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July 16, 2020
Anna Dorn's Playlist for Her Novel "Vagablonde"
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.
Anna Dorn's debut Vagablonde is one of my favorite novels of the year. Dorn captures her protagonist's love and knowledge of music and yearning for fame acutely.
Booklist wrote of the book:
"When readers meet Prue, she's living a privileged LA life: doing uppers on special occasions, going to shows with her girlfriend at night, and writing freelance legal briefs during the day. Prue is simply biding her time until her rap career, under the pseudonym Vagablonde, can take off... The author is careful to never judge Prue, leaving readers wondering whether the story constitutes satire or is simply a precautionary tale. A memorable meditation on narcissism and fame."
In her own words, here is Anna Dorn's Book Notes music playlist for her debut novel Vagablonde:
Vagablonde is about a jaded lawyer who wants to be a rapper. In some ways I was writing my fantasy. Music is my first love. I spent most of my childhood singing The Little Mermaid soundtrack alone on the playground. But I don’t really have a musical brain in the sense of being able to read or write music. I can’t make a melody or a hook. My voice is fine but I’m not Ariana Grande. I’ve tried to use FL Studio so many times and I just can’t wrap my head around it.
In other words, if I could be a musician—if I had those abilities—I would.
But I don’t. So I write fiction about music-obsessed people. In Vagablonde, my protagonist Prue meets a producer named Jax and they make a track that blows up. Music plays throughout the novel, providing inspiration for the characters and helping them cope with their newfound fame.
I’ve been working on a Spotify playlist, linked here, to go with the book for about as long as I started writing it. Here are a few of the critical tracks.
“Blood on the Leaves” – Kanye West
Prue and Jax bond to “Blood On The Leaves” in the beginning of the book. From the haunting Nina Simone sample to the killer TNGHT production to the line, “all the cocaine on the table you can’t snort that”—this song is everything I wanted Vagablonde to be about.
“The Party” — Justice ft. Uffie
Miami-via-Paris rapper Uffie is how I imagine Prue to sound like—autotuned and scrappy and honestly not particularly talented. Uffie was mostly just in the right place at the right time and so was Prue. I used to joke I wanted this song to play at my funeral but in retrospect I don’t find that particularly funny.
“Bamboo Banga” — M.I.A.
A lot of Vagablonde takes place on the dance floor. I’ve spent countless hours dancing to Kala with my friend on whom Jax is loosely based. It’s a perfect dance album, start to finish, but “Bamboo Banga”—which kicks off the album—is one of the more interesting tracks. It also has a cameo in the novel.
“Never Enough” – Jessy Lanza
Jessy Lanza makes the type of music I would want to make if I had that skill—R&B-inspired electropop. This song makes me think of Vagablonde thematically because it’s all about that quest to fill the void. Drugs and fame might feel good for 12 seconds but then you need more and more and, well, it’s “never enough.”
“Baby Boy (feat. Sean Paul)” – Beyonce
I joke that I blame this song for my “problem drinking,” which is what Vagablonde is all about. As soon as this song starts, I immediately taste Barcardi Breezer on my tongue. I am 15 and watching upper class girls dancing raunchily in Wet Seal outfits, feeling a confusing mixture of envy and arousal. I think Prue has similar memories.
“I’m Talkin’” – Missy Elliott
Vagablonde is all about a woman learning to assert her artistic voice and feeling a bit high on herself in the process, which is exactly what Missy is doing on this song. Prue named one of her cats after Missy Elliott while listening to Supa Dupa Fly on sativa.
“The Percocet & Stripper Joint” – Future
This is a dark party song that reminds me of the end of Vagablonde. Future raps in a resigned voice, “I just need a whole lot of drugs in my system / I just tried acid for the first time, I feel good.” It captures that sense of doing drugs not because you want to, but because you feel like you have no choice.
“Cut 4 Me” – Kelela
Kelela hasn’t made a bad album but Cut 4 Me is the closest to my heart as it was my introduction to her. I skipped a wedding to see her perform at an abandoned mental hospital in DC. This title track makes me wish I had more expensive speakers. I imagine Prue blasting it in Beau’s G-Wagon, which probably has subwoofers.
“Old Money” — Lana Del Rey
This is perhaps a cocky thing to say but I’ve always related to Lana as a sad East Coast girl who adopted California as her home state. This track embodies that sense of Southern California Gothic I’ve always wanted my writing to capture.
“In the Kingdom” – Mazzy Star
This is mostly a party book but sometimes the party ends and you have to turn on Mazzy Star. In Vagablonde, Prue gets caught up with an artist collective called The Kingdom, and I imagine them all coming down to this song as the sun rises into Jax’s Koreatown loft.
Anna Dorn is a writer living in Los Angeles. A former criminal defense attorney, she regularly writes about legal issues for Justia and Medium. Her article on juvenile life without parole was published in American University Law Review. She has written about culture for LA Review of Books, The Hairpin, and Vice Magazine. Anna has a JD from UC Berkeley Law School, an MFA from Antioch University-Los Angeles, and a BA from UNC-Chapel Hill. Her memoir, Bad Lawyer, will be published by Hachette Books in Spring 2021.
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