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April 6, 2022
Grant Ginder's Playlist for His Novel "Let's Not Do That Again"
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.
Grant Ginder's novel Let's Not Do That Again is smart, hilarious, and one of the most fun books of the year.
Kirkus wrote of the book:
"A new book from Ginder beckons the reader like a hot bath and glass of something, a reliable and relaxing pleasure. In this timely comic novel set in New York and Paris, a political family deals with drama past and present. Ginder aces the small stuff [and] the big stuff, characteristically insightful on sibling and parent-child relationships. Ooh la la, this book is a shoo-in."
In his own words, here is Grant Ginder's Book Notes music playlist for his novel Let's Not Do That Again:
My new novel, Let's Not Do That Again, chronicles the final eventful months of New York congresswoman Nancy Harrison’s campaign for the U.S. Senate. Her election should be a shoo-in, but when a video emerges of her daughter, Greta, throwing a champagne bottle through the window of a beloved Parisian bistro at the behest of a right-wing French extremist, Nancy’s all but assured victory is thrown into jeopardy. In a desperate attempt to save her political future, not to mention her daughter, Nancy dispatches her son, Nick, to wrest Greta free from the seductions of Paris and bring her back to New York. While on its surface it might seem like a political story, at its heart Let’s Not Do That Again is about is about the extraordinary sacrifices a mother and her children make for each other, and the difficult truths those sacrifices force them to face.
One of the exercises that’s most helpful for me as I’m preparing to write a novel is to imagine my characters’ particular and idiosyncratic tastes. Is someone the sort of person who likes playing with dogs, or do they prefer being utterly ignored by cats? Do they stay in on a Friday night, or wake up in a stranger’s bed on Saturday morning? Are they sane, rational, and empathetic, or did they vote for Donald Trump? Music, obviously, plays a huge role in this process; a woman who listens to nothing but Metallica cuts a different shape than a guy who blasts Verdi. For the characters in Let’s Not Do That Again, these differences bear out in stark, telling ways. Greta, for instance, is moody and aloof—the sort of person who alternates between old Juliette Gréco and Caroline Polachek as she smokes her roommate’s weed. Nancy, on the other hand, you’d expect to find humming along to big band standards as she skins a rabbit. And then there’s Nick, who when he isn’t saving his mother’s campaign or his sister’s life, is struggling to write a musical. It’s based on the early life of Joan Didion and it’s called Hello to All That! With this playlist, I’ve done my best to highlight not only the music that I imagine these folks would listen to, but also the music that inspired them, and let me get into their heads. It’s a chaotic and unruly mix—but then, so too are the Harrisons.
Je Ne Regrette Rien by Édith Piaf
After I finished writing the novel, I knew immediately that the chorus from Édith Piaf’s classic would serve as the book’s epigraph. The characters in Let’s Not Do That Again are ultimately faced with a difficult, morally ambiguous decision—the sort that I imagine many folks might end up regretting. Nancy, though, and her daughter, too, for that matter, are not those sorts of people. To that end, the defiance in Piaf’s voice as she proclaims to literally light the flame with her memories perfectly matches the characters’ ethos. They may have done bad things, but they did them for the right reasons: what is there to regret?
Taking Chances by Céline Dion
Early on in the novel, Nick tells his doctor that he broke down in tears after hearing “Taking Chances” in his local bodega. He describes how he was checking the ripeness of an avocado when the song came on and—bam—the floodgates opened. Full disclosure: this happened to me. Like Nick, I was weening myself off of Lexapro at the time; my serotonin levels were all over the place, and the smallest thing could—and often did—send me into an emotional tailspin. As I sobbed, I remember thinking how weird and sad and (mostly) hilarious the whole scene must have looked: here I was, holding an avocado, being moved to tears by a decade-old power ballad by Quebec’s reigning pop queen. Needless to say, I knew it had to be in the book.
Tiny Love by MIKA
On top of trying to straighten out his brain chemistry, Nick is also on a quest for love. Up until now he’s worked for his mother—a job that shuttled him back and forth between New York and DC and kept his calendar packed full of dreadful dinners with lobbyists. Now that he’s free, he’s eager to start living his own life, ideally with someone else. I’ve always loved MIKA—in my twenties, he was my go-to artist when I needed to pump myself up for a first date—and the lyrics in “Tiny Love” speak directly to the type of romance Nick is after. Despite writing musicals about Joan Didion, he’s a pragmatist at heart; he isn’t looking for “dramatic declarations in the rain,” but rather the kind of love that “gets better every day.”
I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me) by Whitney Houston
Act I of the book closes with Nick and his date, Charlie, grabbing a nightcap at a gay dive bar in Chelsea. The date ends abruptly—to save his mother’s campaign, Nick is dispatched to Paris—but even so, this banger had to be included, mostly because I have never, not once in my life, been to a gay dive bar and not heard Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance with Somebody.” To not put that song on this list would be to destroy any and all credibility I have as both a gay man and an author.
