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August 18, 2020
Heidi Pitlor's Playlist for Her Novel "Impersonation"
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.
Heidi Pitlor's novel Impersonation is thought-provoking, funny, and engaging.
The New York Times wrote of the book:
"Looking for a book that fires up the synapses? Check out Heidi Pitlor’s Impersonation . . . Pitlor’s voice is witty and brisk, bringing warmth and light to questions of identity, independence and, yes, intellectual property. Who owns your stories? How much are they worth? Allie Lang’s answers are complicated. Watching her reach them is like sitting down with a refreshingly honest friend who skips the part about how great her life is and dives right into the real stuff. We need more friends like this. Authors, too."
In her own words, here is Heidi Pitlor's Book Notes music playlist for her novel Impersonation:
This playlist is eclectic and incongruent, but what threads these songs together in my mind are feminism and idealism. Impersonation is set over 2016 and 2017, but the narrator, Allie Lang is a fan of music from the 1960s and '70s. She nearly fetishizes these decades. These iconic years appeal to her sense of exploration and her craving for freedom. They’re also notable, coming as they do before the commercialism and bald capitalism of the 1980s. I’ve also included songs popular during 2016-2017, songs associated with the Clinton presidential campaign and its attendant attention to feminism, songs that Allie would have heard and liked, either the music or the lyrics or both. Music is important to Allie and important in this novel. It helps her express her mood or establish a desired atmosphere.
1. “Get It While You Can” Janis Joplin
Allie is freshly solvent after signing a contract to write a memoir for Nick Felles, a tech and TV “bro.” She blasts this song as she drives her new truck off of the dealer’s lot, feeling high on opportunity. She’s been struggling financially, and this new job will provide her the security she’s needed as a single mom. I’ve always loved Janis Joplin’s proudly ragged voice, the lilts of this particular song, and the confidence and power that it gives the listener. I imagine Allie feeling emboldened by her new truck, her new sense of hope, and Janis.
2. “Praying,” Kesha
After Nick Felles is “MeToo-ed” by several young actresses (although in the book, this happens technically before the #MeToo movement), Allie loses a lot of money when his memoir is canceled. Kesha’s battle with her once producer, a man she accused of drugging and assaulting her while she was recording with him, was the impetus for this song. It took her years to free herself from her contract with him, and this song is her ode to overcoming this adversity. I imagine Allie hearing it and thinking of Nick.
3. Free to Be, You and Me, Marlo Thomas and Friends
When Allie meets Lana, her new client and a woman’s rights activist, they discuss the book that Allie will write for Lana, a memoir of motherhood and a guide to raising feminist boys. Allie mentions the beloved album by Marlo Thomas, which was meant to help boys understand and welcome their emotions and to empower girls. I listened to this growing up. I loved that most songs were little stories unto themselves. I loved the messages that girls don’t have to marry, that boys can cry, that people should be whomever they really want to be. These messages also arise in my book.
4. “Help Me,” Joni Mitchell
Allie has a steamy one-night stand with Colin, a man who turns out to be gay and then becomes her ghostwriting agent. The meet at a dive bar after attending a Joni Mitchell tribute concert in New York. Who doesn’t love Joni Mitchell? Well, I’m sure plenty of people, but Allie and Colin do. I do. We love her seamless combination of mastery and innocence, her timely but timeless lyrics, the way she captures the whole of the human heart in her songs.
5. “Freedom,” Richie Havens
At eleven years old, Allie first discovers her love of '60s and '70s music when she is in Jamaica, attending her uncle’s wedding. This song is playing when she joins a group of people having a bonfire on a beach. She is struck by their joyful abandon, these people skinny dipping, smoking pot and in various ways, yes, loving each other. It is then that she decides she wants to grow into an adult like this, a person different from her more conventional mother and stepfather. She tries to grow dreadlocks after she returns home and insists on being called “Marley.” I would include Bob Marley’s “Kinky Reggae” and The Grateful Dead’s “Sugar Magnolia” as well, as they both figure into this scene, but that might be redundant.
6. “Cheap Thrills,” Sia
While Allie isn’t exactly going to head out and “hit the dance floor” in this book, she does enjoy the occasional impromptu bout of dancing, and I imagine her hearing this song at certain moments of the book and letting loose. Money does play a large role in the narrative, as does the pursuit of happiness. She finds herself working for some very privileged people—she becomes their public voice--but sometimes can hardly pay her own bills.
7. “Rock Around The Clock,” Bill Haley
Allie and Cass, her son, love this song. I loved singing this song to my kids when they were younger. The use of numbers and the easily predictable rhythm made it perfect for them. I’m fascinated by those moments when we think we are teaching our children something—in this case, numbers and time—but what we are likely teaching them is the broader sensation of being loved, which may in the end be more important.
8. “Can’t Stop the Feeling!” Justin Timberlake
This one is a heartbreaker for me. If I had to crystallize the hope and optimism that came with Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, it would be in the flash mob dressed in pantsuits that danced to this song in Union Square in New York City. I was a skeptic about her winning the election, and felt certain that the Republicans would take the presidency. But I do remember watching this video and feeling something snake through my heart, something like hope. I imagine Allie watching this video and feeling the same way. The way these incredibly talented dancers move while dressed in those restrictive pantsuits; their smiles; their diversity; all the energy. I am still heartbroken.
9. “Mean to Me,” Sarah Vaughn
And then we have our new president, and Allie’s landlord, Jimmy Prior, is thrilled. The two get in an argument about politics, and Allie goes out to buy some alcohol for a dinner they are sharing. In the parking lot of the liquor store, she sits in her truck and listens to this song. The world has been mean to her, to all women. I love Sarah Vaughn’s bluesy voice. I also love the double meaning of the title in this song.
10. “Respect,” Aretha Franklin
Lana goes on the Ellen DeGeneres show and the two dance to this song. Unfortunately, this song has become almost a parody of feminism, given how often it is played. I’m both satirizing this moment in the book and tipping my hat to Aretha, who is worth of respect, and so much more.
11. “Purple Rain,” Prince
In a conflicted moment, Allie sits near someone listening to this song on the New York Subway, and remembers that Prince has died. His death was a big moment for me, as it was for so many other people. I think of the androgynous stars of his time—David Bowie, Freddie Mercury—and how much I loved their music, their unabashed femininity that seems to me to complement this book. Prince’s music taught me some things about sex when I was much younger. I can only imagine how many people can say that same thing. These are ugly times, and I miss the beautiful music of these three men.
12. “Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” Cyndi Lauper
This song plays at Lana’s election night party, another near parody of a feminist song. Again, I’m both satirizing this moment and tipping my hat to Cyndi, singular Cyndi who has since done just so much good in the world.
13. Beyonce, "Formation"
This song. It’s the ultimate “fuck you” to white patriarchal capitalism, police brutality, racism, and an ode to black culture, feminism, and hard work. It’s unapologetically political. The video is a thing to behold. I love it and everything about it.
Heidi Pitlor is the author of the novels The Birthdays and The Daylight Marriage. She has been the series editor of The Best American Short Stories since 2007 and the editorial director of Plympton, a literary studio. Her writing has been published in the New York Times, the Boston Globe, the Huffington Post, Ploughshares, and the anthologies It Occurs to Me That I Am America: New Stories and Art and Labor Day: True Birth Stories by Today's Best Women Writers. She lives outside Boston.
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