Elyssa Friedland

Elyssa Friedland's new novel is The Intermission.

From her Q&A with Deborah Kalb:

Q: You write in your acknowledgments that you came up with the idea for The Intermission while watching your husband load the dishwasher. How did that lead to this novel?

A: It’s true. I was brainstorming ideas for my second novel and nothing was inspiring me. Then one day I was sitting at my kitchen counter and my husband went to load the dishwasher.

Now I feel bad complaining about him because at least he does the dishes. But I will anyway. He lifted each dish from the sink and held in the air, analyzing its shape for a good five to ten seconds. Then he looked down at the dishwasher liked he’d never seen it before and contemplated for what felt like an eternity where to place the dish. And don’t get me started on what happened with an odd-shaped bowl!

So I like to say The Intermission was born in my kitchen. Watching my husband load the dishes in a much more deliberate and cautious manner than I would caused me to reflect on marriage generally.

Individuals have so many idiosyncrasies and no two people have the exact same way of thinking or come from identical backgrounds. And yet marriage is what our society proscribes. Two people with zero shared DNA are expected to cohabit and have children together. It’s a...[read on]

Visit Elyssa Friedland's website.

The Page 69 Test: Love and Miss Communication.

My Book, The Movie: Love and Miss Communication.

Writers Read: Elyssa Friedland (May 2015).

--Marshal Zeringue