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Taffy Brodesser-Akner sits at a cloth-draped table in early June at the Upper West Sides Cafe Luxembourg.
Photo: Emil Cohen
And she has another meeting directly after this one to receive notes on a screenplay.
Brodesser-Akners 464-page, multi-perspective second novel,Long Island Compromise,was clearly written by a masterful juggler.
Voguesat down with Brodesser-Ackner to discuss money, messiness, and the fragility of goldendoodles.
Its so pernicious….We work so hard to get over things and I dont think we ever do.
A thing I came to was the idea that your trauma isnt just a thing that happens to you.
Its the thing you are primed for, combined with the thing that happens to you.
I have a sister who’s had seven kids.
My mother had four kids.
And I kept wondering, Has this ever happened to anybody that I know?
How could this only have happened to me?
And what are the ingredients in my life that led to that being my destruction?
Your trauma is a disease of specificity.
It comes for you in this moment and it knows where you live.
That, after trauma, you could fight it or you could live with it.
Theres this refrain inLong Island Compromise: It happened to your body and not to you.
Where did that come from?
I knew someone who had been raped.
That night, someone told her, This happened to your body.
This didn’t happen to you.
I couldnt get that out of my head.
What if I had thought that in my birthing room, for example?
But the thing I land on is, whats the difference?
Where do you stop?
And, if youre not your body, what are youyour soul?
I dont know about the soul.
I dont have any sort of tangibles about the soul.
It seems very hard to parse.
And also, how do you find out?
You only find out once its too late.
You wont be able to call up your interviewer and change your answer.
So whats the point?
Has your relationship with messiness changed during your career?
My hair was always blown out.
Thats not what I have to offer.
Everything contributes to [the realization that] it is okay that things are this way.
What a relief that is.
Thats why I dont understand why youth is marketed to us as this wonderful thing.
There are so many niche hobbies and careers inLong Island Compromise.
What was the weirdest rabbit hole you found yourself in?
I have two very close friends who are land-use lawyers.
And Ive overheard enough of their jobs to be like, This is completely absurd.
Im going to use it.
And they both read it and they’re like, Yes, this is close to true.
How could this family lose their money?
Unless you are completely irresponsible, you cant really lose your money.
The book was not a publishable book until I came to that conclusion.
And here I thought we were going to discuss the merits of a kangaroo-based diet.
And my sister, a veterinarian, said, Try kangaroo.
So theres a company in Brooklyn that delivers us kangaroo once every two weeks.
It is perhaps the highest line item on my profit and loss sheet.
But we love this dog.
Goldendoodles probably shouldnt exist.
Didnt the person who first bred doodlesregret it?
Theres nothing I could do to comfort him because Im not an energetically calming person.
My husband, you just sort of want to climb onto him and just lean into him.
Youve done so many different types of writing very successfully.
I think that that question is dangerous because it forces you to think about your career.
I dont want that.
So Im not going to think about that.
This conversation has been edited and condensed.
Long Island Compromise
AMAZON
BOOKSHOP
Long Island Compromiseis out on July 9.
