirty five, that we expect seventeen or eighteen year olds
(15:24):
to know who they are or what they want from
the world, or even twenty five. You know, I recall
at the time feeling like a failure or feeling like
I was doing things wrong, because you know, I couldn't
make it work and I couldn't figure out what I
wanted to do. And now I'm very grateful that I
was able to figure it out that way. And I
don't think I would have written the books that I've
(15:44):
written or be the person that I am had I
not gone through those sort of messy or ill advised
decisions that I made.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
So, yeah, we want to dig into the book with you, Claire.
It's not all It's not often that we get the
actual author here with us such a treat A huge
element in this story is the relationship between sisters, specifically
how we compare our lives and our successes to our siblings.
Why did you want to dig into that dynamic?
Speaker 5 (16:14):
Well, I am a sister. I also have a brother,
but I come from a big family and I'm the
youngest of my big family, and so I've always been
very much an observer of family dynamics and very interested
in family dynamics.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
I think as.
Speaker 5 (16:28):
Women we are able to we have a capacity for
empathy like a you know, an unusual capacity for empathy,
but we also have the ability to be cruel in
ways that are sometimes rather inventive. And so having these
these four sorens and daughters in the same space was
just really fun to explore. And there's kind of the
(16:49):
old you know, you don't choose your family adage. These
four women don't always want to be around each other
or acknowledge that they are related to each other, but
they have to. And so that's a fun position to
be as a writer too, is to kind of lock
yourself into a room like that full of people who
are kind of explosive and just sort of see what happens.
(17:13):
And plenty did, and you know, plot is born from
bad behavior, and all these women are doing pretty much
is misbehaving. So it was really pretty fun to write
about them. You mentioned that you're a sister.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
How did your family and your relationships with your parents
and your sisters inform your writing quite a bit?
Speaker 5 (17:36):
I had a professor once who said that writers are
either drawn to messy families or tidy families in fiction,
and I'm clearly very drawn to messy families. And I
think when you're immersed in that kind of messy, intimate
environment from the get go, you can't help but I
don't know, be interested in that. And I also, I'm
(17:58):
the youngest of kids by quite a bit, so I
was also kind of an only child. Most of my
siblings had gone off to college by the time I
was I don't know, nine or ten, so I grew
up with my parents in a very different way. So
I feel like I kind of had the privilege of
being both the youngest child and an only child, and
I think that enhanced my perception of my parents too,
(18:18):
and their you know, the fact that they were people
instead of just.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Being my parents.
Speaker 5 (18:24):
I think I maybe was more aware of that earlier
on than some people might have been, just by virtue
of my place in the family.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
Claire. At its core, this is a novel about a
happy and loving marriage, and we don't always see happily
married people in fiction or TV dramas for that matter,
So were Marilyn and David Sorenson inspired by people you know.
Speaker 5 (18:46):
I will say my parents were incredibly in love, so
that was something that I It was just part of
my life. It wasn't something I was particularly aware of
as being unusual until I became an adult. When I
was a graduate student, the joke about me was that
my stories were all very long, none of them had plots,
and they were all about people who really really liked
each other, which is not like the fodder for great fiction.
(19:10):
But I kind of took that as a challenge to say,
we have these people who really really love each other
at the center, and how can I actually turn that
into a sometimes negative plot device. It was a fun challenge.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
Why did you want to write characters who liked each other?
Speaker 1 (19:25):
That's a good question.
Speaker 5 (19:26):
That's some deep psychological mining that I have to do eventually.
I'm conflict avoidant, so that might have something to do
with it.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
But I don't know.
Speaker 5 (19:36):
I think I like to feel good when I'm reading,
and I like seeing love rendered on the page, and
I do think it is you know, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
Life is hard.
Speaker 5 (19:46):
It's a hard time to be a person right now,
and so I think it can be nice to have
a book where there are people who are enjoying each other.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
Say so, yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
That's how we created this show too, is like it's
okay to be happy and joyful.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
So we are absolutely aligned on that. I want to
hear more about that. When did you first fall in
love with storytelling and writing? How did that come to
be for you? Yeah, so I feel very lucky.
Speaker 5 (20:12):
I grew up in a house where books were just around,
and it was just kind of a part of all
of our lives. As I said, I have four older siblings,
much older siblings, so I was exposed to books, sometimes
perhaps earlier than I should have been, but I was,
you know, constantly constantly reading. It was like the only
(20:34):
way that my parents could think to punish I was
a fairly well behaved kid, but the only way they
could punish me was to not let me read before
bed when I was little.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
So cool. I know it was brutal.
Speaker 5 (20:46):
It only happened a few timess, but yeah, it's always
been a huge part of my life story and I
feel very very grateful for that.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
So so funny my parents punished me with t t
that you couldn't watch it, or that you had to
know that I couldn't watch it. I always loved watching
inappropriate things like I was watching Sex in the City
and the Sopranos way before it was okay. I was
never allowed to watch that stuff. Yeah, what did your
parents punish you with?
Speaker 1 (21:16):
Oh, my gosh, anything, I mean grounding? Uh, you know,
lose allowance. I was a bit of a troublemaker as
a kid, so I got I ran the gamut.
Speaker 6 (21:26):
Kind.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
I've learned that you use post it notes quite liberally
throughout your creative process, as many authors do. So what
would we see? I want you to just take us
into your creative brain for a minute and tell us
what would we see if we caught you midbook development.
Speaker 5 (21:44):
Oh gosh, you would be frightened of me, I think,
without without question. I in my office at home, I
have a huge, almost full wall sized post it board.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
It almost looks like you're cracking crime case. I have
to tell me.
Speaker 7 (22:00):
I know.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Yes, it's very.
Speaker 5 (22:03):
Yes, Yes, I'm like that person who has the hotel
room with the red string between the pictures of bodies. Yes,
it's a slightly tamor version of that. Yeah, I mean
it's it's a portrait of real disordered thinking. And I
think because I'm kind of a disordered writer. I'm a
fairly organized person in my regular life, but in my
(22:26):
writing life, I don't write an order. I kind of
operate on you know, I'm writing today what I feel
like writing today, and it might not be the scene
that comes after the scene I wrote yesterday. So with
most fun I ended up with just, you know, hundreds
of pages of non consecutive scenes about this family, and
(22:47):
there was no through line and there was no real
sense of order. And at the time, I was like,
this is fine. It's an artistic novel. And I remember
telling my agent that and she was like, that's like, no,
you can't.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
You can't do that is not a genre.
