« older | Main Largehearted Boy Page | newer »
April 30, 2020
Jeni McFarland's Playlist for Her Novel "The House of Deep Water"
In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book.
Previous contributors include Jesmyn Ward, Lauren Groff, Bret Easton Ellis, Celeste Ng, T.C. Boyle, Dana Spiotta, Amy Bloom, Aimee Bender, Roxane Gay, and many others.
Jeni McFarland's debut novel The House of Deep Water powerfully explores themes of race, family, and and home.
The San Francisco Chronicle wrote of the book:
"The House of Deep Water uses a town built on Midwestern stoicism to take a deep look at family dynamics and the ties that bind."
In her own words, here is Jeni McFarland's Book Notes music playlist for her debut novel The House of Deep Water:
My novel, The House of Deep Water, follows Beth DeWitt’s return to her hometown of River Bend, a Michigan farm community. Beth is half Black, one of the only people of color in town growing up, and she returns reluctantly, with her two kids, where she finds her father with a live-in, indecently younger girlfriend. She also moves just as her old neighbor has been arrested for horrific crimes, of which she was one of his victims as a young child. She consoles herself by rekindling an old affair with a married man, her dad’s girlfriend’s uncle. This is mostly a playlist for her, although there are songs in here for her daughter Jeanette as well, who listens to country music to piss her mom off. She’s an angsty teen who misses her old home and her dad. Some of these songs, though, are really more for me, to help me revisit memories of my hometown in the 1990s.
Destiny’s Child, “Say My Name”
Ah, vintage Beyoncé. I imagine Beth would have loved this song; strong Black women singing about a cheating man. It feels very empowering, especially for a character who knows her man is cheating, but won’t kick him to the curb like she should.
Salt N Pepa, “Let’s Talk About Sex”
This song was scandalous in my middle school! Those rappers—had they no shame? Listening to it now, it’s super practical, sex-positive, and empowering. I really think we needed more of this back in the day; certainly Beth DeWitt could have used more honest conversations about sex.
TLC, “Unpretty”
Truth time. I didn’t listen to any of this in high school, I was one of those musical theater dorks. (Not to say that everyone into musical theater was dork, but I definitely was.) This song, though, definitely has a nostalgia factor, as it was always on the radio. Listening to it now, I wish I had gotten into it. I was the kind of girl this song was aimed at: I had such terrible self-esteem, I nicknamed myself Troll Girl in high school. “Unpretty” is all about fixing what’s inside, instead of spending money trying to hide behind expensive beautifiers.
Mariah Carey, “Fantasy”
What would a ‘90s nostalgia playlist be without a little Mariah Carey? And what young woman didn’t have a gaggle of fantasy lovers at the ready? Growing up in a sleepy little town, I was always escaping into fantasy. (I think that’s why I’m a writer today.) Also, listening now, I’m still amazed by the notes that woman hits!
Dolly Parton, “Jolene”
In my book, Beth’s daughter, Jeanette, listens to country music in her bedroom. It really pisses off her mother, which is, of course, part of the impetus. But also, Jeanette would love any singer with strong vocals. This song, too, is an additional jab at her mother, who runs around with a married man throughout the novel.
Rush, “Time Stand Still”
This song unwillingly got under my skin when I was fifteen. I had a boyfriend who was obsessed with Rush. He played it to death. I wasn’t digging most of it, but there’s something about this song—maybe it’s just nostalgia, but I think there’s also a wistfulness that carries forward into present day. There’s a scene in my book where one of my tertiary characters, Derek, dances with a bar waitress to this song, and he’s not feeling it—the song, I mean; he’s kind of feeling the waitress. And I like the idea that this is the song that he begins to live in the moment for, if only for the five or so minutes it takes the song to play.
Ingrid Andress, “More Hearts Than Mine”
Jeanette would have loved this song too, for the picture it creates of a cohesive, supportive, loving family. Throughout the book, Jeanette really misses her dad, and the thought of having her family together, and having a boyfriend she could introduce to her family, a boyfriend her family would love, would catch her by the heart.
Lizzo, “Juice”
I keep several playlists of upbeat, empowering music, which I listen to to help recover after writing the hard scenes. It’s so easy, when revisiting memories from my past, to slip back into familiar “Unpretty” thought patterns. The antidote to this is Lizzo’s swagger.
Demi Lovato’s “Stone Cold” as covered by Postmodern Jukebox, featuring Shoshana Bean
The original of this song is stellar, but the Postmodern Jukebox cover blows me away. The feeling Shoshana Bean brings to this song, about moving on after heartbreak, is fire. She mixes in bluesy riffs, and y’all, that scream towards the end? Knocks. Me. Dead. Every time! This is a song for Beth, to begin to heal after all her heartbreak.
Jeni McFarland holds an MFA in Fiction from the University of Houston, where she was a fiction editor at Gulf Coast Magazine. She's an alum of Tin House, a 2016 Kimbilio Fellow, and has had short fiction published in Crack the Spine, Forge, and Spry, which nominated her for the storySouth Million Writers Award. She was also a finalist for the 2015 Gertrude Stein Writers Award in Fiction from the Doctor T. J. Eckleburg Review. She has lived in Michigan and the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and two cats. The House of Deep Water is her first book.
also at Largehearted Boy:
Support the Largehearted Boy website
Book Notes (2018 - ) (authors create music playlists for their book)
Book Notes (2015 - 2017) (authors create music playlists for their book)
Book Notes (2012 - 2014) (authors create music playlists for their book)
Book Notes (2005 - 2011) (authors create music playlists for their book)
my 11 favorite Book Notes playlist essays
Antiheroines (interviews with up and coming female comics artists)
Atomic Books Comics Preview (weekly comics highlights)
Flash Dancers (authors pair original flash fiction with a song
guest book reviews
Librairie Drawn & Quarterly Books of the Week (recommended new books, magazines, and comics)
musician/author interviews
Note Books (musicians discuss literature)
Short Cuts (writers pair a song with their short story or essay)
Shorties (daily music, literature, and pop culture links)
Soundtracked (composers and directors discuss their film's soundtracks)
weekly music release lists
