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Capital gain
'I WATCHED THIS INSANE INF LUX 0F WEALTH'
Dollar signs may drive on the characters in the debut novel from Janelle Brown but she tells Malcolm Jack that her own work is a labour of love
suburban American town rife with neighbourly
I might be set in a curtain-twitching west coast i
intrigue and extra marital affairs. but Janelle
Brown‘s debut novel is no Desperate Housewives. In ' All We Ever Wanted Was Iz‘i'erjvtlzing. far darker things
go on behind the Miller family‘s closed doors than are fit for ratings-winning light entertainment. Crestfallen
daughter Margaret hides from career failure and spiralling debts at the bottom of a bottle.
neighbourhood change radically from when I was born: now it‘s so wealthy.‘
Brown‘s own career path couldn‘t be much more at odds with the high rolling capitalistic ethic that has come to dominate thinking in her home town. A ‘single minded‘ creative from school age, she got her first
journalism job while still at college and later co- mother and domestic goddess Janice copes with her greedy absentee business-exec husband‘s infidelity and a betrayal by hoovering up crystal meth. as her eldest
Meanwhile. Margaret‘s younger sister. 14-year-old
Lizzie. attempts to overcome
loneliness and
unpopularity by giving her body up freely to every boy
in school. Stirring this pot of familial woes are the combined corrosive forces of over-blown ambition. social hypocrisy and. above all. money. Brown — a
founded her own irreverent women‘s pop culture
magazine. She eventually quit both endeavours to go E freelance and write her first novel. a five-year labour of
love that. while far from regrettable. did see her despairing at times.
‘There were definitely moments in the last few years when I thought that I had just done the stupidest thing.‘ she admits. laughing. ‘You‘re working on this novel.
and you‘re never sure if it‘s going to be done or if it‘s ; going to be any good. and meanwhile you‘re watching f friends who had staff jobs move on to get even better ;
former staff writer for online magazines Wired and i Salon — witnessed firsthand the powerful. life-altering effects of cash while working in Silicon Valley San f
Francisco during the late 90s dot-com boom.
‘I watched this massive. insane influx of wealth.‘ she says. over the phone from her Los Angeles home. ‘and I was really fascinated by how it was changing people‘s expectations of what success is. When the person living next to you is a 30-year-old who‘s just made 36m. and has only been doing it for a year. you start thinking: “oh god. what have I done with my life?“ This was the genesis of the book and then the story itself kind of
evolved; I came up with the characters and they told the 3 story for me. I grew up in Silicon Valley and saw that F
staff jobs. and you‘re making do with beans and rice. ;
Looking back. I‘m thrilled that I made that decision.‘
The Miller women don‘t stay down either: after E ; demolishing her protagonists‘ hopes altogether. Brown rebuilds them with care and empathy. Ambition. after
all. ought to be a force for good. ‘There‘s a book that‘s
just come out here in the States called Not Quite What I I Was Planning. a collection of six-word memoirs. I ; contributed one. which was: “my second grade teacher 5
was right.“ My second grade teacher told me that I should be an author.‘
All We Ever Wanted Was Everything is published by Hutchinson on Thu 1 May.
LIST >i<
lHt BtSl BOOKS, COMICS 8 lVl NlS
ill Dave Gonnan The semi- bearded wonder drops our way to chat about his ventures across America trying to avoid the evil chains and dastardly brands in favour of Mom and Pop. The Pleasance, Edinburgh, Wed 30 Apr; Borders Books, Glasgow, Thu 1 May. * Maggie O’Farrell Fresh from the success of The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox. her intricate tale of family secrets and lost lives, the Edinburgh-based Ulsterwoman gets into a literary conversation. National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh, Sat 26 Apr.
'3 Karen Campbell I: Alex Gray This pair of crime writers show that the female arm of the Tartan Noir brigade is going strong. The Twilight Time and Pitch Black are their cunent respective novels. Waterstone ’s, Edinburgh, Fri 25 Apr.
#1 Wllly Vlautln Following up his acclaimed debut The Metal Life, the Richmond Fontaine vocalist brings us North/ine, featuring a school dropout with a destmctive lifestyle. Waterstone's, Glasgow. Wed 30 Apr.
* Janelle Brown The former joumo for Wired and Salon gives us All We Ever Wanted Was Everything. See preview. left. Hutchinson.
* Jamea Kelman The Glasgow guy returns with Kieron Smith, Boy, a pleasingly accessible ride around his city in the post-war era. See review. page 34. Hamish Hamilton.
fit Warren lllla 1; Mil Oranev The Golden Avenger aka lron Man takes on cybemetically-altered terrorists in Extremis with a fight to the death. See review. page 35. Marvel.
24 Apr—8 May 2008 TH! LIST 3:!