Speaker 5 (23:04):
No nobody wants to read that self included. So yeah,
I kind of had to get mathematical at the end,
and it's I mean, it's become kind of a fun
part of my process. I have, I guess, a creative
brain in some capacity. I have a visual brain, which
novels are are not. Particularly You don't really get to
(23:24):
tap into that part of your brain when you're writing
a book, and so I think doing things with post
it notes or storyboarding or you know, a variety of
different writing exercises. I guess is a way to concretize
and make visual something that is inherently not. So I
try to find ways to do that where I can.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
How many stacks of post It notes do you think
you go through during that process?
Speaker 5 (23:49):
Oh gosh, I should have like bought stock and post its.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
Buy it now because she's writing a new novel and
it's gonna go up.
Speaker 5 (23:57):
I'm gonna, yeah, go buy some before I yeah, sell
out Staples or whatever. It's hard to tell because I'm
also a very impulsive shopper for post it. So I'm like, oh,
there's a new because they have different collections of post its.
There's like the Marrakesh collection and the Belief. I mean,
it's very weird. This is a niche bit of information
that nobody wanted to hear about.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
But thinking there's a collab in your future, right, Oh yes,
I am available the Lombardo post It collab. Yeah, very
jo Yeah, Claire. There's a passage in your book when
David and Marilyn are expecting their fourth child and it's
Mother's Day and Marilyn is in the bed with her
girls having a moment. It's page two forty one. Will
(24:41):
you read a little bit for uses. Yeah, I would
be happy too.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
I love when authors read to me.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
Oh thanks, such a special thing, right, so special?
Speaker 5 (24:51):
Oh, I'm glad you. I do that with my students.
My students who are you know, in their twenties. I'm
always like, do you want me to read to you?
And they're always like, yeah, Like it's a very comforting thing.
Not my own books. I don't teach my own books, okay, umm.
Speaker 8 (25:08):
E.
Speaker 5 (25:08):
Liza draped herself over Marilyn's belly, dropping the tulips and
they're accompanying dirt onto David's spot on the bed. Oh
my gosh, she squealed. He kicked me, and suddenly she
had three pairs of hands on her stomach, even reluctant
Wendy's prodding. Reacting to the movement from within, laughing murmuring
to one another, she allowed herself to rest back against
her pillows, again, contented in an entirely different way. Your
(25:31):
family could do that to you, sometimes catch you off
guard with their charm and their normalcy. Those rare moments
like this one were the reason that she was pregnant again,
that she and David would soon be celebrating their seventeenth
wedding anniversary that these three girls, wearying as they often were,
were currently making her happier than she'd possibly ever been.
(25:51):
This was the point of having a family. These fleeting
moments of absolute pleasure, Stockholm syndrome. They kept her coming
back for more. She shifted beneath the weight of the
baby and the six small hands. She reached a stroke
Wendy's hair, and her heart swelled when Wendy let her.
This was the point God, David said when he returned,
I leave for ninety seconds, and look what happens.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
Thank you, Claire, You're welcome. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
I'm still stuck on this one line that you just read.
This was the point of having a family, these fleeting
moments of absolute pleasure. I think I just got pregnant
again after you read that passage, Claire. I think I'm
gonna have a baby now. Congratulations. It makes when you
write that, it makes me want to expand my family
(26:39):
and have another baby. That was beautiful. Is there a
character that you really have a soft spot for?
Speaker 2 (26:45):
Wendy?
Speaker 5 (26:46):
I think she was the character that people the most
either hate or love, and I did both when I
was writing her.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
But she was so much fun.
Speaker 5 (26:54):
To write because she's not diametrically opposite to me, but
she is not like I am outwardly. Wendy has a
fairly traumatic experience, many many traumatic experiences that kind of
characterize her adulthood. And so I really the deeper I
went into her past, and the deeper I my understanding
(27:16):
of her became, the more I grew to love her.
Which is my hope for readers too. Like I said earlier,
like you're probably not going to like or be particularly
happy with a lot of these characters, but it's my
hope that by the end of the book you'll at
least see where they're coming from and maybe find them
charming and the way that we do with our own families.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
We're going to take a quick break. When we come back,
we'll get Claire's answers to your questions, including whether or
not there's an adaptation in the works.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
We're back with Claire Lombardo. We have some listener questions
for you now. We asked all of our listeners or
should I say readers, to send us a voicemail with
their questions about the most fun we ever had. This
is kind of like an extension of the book Club
So first up, we have Ashley.
Speaker 8 (28:06):
Hey, my name is Ashley, and I'm a nurse in Nashville, Tennessee.
When I was in nursing school, I worked a lot,
so I didn't really have enough time to read for fun.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
So when I graduated and found.
Speaker 8 (28:15):
Reese's Book Club, it really helped me to find my
love and passion for reading again. I just finished reading
The Most Fun We Ever Had, and oh my gosh,
the drama was insane, and I love drama when I'm
not directly involved in it. The Most Fun We Ever
Had was a phrase used a couple of times in
the book. My question for you, Claire Lombardo, is what
does that mean to you? And why did you choose
(28:37):
that to be the title.
Speaker 5 (28:38):
Oh that's a great question. That was not the original
title of this book, actually, and I so the line.
So it comes from a line early on in the
book when Marilyn has two children, so basically too, you know,
she has a one year old and like an infant,
and she's quite young, and she's at a faculty party
(28:59):
with her husband, and she's underslept and very underwhelmed by
motherhood or overwhelmed and underwhelmed at once and she says,
I love being a mom. That's the most fun I
ever had, And it pops up a few more times.
It kind of becomes this call and response between David
and Marilyn and what I love about it. If I
can say that I love my own title, is that
(29:22):
thank you?
Speaker 2 (29:25):
Is that it is? I mean, it's tongue in cheek.
Speaker 5 (29:27):
It's not, you know, Marilyn is not having the most
fun she ever had when she says that. But that's
kind of the tenor of this book. There's often a
lot of happiness alongside a lot of sorrow. There's often
a lot of gravitas alongside a lot of you know,
hopefully humor, And that's life to me life. I'm often
the person who you know, will make a joke at
(29:50):
inappropriate times. Not unlike Wendy, I guess, but I think
that is very true to family life, at least my
experience of it. And and that's, you know, that's kind
of how the soren Sins operate. There's a lot of
things happen that they wish hadn't happened, but they sort
of get through it by bucking up and trying to
(30:10):
find humor where it's often pretty well hidden, all right.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
Next up is Elisa.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
Hi.
