Not writing about politics + reading roundup

S3 : E4

Happy Mother’s Day 🌸🌸🌸 and welcome aboard! Author Abroad is a monthly newsletter on reading, writing, and reflections from a life abroad. This month’s edition explores the connection between creative writing and politics, followed by a roundup of books I’ve read recently.

But first—for those on Martha’s Vineyard, please join me for my final island book event at 6:00 PM tomorrow at the Edgartown Public Library.

Writing

Many thanks to friend and fellow writer Brenda Horrigan for being such a thoughtful and engaging conversation partner on the intersection of writing and politics at our April 2025 Bunch of Grapes event.

One of the main points I wanted to convey at this event is that a piece of writing need not be overtly political to impact how we govern ourselves, and by extension, how we experience being governed.

Writing is about connecting, both internally and externally. As writers, we begin by connecting with ourselves, finding the precise words to articulate how we experience the world, what questions, ideas, and what-ifs inhabit our imagination. To do so requires paying attention, recording what our senses and intuition perceive, and from this, drawing connections that might not be apparent otherwise.

When we share our writing with readers, it takes on a new aspect, changing from something intensely personal into a conversation that sparks still more questions and ideas. Readers interpret a piece of writing through the lens of their own life experience. If the writing resonates, it has the potential to expand their worldview, even if only briefly. As the poet Maggie Smith explains in a recent interview on wbur,

“Books, poems, and other works of art are community gathering spaces. They're places where we go to see how someone else has metabolized their experience and then — even if our experience doesn't perfectly align with theirs — we see ourselves in it and we feel less alone. I think that's really what we go to art for: to feel a little less alone in this strange, beautiful, often heartbreaking human endeavor. To be like, ‘Oh, other people are also experiencing these things, these emotions.’ And so making things allows us to enter that big community conversation. And to be of use to others.”

Connecting, gathering, sharing experiences—these are all political acts because they get us thinking, questioning, and challenging our preconceptions, expanding our own worldview rather than accepting what politicians may want us to believe.

Creative writing is especially powerful because it reaches us at a gut level. When we watch the news or read a newspaper article, we process the information intellectually: X happened to Y. Oh, poor Y! How lucky I am not to be affected by X. When we read a novel, on the other hand, we enter the hearts and minds of the characters, experiencing life as they experience it. Whether it’s a family saga, a dystopian adventure, or something else altogether, any story that explores the nuances and complexity of life becomes political by reminding us that there are different ways to exist in the world. Stories help develop compassion and emotional IQ, key to creating and sustaining a just world. The antidote to authoritarianism, if you will.

This is why authoritarian rulers want to ban books and defund libraries, why they want to stifle writers and artists. This is why we must keep reading, writing, and creating art, and above all, celebrating each other.

Reading roundup

Intimacies: A Novel by Katie Kitamura, audiobook narrated by Traci Kato-Kiriyama (Riverhead Books, 2021) - A mesmerizing novel about power, passion, and language. Seeking a place to call home, a young woman takes a job as an interpreter at the International Court of Justice in the Hague, where she finds herself unexpectedly drawn in by the humanity of a war criminal. Outside the Court, she faces other forms of violence and intimacy, each pushing her a little closer to finding that elusive sense of home. Beautifully written, with subtle but important themes and lots of interiority.

Remarkably Bright Creatures: A Novel by Shelby Van Pelt, audiobook narrated by Marin Ireland and Michael Urie (Ecco, 2022) - Tova is an older woman grieving the unexplained death of her son decades earlier. Cameron is a confused young man still struggling to find his way after his mother abandoned him as a child. Marcellus is the very grumpy giant pacific octopus who is determined to unite them. As preposterous as the premise may seem, this heartwarming story about friendship and hope will reel you in and keep you turning pages to the very end.

Long Island: A Novel by Colm Tóibín (Scribner, 2024) - In this deeply meditative sequel to Brooklyn, Ellis Lacey returns to the page to explore and confront what she gave up two decades earlier when she left her native Ireland for New York. Long Island is a novel about secrets and longing, and what happens to a marriage when you lose your sense of self. Exquisitely written and thought-provoking.

How to Read a Book by Monica Wood (Mariner Books, 2024) - An uplifting story about forgiveness, hope, and second chances. Violet is young woman about to be released from prison after serving time for killing a kindergarten teacher in a drunk-driving accident. Harriet is a retired English teacher who gets great satisfaction out of running the prison book club. Frank is a retired machinist, still coming to terms with the loss of his wife. As the lives of these three sensitive souls become increasingly intertwined, the decisions they make will have a profound impact on each other and on the reader. This wise and hopeful novel is at once understated and full of compassion.

The Many Lives of Mama Love: A Memoir of Lying, Stealing, Writing, and Healing by Lara Love Hardin (Simon & Schuster, 2024) - An incredible true story about a soccer mom turned drug addict, convict and eventually bestselling writer, this memoir is both eye-opening and well-written. And yet, I couldn’t help feeling that the narrator was not being entirely honest with us in how she portrayed her life. Worth a read nevertheless, if only to gain a better and more intimate understanding of addiction and our broken system of incarceration.

All Fours: A Novel by Miranda July (Riverhead Books, 2024) - A provocative novel about a 40-something woman driven by the hormonal pull of perimenopause to overhaul her marriage, her body, and her life. The novel is well-written and does a good job of capturing the power and impact of menopause on a woman’s life, but I found the main character hard to relate to and a little self-absorbed—and not just because of all the kinky sex, although there was a lot of that! Still, the author deserves kudos for tackling the topic. We need more novels about menopause.

Thanks for reading. I’d love to hear your thoughts.😊

💕 Liz