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April 19, 2021
Michele Morano's Playlist for Her Memoir "Like Love"
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.
Michele Morano's memoir-in-essays Like Love is an insightful and compelling exploration of our closest relationships.
Kirkus write of the book:
"A prismatic exploration of the complexities and contradictions of close relationships.…A sharp eye, brave intellect, and satisfying writing make this worth a look even for those who don’t usually read essays."
In her words, here is Michele Morano's Book Notes music playlist for her memoir Like Love:
This playlist matches the table of contents of Like Love, with a song for each of the fourteen essays. In making the pairings, I focused on tone more than meaning, choosing songs that sound in my mind the way I wanted the essays to feel. Individually and together, these songs makes me happy!
Nouvelle Vague, “I Melt With You”
The opening essay, “The Law of Definite Proportions,” explores a period when emotion overtook reason in a way I didn’t understand. The colors of this song align with the process of developing an erotic, frustrating, romantic friendship.
Billie Eilish, “Bury a Friend”
I love this song for its simultaneous clarity and confusion. Its tone matches the puzzling, introspective adolescent context of “Breaking and Entering,” in which my mother, brother, and I break into our former home a month after leaving my father.
Billie Holliday and her Sextet, Artie Shaw, & Bunnie Berrigan, “Summertime”
“Crushed” is about the eros of teaching, and the tenor of this song, with its assertive trumpet, playful clarinet, and Billie Holliday’s radiant voice implies both comfort and danger.
Gianluca Vacchi & Sebastián Yatra, “Love”
This upbeat anthem to the unifying power of love contrasts with the content of “About Wayne,” about a tense period following the break-up of my family. But the energy of the song reminds me of that time when everyone, including me, seemed to be grappling with the desire for love.
Annie Lennox, “Pavement Cracks”
Annie Lennox’s rich voice and the slow pacing that builds toward a faster freedom laced with heartbreak feels like exactly the right counterpart for the “love rectangle” in “Ars Romantica (Or a Dozen Ways of Looking at Love).”
Queen, “Somebody to Love”
The song’s title goes well with “Boy Crazy,” but I’ve paired the two because of Queen’s sonic enactment of longing. If I could make this essay into a movie, the final scene of two teenaged girls on a boardwalk bench in front of the ocean would be set to this song.
Ellis Paul, “Live in the Now”
I love Ellis Paul’s storytelling. Although the story of this song doesn’t match my title essay, “Like Love,” the way he slows down in key places and offers introspection seems appropriate for an essay about the romance of travel.
Lori McKenna, “Bible Song”
This song breaks my heart in exactly the way the final scene of “Evenings at the Collegeview Diner” does. Listening to McKenna’s country twang, her voice and words deeply rooted in place, I can almost smell the summer evenings in Poughkeepsie, New York during the “new normal” détente within my family.
Prince “1999”
“How to Tell a True Love Story” is a playful, sad, resigned, and ultimately optimistic essay about love and death. The registers of Prince’s classic song capture how we’re all making the best of this life, and his genius makes me want to dance and weep at the same time.
St. Vincent, “New York”
The complexity of loss in this song is so beautifully rendered that I feel it in my chest. This is exactly what I was going for in the short essay “Restless,” about an era and a person that are inextricable.
Cassandra Wilson, “Time After Time”
Cassandra Wilson’s version of this song, in which she departs from expected rhythms, is my favorite. I’ve paired it with the longest essay in my book, “All the Power This Charm Doth Owe,” because both song and essay linger in unexpected places, then move forward and linger again until the through-line feels almost beside the point. The essay is about the past and present, family love and romantic love, identity, loss, and time.
Joe Cocker, “Come Together”
John Lennon called the lyrics of this song “gobbledygook,” but Joe Cocker’s weathered voice is a perfect pairing for “Restless,” which recalls an episode that makes clear how prevalent desire is throughout our lives.
Marisa Monte, “Ao Meu Redor”
This dramatic Portuguese song is synonymous with the friend who introduced me to it. “My Sky, My Life” is about how the sensation of falling in love can appear like an illness, even when we don’t actually want a relationship, and then disappear just as mysteriously.
Lizzo, “Cuz I Love You”
“The Married Kiss” is about taboo emotions and the romantic tropes associated with becoming a mother. Lizzo’s grand, unabashed testimonial aligns with the spirit, if not the literal meaning, of this essay. I love her voice, her exuberance, her full-throated embrace of love.
Michele Morano is the author of the travel memoir Grammar Lessons: Translating a Life in Spain. Her essays and short fiction have appeared in many journals and anthologies, including Best American Essays, Fourth Genre, Ninth Letter, and Waveform: Twenty-First-Century Essays by Women. Born and raised in Poughkeepsie, New York, Michele lives in Chicago, where she a professor and current chair of the English Department at DePaul University. www.michelemorano.com
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