Speaker 6 (30:19):
This is Elisa from Pennsylvania. I am an English teacher
and I am an avid reader. I spend a lot
of time on book talk. So I have a two
part question for Claire. The first question that I have
is about Wendy. I was really drawn to Wendy as
a character because she is so real and flawed, and
(30:42):
I'd like to know if you had the idea that
Wendy would be a morally gray character as you were
writing her, and if you agree that she falls into
that category. And then my other question for you is
do you think that that the story is ever going
(31:02):
to be made into maybe a mini series or a
series or a movie.
Speaker 7 (31:07):
She did?
Speaker 2 (31:10):
She was ready? Yes.
Speaker 5 (31:15):
I'll answer them in order, because I often forget everything.
But Wendy is very much a morally great character. I
think that's a very it's very English teachery way to
phrase that too, which I appreciate.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
I think I did.
Speaker 5 (31:28):
Always know that because Wendy's actions people take issue with,
Readers take issue with, and they're not the choices that
I necessarily would have made, or maybe they are. I
think it's hard to put herself in other people's shoes.
I absolutely would say that she is a morally great character,
and she is hopefully a character again that by the
(31:49):
end of the book I hope that readers will will
like instead of seeing as a villain. I don't believe
in villains in fiction, and I don't believe in heroes
in fiction because they don't exist in real life. Nobody
is all bad or all good, and I think Wendy
is an example of my sort of commitment to that
that people can make, you know, questionable choices but still
(32:12):
be okay people, or still be coming from a good place.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
So that's that.
Speaker 5 (32:16):
And then, so I'm not sworn to secrecy, I will
say yes, I do think that adaptation is a possibility,
and I will be as excited as the rest of
you when I find out.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
Also, Claire, you're making us Chicago girls very proud. I
could talk to about Chicago for a while, but I
think Renee, who is our next reader, would be upset
if I didn't ask her questions. So this is Renee. Hi.
Speaker 7 (32:45):
I'm Renee from Ohio and I am a wife and
mom of three kiddos. I adore the most fun we
ever had. I came across it when it was first released,
and I wanted to shout from the rooftops to everyone
I knew to read this book. I just connected to
it on a really deep level. The Sorenson's reminded me
a lot of my own family, and being the oldest
of four siblings, there were a lot of things that
(33:06):
really I could relate to. Fast forward to this month,
I've been rereading it and I just love it even more.
I've found myself underlining so many passages that I glossed over,
and I'm just connecting to it in a different way.
Speaker 2 (33:22):
So my question for Claire.
Speaker 7 (33:24):
Is how has been chosen as Reese's book Club pick
for April made you reflect on this story as a whole.
Knowing that we've all changed since the first time it
was released, has it made you think about the story
or the characters and would you want to do anything differently?
Speaker 2 (33:41):
Wow?
Speaker 1 (33:42):
I love that question.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
I do too.
Speaker 5 (33:45):
It was it's been really interesting to return to this book. So, yeah,
the world has changed a lot since twenty nineteen, you know,
to put it lightly, and we've all changed in small
and large ways.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
I feel almost.
Speaker 5 (33:59):
Like sisterly about this book in a way that I
don't think I did five years ago.
Speaker 2 (34:04):
It's funny.
Speaker 5 (34:04):
When I was writing this book, it's the most intimate
thing in the world, and you think you'll never be
distant from the material. It just feels so almost claustrophobically close.
So that's been really interesting for me. And I think
it's good as a writer to be able to distance
yourself from your material. And I think it's that'll be
a good lesson to me with future books, my current
(34:25):
you know, my new book that's coming out next month,
month after next.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
Speaking of that novel, can you tell us a little
bit more about it. It's called Same As It Ever Was?
It is.
Speaker 2 (34:36):
I have a copy of it here.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
Coincidentally, I love the cover.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
Thank you Me too.
Speaker 5 (34:43):
It comes out on yeah, June eighteenth, And I would say,
if you are, if you liked The Most Fun We
Ever Had, I think these books are very much in
conversation with each other. I was writing Same as It
Ever Was when I was editing The Most Fun We
Ever Had, So a lot of my occupations are similar.
So Same As It Ever Was is about a woman
(35:04):
named Julia who lives in the Chicago suburbs, and she's
in her fifties and she lives an ostensibly very lovely life.
She has a husband, she likes a lot, into almost
grown children, and then she goes to the grocery store
one day and runs into an old friend who she
not only was not expecting to see again, but was
actively hoping to never see again. And it kind of
(35:27):
throws everything into relief for her. So, if The Most
Fun We Ever Had is a story about a you know,
the life of a family same as it ever was,
is also a family story, but it's kind of one
woman's life told from beginning to end, though out of
order in my characteristic disorganized fashion.
Speaker 1 (35:46):
Claire, thank you so much for being here. This is
a really special moment for us because you're our first
Reese's book Club author to come on the bright side,
So thank you for christening it in such an unforgettable way.
Speaker 5 (35:59):
Oh it's an honor. Thank you both so much. This
has been so much fun.
Speaker 2 (36:02):
Thank you, Claire. Claire Lombardo is the author of the
Most Fun We Ever Had, which was the Reese's book
Club pick for April. We're announcing the Maypick from Reese's
book Club next week, so don't miss that, and remember
you can always send us your book and author questions
to Hello at the bright Side podcast dot com.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
I feel like we're getting to watch Claire define who
she is as an author, which is really exciting. And
I love that she's unafraid to explore the Morley Gray area.
Speaker 4 (36:37):
Mm hmmm.
Speaker 2 (36:38):
No one's a full villain or a full hero. I
was struck by her fortitude. She's so chill and like
you can tell, she's easy going. But to have a
nine to five and then come home and write a
novel from I don't know five to nine and do
what be a daughter, sister, friend, whatever else you are
just is so impressive to me. That's it for today's show. Tomorrow,
(37:06):
Joanne Lee Mullinaro aka the Korean Vegan is coming by
to top food, family, and culture.
Speaker 1 (37:14):
Listen and follow The bright Side on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Simone Boye.
You can find me at Simone Voice on Instagram and TikTok.
Speaker 2 (37:25):
I'm Danielle Robe on Instagram and TikTok. That's ro o
b A Y See.
Speaker 1 (37:29):
You tomorrow, folks. Keep looking on the bright side.
