“The Melting Season” author Jami Attenberg talks penile implants, celebrity gossip, and Sarah Palin.

We wouldn’t dream of calling Jami Attenberg’s page-turner of a third novel, “The Melting Season,” chicklit. We would, however, call it a great read — that just happens to feature a female main character wrestling with issues we can all relate to (bad sex, crazy parents, celebrity gossip addiction). Poor Moonie Madison, of course, also wrestles with issues we hope not to relate to: Namely, a husband so obsessed with his small male member that he resorts to plastic surgery, and a marriage so oppressive she skips their small Nebraska town with a suitcase full of his cash. We talked to the longtime friend of Sirens (who is so awesome that men write songs for her) about tabloids, small-town girls, and courting hate mail from Sarah Palin.

Moonie loves celebrity gossip magazines, a guilty pleasure a lot of women share. Why do you think so many of us can’t tear ourselves away, even if we feel like we should know better?
I think most people read anything — books, magazines, newspapers — for two reasons.  Because what they’re reading feels like the most important thing in the world, immediate and urgent and necessary, or because it’s so deliciously fluffy that we won’t have to think about our own lives anymore.  These celebrity gossip magazines magically convince us that their subjects somehow have both of these qualities.  Also a lot of people find it fun to judge strangers.

Then again, her real problem is her sexual inexperience. Do you see this as an argument, in a sense, for getting a decent amount of sexual experience before marriage?
I don’t want to get any hate mail from Sarah Palin — actually, yes, I do, I’d so frame that. I don’t think that was really the point of the book, but I would probably recommend against teen marriage whenever possible.  Get out there in the world. Sow some wild oats.  They don’t even have to be that wild.  Or even oats.  Just try some sowing before you rush into a big relationship, kids.

His attempt to rectify his shortcomings with plastic surgery seems to compound things. What are your thoughts on how cosmetic procedures — and the ease of changing our appearances these days — can affect relationships?
I think, in general, people who are obsessed with changing their appearance with plastic surgery are tending to some sort of internal wound.  That personal sadness will probably have more of an impact than anything else on a relationship.

This character is so different from those in your previous books, which focused on more sophisticated and cynical city women. What inspired the book to begin with?
I had spent some time at a residency in Nebraska, and really loved and admired the people I met in the town there.  And I think there’s a part of me that really connects with the small-town vibe – I grew up in what was at the time a smallish suburb of Chicago – and I wanted to acknowledge that.  Beyond that, I just wanted to write a narrator that had a different voice than my sophisticated characters from my past.  I was shooting for progress!

If you were Valka — the older, wiser lady who met poor Moonie in Vegas — what advice would you give her?
I think I did give her advice!  The Valka character is definitely a version — a super weird, prescription-pill-addicted, cancer-surviving version, but a version nonetheless — of me.  Anytime I wanted to say something to her, I would just have Valka say it.  And I think she pretty much told her to be strong, get her shit together, and take care of business.  As good as any mantra for life.

You can buy “The Melting Season” on Amazon now. For more information on Jami Attenberg, visit her website.

Social Bookmarks:

Tags: books, celebrity gossip, Jami Attenberg, Sarah Palin, Sex, The Melting Season

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 21st, 2010 at 1:00 am and is filed under Lit. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.