Lucy Ives's latest novel is Loudermilk.From her Q&A with Deborah Kalb:
Q: You write, "When I began writing this novel, I was, mostly without knowing it, reproducing a trope from the libertine canon." How does Loudermilk fit into that canon?--Marshal Zeringue
A: I'm not sure if I can—or, one can—write a libertine novel in this era. When I wrote that my novel "reproduces" that trope, I meant that it quotes one aspect of an earlier style of novel-writing—probably without becoming part of that canon. Mistaken identity, weird twins, stories of metamorphosis: these are all things we associate with plays and prose that predate the 19th century (think about Shakespeare, for example).
You have to work pretty hard to get a scenario like this to seem believable in the contemporary moment, although some silly Hollywood films have been successful: Twins, Freaky Friday, and so on. And, to be honest, Loudermilk probably fits a bit more comfortably into that canon (i.e., the comic-loss-of-control-over-self/identity-in-the-U.S. canon), even as it has plenty of elements of high culture...[read on]