Hey, right side, besties, Hello Sunshine.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Today is a special day on the bright Side. We're
with Lee Reese's book club pick for April, Claire Lombardo.
There has been a lot of intrigue online about her novel,
and we get to go straight to the source. The
author herself is here with us. It's Monday, April twenty ninth.
I'm Danielle Robe.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
And I'm Simone Boyce and this is the bright Side
from Hello Sunshine.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Simone. How is the weekend?
Speaker 1 (00:30):
The weekend was good. It was really low key, just
kind of hanging out. It was a social battery weekend.
I just recharged the social battery. I went out to
one function, went out to a dinner with my girlfriend,
and that was it. How about you.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
I actually got out of the house the first time
in a while. I went to a group dinner at Boa,
which is way too trendy for me usually. I got
some good walks in and I kept my promise. On Sunday,
I went shopping for some new workout clothes.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Oh amazing. Okay, I can't wait to see you rock
these in studio because I'm going to be inspired by that.
I need to get more, you know, it's all I wear.
Oh same, But the most Monday thing happened to me
twenty minutes before we hopped on this recording. I stepped
on a lego with my full weight, my full weight
into the middle of my foot, and now I swear
(01:25):
I have to go to a doctor. I mean that
I think I have a bruise. This is a little
known phenomenon, the medical emergency that you don't know about
until you become a parent.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
But which same name did you scream out when you
stepped on the lego?
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Nobody? So I'm proud of myself for that. I just
did on one of those like tight lipped grunts that
I saw my mom do when I was growing up.
But now it hurts.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Do you keep order in your house or is it
just chaos always, like with the kids toys and everything.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
No, we try to. We definitely make an effort, but
it's yeah, there are certainly days where it's completely a mess.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Seems hard, it's very hard.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
I see these clean influencers on clean talk and clean Stagram,
and I'm like, how do you have this much time?
Speaker 2 (02:14):
It's hard for me to keep my own one bedroom
apartment together. Like as soon as I try on two outfits.
The whole place looks like a mess totally.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Okay, should we get into our morning drip? Yeah, let's
do it all right. So our girl, Emma Stone, I
love her so much. Poor things, she was a revelation
in that film. Well, she wants to switch things up. Okay,
she wants us to call her Emily, which, if you
didn't know, Danielle is actually her given name.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Nah, hard, pass on this.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
You're not for it. It's like Emma Stone all the.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Way she won an Oscar is Emma Stone. I know,
how are you gonna go back on that? Girlfriend? It's
etched in gold on the statue.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
That's so true.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Late, it is too late for you. We all know
you with Emma Stone. You've been out here for too long.
If you were going to do this, you should have
done this years ago.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
I know. I mean. So that's actually where this all started,
is she started calling herself Emma Stone because Emily Stone
was taken by another sag After member. But now she's
totally eclipsed other Emily Stone. Unfortunately we don't know who
that woman is. But this is I feel like the
ultimate flex, you know, Like she started out with the
(03:26):
stage name, but now she's so big that she feels
like she can just revert to her original name.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
First of all, this is like when somebody has your
Instagram handle that you want when you start a company
or something, and it's already taken, but they're not using it.
Emily Stone somewhere is probably not even acting anymore. She's
not using the name, and now Emma is stuck with
Emma because is anyone going to change how they refer
to her.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
It'll be interesting to see. Maybe she has enough power
to actually make this happen. But this got me thinking
about all the other stage names that you may or
may not know about. Oh yeah, yeah, Allie Portman was
actually born Natalie Hirschlog. Yeah, she's Israeli American. Yeah, she
took her paternal grandmother's maiden name Portman as her stage name.
She said it was for privacy reasons. Okay, this one
(04:11):
is so good. Jamie Fox was actually born Eric Marlin Bishop.
Where do you get fox from? Bishop? You know?
Speaker 2 (04:23):
All the swag that Jamie Fox has I think is
in part because of his name. It's like he is
a fox, you know what I mean? I sound like
I'm eighty five, but he is like Eric Marlin. Bishop
does not have the same ring to it.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
It doesn't. I mean, he clearly knew this was a
strategic move. He knew that it would be worthwhile, that
it would be good for his career. He actually chose
Fox in honor of Sanford and SunStar red Fox with
two ex'es. So there you go. I think the one
that most people know is Lady Gaga. So Gaga came
(05:00):
from what she calls this stronger individual part of herself
that she discovered when she was coming up in New
York City as a young musician. But she was actually
born Stephanie Germanada. I think that name has star power
in and of itself.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
I don't know it has german it, sure, I agree,
But she has so much star power that I'm not
sure it would have mattered for her exactly.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
She was born for stardom. One of our producers told
us this as we were working on this story. Apparently
all of her classmates at NYU put together a Facebook
group saying, Stephanie Germanada, you will never be famous. She
proved them all wrong. I mean, she proved them all wrong.
That's so crazy that they did that.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
That's a huge part of her backstory. She had a
lot of resilience and she was like, I am going
to be famous. She went to every club in New
York City to perform and said it.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
I love seeing those videos of her performing at Lollapalooza
back in the day. Hearing those stories of how she
was lugging around her keyboard herself making her own costumes.
Is that kind of grits and ingenuity that I really admire.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
I got to spend a little time with her backstage
at a few concerts and events, and she is such
an artiste. Like some people are pop stars and some
people are artists, she is truly an artist. I do
have to admit something to you. Tell me it's a
big secret. I have a stage name. I am not
(06:26):
truly Danielle Robe.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
What is the real name? I mean, I already knew this, but.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
I feel like I have to be honest with everybody.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Honest.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
So Robe is my middle name. So it was one
of my given names. It's on my birth certificate. But
my mom is a huge feminist, she always has been,
and so she said, I wanted to name you after
two really powerful women, and it's my two grandmothers. So
Rody ro and Barbara BA and she made up the
(06:57):
name and I started going by it my junior year,
senior year of high school because oh, this is embarrassing.
But I was singing and I had some like a
very small amount of success, but enough that I didn't
want any colleges to find, like any music videos or
(07:18):
anything I was doing because Facebook was so new, and
so I started going by my middle name, and then
it caught on. And now it feels weird because all
of my best friends call me Robe, like it's become
who I am. They forgot my real last name.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
I do call you Robe sometimes, no first name.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
I know last name only, but like all my friends
from fifth grade, sixth grade, they don't have my real
last name. They have Robe. It's so interesting.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Is today the day, Danielle? Are you going to reveal
your true name today?