Door by Caroline Polachek
Disclaimer: I’m obsessed with Caroline Polachek. I listen to her non-stop and I imagine that Greta, who narrates Act II of the book, would too. “Door” in particular describes Greta’s state before she flees for Paris. She’s aimless and ambivalent, having rejected the comforts of her own family’s wealth to share an apartment with three other people in Bushwick. She works as a sales associate at an Apple store and feels—in Polachek’s words—like “just another girl in a sweater.”
J’ai Deux Amours by Madeleine Peyroux
All that said, at the depths of her melancholy, Greta stumbles upon a lifeline: an unnervingly handsome Frenchman named Xavier, who she meets gaming online. Their connection is intense and immediate, and before too long Xavier is inviting Greta to come see him in Paris. Enter: Madeleine Peyroux singing “J’ai Deux Amours.” Josephine Baker made the song famous, but there’s something about Peyroux’s voice that I’ve always found irresistible. I imagine Greta listening to the song as she considers Xavier’s invitation: she’s a New Yorker at heart, but now she has a second love, seducing her to the other side of the Atlantic.
Balance Ton Quoi by Angèle
As is too often the case with unnervingly handsome Frenchmen, Xavier is…well, let’s just say he’s not exactly the sort of person a mother like Nancy would want her daughter to end up with. Greta knows this—it’s what attracts her to Xavier in the first place—and she does her best to overlook the, uh, less-than-desirable-parts of his personality. Still, she’s smart, and incredibly observant; there’s a voice inside her screaming that Xavier means trouble. Belgian artist Angèle’s 2018 hit is an anthem for the #MeToo era in France. It calls out the misogyny that’s pervasive in French culture, and demands that women be treated with respect. It’s easy to picture Greta listening to it as she walks the streets of Paris, and struggling to ignore the song’s message: yes, she’s managed to piss her mother off, but at what cost?
9 to 5 by Dolly Parton
Every political campaign needs a song, the music that plays when the candidate awkwardly jogs up the stairs to the stage, and I can’t imagine a better one for Nancy—after all, she’s a workhorse, and with the election only weeks away, it’s hustlin’ time. What’s more, the song itself has a storied political history: Hillary used it in the 2008 primaries, and then Elizabeth Warren snatched it up in 2020. I admire both those women and the work they’ve done to make this country a better place, and I’d like to think that Nancy is following in their footsteps.
Wandering Lovers by Christine and the Queens
As Nancy’s campaign heats up, so does Nick’s relationship with Charlie. He’s returned from Paris with Greta in tow, and now he’s eager to take things to the next level romantically. I’m a huge fan of Christine and the Queens, and when I think of Nick and Charlie’s future, “Wandering Lovers” immediately springs to mind. The lyrics are simple but moving (in particular I love the line “with my fingers I will draw / The road where we need to go), and there’s a sense of hope baked into the melody. I feel for Nick—I want the best for him—and I’ll always root for him when I hear this song.
La Vie en Rose by Lucy Dacus
Everyone knows “La Vie en Rose”—you can’t sit through a meal at a mediocre French restaurant in Manhattan without hearing it at least once—but in her version of it, Lucy Dacus makes the classic all her own. There’s a driving beat to Dacus’ cover that creates a new, pulsing momentum—it’s still a love song, yes, but now there’s an edge. I listened to the tune basically on repeat as I wrote one of the book’s most crucial scenes, toward the end of the fourth act. In it, Greta is faced with desperate times, and so she takes desperate actions. The rose-colored glasses she’s been wearing are suddenly lifted, and she’s forced to save her own skin.
I’m Still Here by Elaine Paige
As an out-and-proud theater geek, lord knows I love a show tune. And this one is, without doubt, Nancy’s personal anthem! Like Carlotta Campion in Sondheim’s Follies, by the end of Let’s Not Do That Again, Nancy Harrison has been through it all: her husband’s tragic death, countless political campaigns, children throwing champagne bottles in Paris, the spiteful machinations of a disapproving mother-in-law, an unorthodox interaction with an industrial trash compactor… you name it, she’s seen it, and yet, here she is, running for the U.S. Senate. A number of incredible women have performed “I’m Still Here,” but lately I’ve been listening to Elaine Paige’s version, from the show’s 2011 Broadway revival. She’s got a full, determination to her voice, and a whole lot of moxie, too. And that’s just the sort of combination I think Nancy Harrison could get behind.
Grant Ginder is the author of five previous novels, including The People We Hate at the Wedding (which has been adapted into a major motion picture starring Allison Janney, Kristen Bell, and Ben Platt). Originally from Southern California, Ginder received his MFA from New York University, where he teaches writing.
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