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Sure? I think it's on the interweb. My real last
name is Willerman, Danielle Robe, Willerman. Oh, oh my gosh, Willerman.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Breaking news. I didn't think you were going to go there.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Wow, neither did I Actually it just sort of flew
out of my mouth. But I feel like this podcast
is one of truth.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
We are truth tellers here on the bright side.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Did you ever go buy a stage name or you've
always been Simone? Boys?
Speaker 1 (08:16):
There were parts of my career where I went by
Simone Danielle. I think because Danielle is my middle name.
I have two middle names. My other middle name is Bonnie,
and that's my grandmother's name, so my mom also named
me after my grandmother. But I guess I sort of
have a stage name in that my name that I
go by professionally is my maiden name. I don't go
by my married name. So yeah, that's the closest that
(08:39):
I'll get to that. But I'm kind of jealous that
you have a stage name, like I feel like I
want one. But I'm thinking maybe I just need an
alter ego name. Maybe that'll scratch that itch for me.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
How about See Money.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
No, See, that's too close. I think I need something
that feels too real. It feels too real to who
I really am. I needed a departure, perhaps something a
little more sinister, you know, like Sasha Fierce. I need
a I like Angelica or like Giselle. I feel like
that conveys like I don't know Franngelica Frienjelica Where are
(09:11):
we getting the friend from? I? No, no, I have
been trying to find an alter ego name generator for
like the past ten minutes. Okay, I did actually ask
chat ept for alter ego names. Are you ready for these?
Speaker 2 (09:26):
What did you type in first?
Speaker 1 (09:29):
I just said my name is simone voice watched my
alter ego name be, which is not the best problem. Okay,
here we go. These are really good. Phoenix Noir interesting.
I kind of like that one, Luna mystique, Nova Eclipse.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Oh, that's really on brand for you.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Oriyan Enigma, Nebula, Veil, Ember, frost Ember.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Why are these all like moon and sun and cosmic?
This feels very you.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
It really is interesting. Our producer Tim says these sounds
drag queen names, which I mean, I can't.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
I can't deny the similarities here.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
It's epic.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Oh my god.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
After the break, we're talking with Claire Lombardo, author of
this month's Reese's book Club pick, The Most Fun We
Ever Had.
Speaker 4 (10:19):
Stay with us, Danielle.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
Today is a very special day because we're talking about
the April pick from Reese's Book Club. New York Times
best selling author Claire Lombardo is joining us all the
way from Iowa City. She's the author of the Most
Fun We Ever Had, And we.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
Had so much fun reading the book as a Chicago
and it really made me feel like I was back
at home. It's a family drama set mostly in Illinois
and follows a married couple's forty year love story. It
includes the messy lives of their four very different daughters
and a grandchild who was given up for adoption. It's
a deep dive into complicated relationship dynamics, the perils of comparison,
(11:09):
and what it means to love a partner, to love
your family, and to love yourself. Claire, welcome to the
bright Side.
Speaker 5 (11:17):
Thank you so much for having me. It is a
delight to be here.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
Well, I imagine it must be pretty fun to be
Claire Lombardo right now, because The Most Fun We Ever
Had was published back in twenty nineteen, but it just
became a Reese's Book Club pick this month, and we
talked to Reese on our show. She just lights up
when she talks about being able to amplify the work
of female authors like you. So, how has the RBC
(11:41):
selection impacted you? It's been incredible. It's I mean, like
you said, this book is it's a five year old
paperback at this point, and to see the new life
that has been breathed into it overnight has just been
so incredible, Claire.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
When I talked to authors, they tell me that it's
the hardest thing they've ever done. And most of these
women are also mothers and entrepreneurs, and they still say
just getting this book birthed was the hardest thing they
have done. Why did you have to get this story
onto the page? This is your first book. Why did
(12:19):
you choose this one?
Speaker 5 (12:21):
You know, I didn't know that I was writing a
novel when I started writing this novel. I didn't set
out to write a novel. Writing was always sort of
on the side past time for me. It was something
I did after my you know, nine to five job
that it always just brought me pleasure. But I started
social work school, a graduate school in my mid twenties,
(12:42):
and about the same time I started writing this novel,
and very quickly these characters kind of took over the
rest of my life. And so I guess the bigger
and bigger the story got in, the deeper and deeper
I got into it, the harder it was to ignore it,
so it did kind of just become this thing that
I to pay attention to and then ultimately finish.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
You worked closely with unhoused individuals in Chicago as a
social worker. How did that inform your writing?
Speaker 5 (13:09):
Yeah, I mean, I gosh so much. Most of the
people that I was working with had never been given
a chance to tell their own stories. They had never
really you know, they had sort of been on the
fringes and not been paid attention to by a lot
of people. I was working primarily with parents and kids
in the Chicago public school system, and their lives were
(13:29):
incredibly complicated in many, many, many different ways, and I
think sometimes just being able to validate that for someone
is an incredibly powerful thing. And so in my kind
of helping people to you know, it's a matter of
asking the right questions, or asking one hundred more questions
than you might need to to kind of get the context,
(13:51):
get the backstory, and to understand where people are coming from.
That's very much a part of my writing process.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Now.
Speaker 5 (13:57):
It's something that I do, you know, terrogate my characters,
so to speak, in a similar way, so I can
get to know them, you know, as well as I
can and empathy.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
That's clearly something that you lead with.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
I hopes.
Speaker 5 (14:10):
Thank you, I hope so it's it's important to me. Yeah,
I think it's one of the most critical things that
we can bring, you know, as writers and as readers.
I write a lot of difficult and not always particularly
likable characters. The big thing for me as a writer
was learning how to love them even when I didn't
like them particularly, and I do think that all is
(14:31):
you know, kind of stems from from having empathy for them.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
Claire, you talk about making this pivot from social worker
to author, and you make it look so easy. Was it?
Speaker 2 (14:42):
No?
Speaker 5 (14:42):
I mean, I'm thank you. I'm glad to hear that. No,
it was very messy. It's I think people are always
a little nervous about me talking to their teenage children
because I'm like, I dropped out of school twice and
everything turned out fine, but it didn't feel fine or
easy at the time, and certainly wasn't an easy or
(15:02):
advisable decision to drop out of school twice as I did.
I mean, ultimately, I'm obviously very grateful that I did.
But I think and I explore some of this with
the Grace character in particular and the most fun we
ever had. It strikes me as really bizarre now at
thirty five, that we expect seventeen or eighteen year olds
(15:24):
to know who they are or what they want from
the world, or even twenty five. You know, I recall
at the time feeling like a failure or feeling like
I was doing things wrong, because you know, I couldn't
make it work and I couldn't figure out what I
wanted to do. And now I'm very grateful that I
was able to figure it out that way. And I
don't think I would have written the books that I've
(15:44):
written or be the person that I am had I
not gone through those sort of messy or ill advised
decisions that I made.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
So, yeah, we want to dig into the book with you, Claire.
It's not all It's not often that we get the
actual author here with us such a treat A huge
element in this story is the relationship between sisters, specifically
how we compare our lives and our successes to our siblings.
Why did you want to dig into that dynamic?
Speaker 5 (16:14):
Well, I am a sister. I also have a brother,
but I come from a big family and I'm the
youngest of my big family, and so I've always been
very much an observer of family dynamics and very interested
in family dynamics.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
I think as.
Speaker 5 (16:28):
Women we are able to we have a capacity for
empathy like a you know, an unusual capacity for empathy,
but we also have the ability to be cruel in
ways that are sometimes rather inventive. And so having these
these four sorens and daughters in the same space was
just really fun to explore. And there's kind of the
(16:49):
old you know, you don't choose your family adage. These
four women don't always want to be around each other
or acknowledge that they are related to each other, but
they have to. And so that's a fun position to
be as a writer too, is to kind of lock
yourself into a room like that full of people who
are kind of explosive and just sort of see what happens.
(17:13):
And plenty did, and you know, plot is born from
bad behavior, and all these women are doing pretty much
is misbehaving. So it was really pretty fun to write
about them. You mentioned that you're a sister.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
How did your family and your relationships with your parents
and your sisters inform your writing quite a bit?
Speaker 5 (17:36):
I had a professor once who said that writers are
either drawn to messy families or tidy families in fiction,
and I'm clearly very drawn to messy families. And I
think when you're immersed in that kind of messy, intimate
environment from the get go, you can't help but I
don't know, be interested in that. And I also, I'm
(17:58):
the youngest of kids by quite a bit, so I
was also kind of an only child. Most of my
siblings had gone off to college by the time I
was I don't know, nine or ten, so I grew
up with my parents in a very different way. So
I feel like I kind of had the privilege of
being both the youngest child and an only child, and
I think that enhanced my perception of my parents too,
(18:18):
and their you know, the fact that they were people
instead of just.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Being my parents.
Speaker 5 (18:24):
I think I maybe was more aware of that earlier
on than some people might have been, just by virtue
of my place in the family.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
Claire. At its core, this is a novel about a
happy and loving marriage, and we don't always see happily
married people in fiction or TV dramas for that matter,
So were Marilyn and David Sorenson inspired by people you know.
Speaker 5 (18:46):
I will say my parents were incredibly in love, so
that was something that I It was just part of
my life. It wasn't something I was particularly aware of
as being unusual until I became an adult. When I
was a graduate student, the joke about me was that
my stories were all very long, none of them had plots,
and they were all about people who really really liked
each other, which is not like the fodder for great fiction.
(19:10):
But I kind of took that as a challenge to say,
we have these people who really really love each other
at the center, and how can I actually turn that
into a sometimes negative plot device. It was a fun challenge.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
Why did you want to write characters who liked each other?
Speaker 1 (19:25):
That's a good question.
Speaker 5 (19:26):
That's some deep psychological mining that I have to do eventually.
I'm conflict avoidant, so that might have something to do
with it.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
But I don't know.
Speaker 5 (19:36):
I think I like to feel good when I'm reading,
and I like seeing love rendered on the page, and
I do think it is you know, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
Life is hard.
Speaker 5 (19:46):
It's a hard time to be a person right now,
and so I think it can be nice to have
a book where there are people who are enjoying each other.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
Say so, yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
That's how we created this show too, is like it's
okay to be happy and joyful.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
So we are absolutely aligned on that. I want to
hear more about that. When did you first fall in
love with storytelling and writing? How did that come to
be for you? Yeah, so I feel very lucky.
Speaker 5 (20:12):
I grew up in a house where books were just around,
and it was just kind of a part of all
of our lives. As I said, I have four older siblings,
much older siblings, so I was exposed to books, sometimes
perhaps earlier than I should have been, but I was,
you know, constantly constantly reading. It was like the only
(20:34):
way that my parents could think to punish I was
a fairly well behaved kid, but the only way they
could punish me was to not let me read before
bed when I was little.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
So cool. I know it was brutal.
Speaker 5 (20:46):
It only happened a few timess, but yeah, it's always
been a huge part of my life story and I
feel very very grateful for that.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
So so funny my parents punished me with t t
that you couldn't watch it, or that you had to
know that I couldn't watch it. I always loved watching
inappropriate things like I was watching Sex in the City
and the Sopranos way before it was okay. I was
never allowed to watch that stuff. Yeah, what did your
parents punish you with?
Speaker 1 (21:16):
Oh, my gosh, anything, I mean grounding? Uh, you know,
lose allowance. I was a bit of a troublemaker as
a kid, so I got I ran the gamut.
Speaker 6 (21:26):
Kind.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
I've learned that you use post it notes quite liberally
throughout your creative process, as many authors do. So what
would we see? I want you to just take us
into your creative brain for a minute and tell us
what would we see if we caught you midbook development.
Speaker 5 (21:44):
Oh gosh, you would be frightened of me, I think,
without without question. I in my office at home, I
have a huge, almost full wall sized post it board.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
It almost looks like you're cracking crime case. I have
to tell me.
Speaker 7 (22:00):
I know.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Yes, it's very.
Speaker 5 (22:03):
Yes, Yes, I'm like that person who has the hotel
room with the red string between the pictures of bodies. Yes,
it's a slightly tamor version of that. Yeah, I mean
it's it's a portrait of real disordered thinking. And I
think because I'm kind of a disordered writer. I'm a
fairly organized person in my regular life, but in my
(22:26):
writing life, I don't write an order. I kind of
operate on you know, I'm writing today what I feel
like writing today, and it might not be the scene
that comes after the scene I wrote yesterday. So with
most fun I ended up with just, you know, hundreds
of pages of non consecutive scenes about this family, and
(22:47):
there was no through line and there was no real
sense of order. And at the time, I was like,
this is fine. It's an artistic novel. And I remember
telling my agent that and she was like, that's like, no,
you can't.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
You can't do that is not a genre.
Speaker 5 (23:04):
No nobody wants to read that self included. So yeah,
I kind of had to get mathematical at the end,
and it's I mean, it's become kind of a fun
part of my process. I have, I guess, a creative
brain in some capacity. I have a visual brain, which
novels are are not. Particularly You don't really get to
(23:24):
tap into that part of your brain when you're writing
a book, and so I think doing things with post
it notes or storyboarding or you know, a variety of
different writing exercises. I guess is a way to concretize
and make visual something that is inherently not. So I
try to find ways to do that where I can.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
How many stacks of post It notes do you think
you go through during that process?
Speaker 5 (23:49):
Oh gosh, I should have like bought stock and post its.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
Buy it now because she's writing a new novel and
it's gonna go up.
Speaker 5 (23:57):
I'm gonna, yeah, go buy some before I yeah, sell
out Staples or whatever. It's hard to tell because I'm
also a very impulsive shopper for post it. So I'm like, oh,
there's a new because they have different collections of post its.
There's like the Marrakesh collection and the Belief. I mean,
it's very weird. This is a niche bit of information
that nobody wanted to hear about.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
But thinking there's a collab in your future, right, Oh yes,
I am available the Lombardo post It collab. Yeah, very
jo Yeah, Claire. There's a passage in your book when
David and Marilyn are expecting their fourth child and it's
Mother's Day and Marilyn is in the bed with her
girls having a moment. It's page two forty one. Will
(24:41):
you read a little bit for uses. Yeah, I would
be happy too.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
I love when authors read to me.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
Oh thanks, such a special thing, right, so special?
Speaker 5 (24:51):
Oh, I'm glad you. I do that with my students.
My students who are you know, in their twenties. I'm
always like, do you want me to read to you?
And they're always like, yeah, Like it's a very comforting thing.
Not my own books. I don't teach my own books, okay, umm.
Speaker 8 (25:08):
E.
Speaker 5 (25:08):
Liza draped herself over Marilyn's belly, dropping the tulips and
they're accompanying dirt onto David's spot on the bed. Oh
my gosh, she squealed. He kicked me, and suddenly she
had three pairs of hands on her stomach, even reluctant
Wendy's prodding. Reacting to the movement from within, laughing murmuring
to one another, she allowed herself to rest back against
her pillows, again, contented in an entirely different way. Your
(25:31):
family could do that to you, sometimes catch you off
guard with their charm and their normalcy. Those rare moments
like this one were the reason that she was pregnant again,
that she and David would soon be celebrating their seventeenth
wedding anniversary that these three girls, wearying as they often were,
were currently making her happier than she'd possibly ever been.
(25:51):
This was the point of having a family. These fleeting
moments of absolute pleasure, Stockholm syndrome. They kept her coming
back for more. She shifted beneath the weight of the
baby and the six small hands. She reached a stroke
Wendy's hair, and her heart swelled when Wendy let her.
This was the point God, David said when he returned,
I leave for ninety seconds, and look what happens.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
Thank you, Claire, You're welcome. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
I'm still stuck on this one line that you just read.
This was the point of having a family, these fleeting
moments of absolute pleasure. I think I just got pregnant
again after you read that passage, Claire. I think I'm
gonna have a baby now. Congratulations. It makes when you
write that, it makes me want to expand my family
(26:39):
and have another baby. That was beautiful. Is there a
character that you really have a soft spot for?
Speaker 2 (26:45):
Wendy?
Speaker 5 (26:46):
I think she was the character that people the most
either hate or love, and I did both when I
was writing her.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
But she was so much fun.
Speaker 5 (26:54):
To write because she's not diametrically opposite to me, but
she is not like I am outwardly. Wendy has a
fairly traumatic experience, many many traumatic experiences that kind of
characterize her adulthood. And so I really the deeper I
went into her past, and the deeper I my understanding
(27:16):
of her became, the more I grew to love her.
Which is my hope for readers too. Like I said earlier,
like you're probably not going to like or be particularly
happy with a lot of these characters, but it's my
hope that by the end of the book you'll at
least see where they're coming from and maybe find them
charming and the way that we do with our own families.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
We're going to take a quick break. When we come back,
we'll get Claire's answers to your questions, including whether or
not there's an adaptation in the works.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
We're back with Claire Lombardo. We have some listener questions
for you now. We asked all of our listeners or
should I say readers, to send us a voicemail with
their questions about the most fun we ever had. This
is kind of like an extension of the book Club
So first up, we have Ashley.
Speaker 8 (28:06):
Hey, my name is Ashley, and I'm a nurse in Nashville, Tennessee.
When I was in nursing school, I worked a lot,
so I didn't really have enough time to read for fun.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
So when I graduated and found.
Speaker 8 (28:15):
Reese's Book Club, it really helped me to find my
love and passion for reading again. I just finished reading
The Most Fun We Ever Had, and oh my gosh,
the drama was insane, and I love drama when I'm
not directly involved in it. The Most Fun We Ever
Had was a phrase used a couple of times in
the book. My question for you, Claire Lombardo, is what
does that mean to you? And why did you choose
(28:37):
that to be the title.
Speaker 5 (28:38):
Oh that's a great question. That was not the original
title of this book, actually, and I so the line.
So it comes from a line early on in the
book when Marilyn has two children, so basically too, you know,
she has a one year old and like an infant,
and she's quite young, and she's at a faculty party
(28:59):
with her husband, and she's underslept and very underwhelmed by
motherhood or overwhelmed and underwhelmed at once and she says,
I love being a mom. That's the most fun I
ever had, And it pops up a few more times.
It kind of becomes this call and response between David
and Marilyn and what I love about it. If I
can say that I love my own title, is that
(29:22):
thank you?
Speaker 2 (29:25):
Is that it is? I mean, it's tongue in cheek.
Speaker 5 (29:27):
It's not, you know, Marilyn is not having the most
fun she ever had when she says that. But that's
kind of the tenor of this book. There's often a
lot of happiness alongside a lot of sorrow. There's often
a lot of gravitas alongside a lot of you know,
hopefully humor, And that's life to me life. I'm often
the person who you know, will make a joke at
(29:50):
inappropriate times. Not unlike Wendy, I guess, but I think
that is very true to family life, at least my
experience of it. And and that's, you know, that's kind
of how the soren Sins operate. There's a lot of
things happen that they wish hadn't happened, but they sort
of get through it by bucking up and trying to
(30:10):
find humor where it's often pretty well hidden, all right.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
Next up is Elisa.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
Hi.
Speaker 6 (30:19):
This is Elisa from Pennsylvania. I am an English teacher
and I am an avid reader. I spend a lot
of time on book talk. So I have a two
part question for Claire. The first question that I have
is about Wendy. I was really drawn to Wendy as
a character because she is so real and flawed, and
(30:42):
I'd like to know if you had the idea that
Wendy would be a morally gray character as you were
writing her, and if you agree that she falls into
that category. And then my other question for you is
do you think that that the story is ever going
(31:02):
to be made into maybe a mini series or a
series or a movie.
Speaker 7 (31:07):
She did?
Speaker 2 (31:10):
She was ready? Yes.
Speaker 5 (31:15):
I'll answer them in order, because I often forget everything.
But Wendy is very much a morally great character. I
think that's a very it's very English teachery way to
phrase that too, which I appreciate.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
I think I did.
Speaker 5 (31:28):
Always know that because Wendy's actions people take issue with,
Readers take issue with, and they're not the choices that
I necessarily would have made, or maybe they are. I
think it's hard to put herself in other people's shoes.
I absolutely would say that she is a morally great character,
and she is hopefully a character again that by the
(31:49):
end of the book I hope that readers will will
like instead of seeing as a villain. I don't believe
in villains in fiction, and I don't believe in heroes
in fiction because they don't exist in real life. Nobody
is all bad or all good, and I think Wendy
is an example of my sort of commitment to that
that people can make, you know, questionable choices but still
(32:12):
be okay people, or still be coming from a good place.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
So that's that.
Speaker 5 (32:16):
And then, so I'm not sworn to secrecy, I will
say yes, I do think that adaptation is a possibility,
and I will be as excited as the rest of
you when I find out.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
Also, Claire, you're making us Chicago girls very proud. I
could talk to about Chicago for a while, but I
think Renee, who is our next reader, would be upset
if I didn't ask her questions. So this is Renee. Hi.
Speaker 7 (32:45):
I'm Renee from Ohio and I am a wife and
mom of three kiddos. I adore the most fun we
ever had. I came across it when it was first released,
and I wanted to shout from the rooftops to everyone
I knew to read this book. I just connected to
it on a really deep level. The Sorenson's reminded me
a lot of my own family, and being the oldest
of four siblings, there were a lot of things that
(33:06):
really I could relate to. Fast forward to this month,
I've been rereading it and I just love it even more.
I've found myself underlining so many passages that I glossed over,
and I'm just connecting to it in a different way.
Speaker 2 (33:22):
So my question for Claire.
Speaker 7 (33:24):
Is how has been chosen as Reese's book Club pick
for April made you reflect on this story as a whole.
Knowing that we've all changed since the first time it
was released, has it made you think about the story
or the characters and would you want to do anything differently?
Speaker 2 (33:41):
Wow?
Speaker 1 (33:42):
I love that question.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
I do too.
Speaker 5 (33:45):
It was it's been really interesting to return to this book. So, yeah,
the world has changed a lot since twenty nineteen, you know,
to put it lightly, and we've all changed in small
and large ways.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
I feel almost.
Speaker 5 (33:59):
Like sisterly about this book in a way that I
don't think I did five years ago.
Speaker 2 (34:04):
It's funny.
Speaker 5 (34:04):
When I was writing this book, it's the most intimate
thing in the world, and you think you'll never be
distant from the material. It just feels so almost claustrophobically close.
So that's been really interesting for me. And I think
it's good as a writer to be able to distance
yourself from your material. And I think it's that'll be
a good lesson to me with future books, my current
(34:25):
you know, my new book that's coming out next month,
month after next.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
Speaking of that novel, can you tell us a little
bit more about it. It's called Same As It Ever Was?
It is.
Speaker 2 (34:36):
I have a copy of it here.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
Coincidentally, I love the cover.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
Thank you Me too.
Speaker 5 (34:43):
It comes out on yeah, June eighteenth, And I would say,
if you are, if you liked The Most Fun We
Ever Had, I think these books are very much in
conversation with each other. I was writing Same as It
Ever Was when I was editing The Most Fun We
Ever Had, So a lot of my occupations are similar.
So Same As It Ever Was is about a woman
(35:04):
named Julia who lives in the Chicago suburbs, and she's
in her fifties and she lives an ostensibly very lovely life.
She has a husband, she likes a lot, into almost
grown children, and then she goes to the grocery store
one day and runs into an old friend who she
not only was not expecting to see again, but was
actively hoping to never see again. And it kind of
(35:27):
throws everything into relief for her. So, if The Most
Fun We Ever Had is a story about a you know,
the life of a family same as it ever was,
is also a family story, but it's kind of one
woman's life told from beginning to end, though out of
order in my characteristic disorganized fashion.
Speaker 1 (35:46):
Claire, thank you so much for being here. This is
a really special moment for us because you're our first
Reese's book Club author to come on the bright side,
So thank you for christening it in such an unforgettable way.
Speaker 5 (35:59):
Oh it's an honor. Thank you both so much. This
has been so much fun.
Speaker 2 (36:02):
Thank you, Claire. Claire Lombardo is the author of the
Most Fun We Ever Had, which was the Reese's book
Club pick for April. We're announcing the Maypick from Reese's
book Club next week, so don't miss that, and remember
you can always send us your book and author questions
to Hello at the bright Side podcast dot com.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
I feel like we're getting to watch Claire define who
she is as an author, which is really exciting. And
I love that she's unafraid to explore the Morley Gray area.
Speaker 4 (36:37):
Mm hmmm.
Speaker 2 (36:38):
No one's a full villain or a full hero. I
was struck by her fortitude. She's so chill and like
you can tell, she's easy going. But to have a
nine to five and then come home and write a
novel from I don't know five to nine and do
what be a daughter, sister, friend, whatever else you are
just is so impressive to me. That's it for today's show. Tomorrow,
(37:06):
Joanne Lee Mullinaro aka the Korean Vegan is coming by
to top food, family, and culture.
Speaker 1 (37:14):
Listen and follow The bright Side on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Simone Boye.
You can find me at Simone Voice on Instagram and TikTok.
Speaker 2 (37:25):
I'm Danielle Robe on Instagram and TikTok. That's ro o
b A Y See.
Speaker 1 (37:29):
You tomorrow, folks. Keep looking on the bright side.
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