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August 4, 2022
Jana Casale's Playlist for Her Novel "How to Fall Out of Love Madly"
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.
Jana Casale's second novel How to Fall Out of Love Madly is assuredly written and filled with empathetically-drawn characters. One of the year's most impressive novels.
Kirkus wrote of the book:
"In an even-more-impressive continuation of the work she began with her debut, The Girl Who Never Read Noam Chomsky (2018), Casale has again taken the detritus of women’s inner lives—the things we wished had never happened, the thoughts we wished we’d never had, the endless self-flagellation about our bodies—and made something funny, warm, and compelling; something sisterly in the finest sense of the word. . . . Casale’s narrative voice is deadpan, funny, and clean without being faux flat or pretentious. Casale is an American Sally Rooney, so smart about friendship and love."
In her own words, here is Jana Casale's Book Notes music playlist for her novel How to Fall Out of Love Madly:
Music is the single most inspiring medium for me as a writer. If ever I’m stuck or am or am looking to access a certain emotionality or just want to let my mind wander to brainstorm, I turn to music for that inspiration. Oftentimes, if I’m writing a passage that requires a certain kind of sadness or melancholy or joy or romance, I’ll put a song on repeat to write. I find it to be the most effective motivator whenever I’m struggling to get to work and it’s integral to my process as a writer. My novel How to Fall out of Love Madly is about three women in their early thirties who in all facets of their lives are capable, brilliant, and able to stand up for themselves but when it comes to the men that they love, struggle to ask for what it is that they really want and to express who it is that they really are. When writing this novel I thought a lot about pain, sadness, loneliness, bravery, triumph, and love and I hope this playlist is a reflection of that.
Our Deal - Best Coast
This is maybe the most quintessential song that could represent this novel. The lyric “I wish you would tell me how you really feel, but you never tell me because that’s not our deal” speaks to so much—Joy and her crush on her roommate Theo, Theo’s own feelings (or lack thereof) towards Joy, Annie’s relationship to her boyfriend Jason who is wildly commitment phobic, Celine’s relationship to every man she’s ever known. I also just think this song is so emblematic of a certain kind of moment in millennial youth culture and of hookup culture in general.
Heart Shaped Face - Angel Olsen
Realistically this whole album makes me think of my novel, but this track in particular speaks to the longing a person feels when they feel disconnected from the person they love. The lyrics: “Was it me you were thinking of? All the time when you thought of me? Or was it your mother? Or was it your shelter? Or was it another, with a heart-shaped face?” just kill me-- utterly devastate me because they are so perfect. I mean “was it me you were thinking of? All the time when you thought of me?” hits the deepest tones of loneliness and lover’s melancholy. It also feels incredibly feminine to me—the whole album does—which really works since the book is so much about womanhood. The song ends with “heartache ends and begins again” which also is just such perfection.
Rapt - Karen O
“Loves a fucking bitch” I mean it says it all. Plus, this is off of Karen O’s EP Crush Songs which whenever I hear it just makes me think of Joy in the kitchen baking for Theo as she fantasizes about forever.
My Body is a Cage - Arcade Fire
I actually used this song for inspiration to write a chapter from my debut novel, The Girl Who Never Read Noam Chomsky, where the female protagonist tries on a bathing suit. The response I got from that chapter made me realize how much we as women want to talk about the ways in which body image issues scar us. In this novel the only physical attributes we know about the characters are about the insecurities they hold. Joy hates her stomach. Annie hates her breasts. Celine hates all of it. For women, it’s painful, it’s traumatic, it’s real and I think this song evokes all of that.
Lovely Day - Bill Withers
I wanted to choose a song that makes me think of each of the women in the book and this song makes me think of Joy. Joy is kind, she’s caring, she’s a great friend, a loving daughter, she would be the best partner. She has a strong moral compass and there’s something hopeful about her. She represents goodness, and what is right with the world and to me there is no song that better insights a feeling of pure Joy.
Sleep Now in the Fire - Rage Against the Machine
Annie is angry and that’s something I love about her. She’s strong and brave and when she’s confronted with the information that a coworker has accused her universally beloved boss of sexual misconduct, she does everything in her power to fight fight fight. Also, as an aside, because this song is about capitalism and greed, I think it speaks to her frustration as a millennial woman entering her 30s and still having to live with roommates to make ends meet.
Foxey Lady - Jimi Hendrix
Okay this is wayyyy surface for Celine’s character, but because Celine is over the top gorgeous, I just couldn’t resist. Music, and especially this music, makes you feel sexy, and Celine is many things, yes, but sexy, the good and the bad of it, very much defines her life.
He Doesn’t Know Why - Fleet Foxes
This is a song I reference in the novel without mentioning the name of the band or the song. Celine is driving home after meeting with an old friend who she hoped would help her sort out her own feelings about a past trauma. She’s singing along to the song and thinks the lyric is: “there’s nothing I won’t do” but realizes it’s “there’s nothing I can do” and the difference between the meaning of what she thought the lyric was and what it really is strikes her profoundly and she breaks down crying.
I Love Creedence - Casiotone for the Painfully Alone
This song is about roommates and perfectly speaks to the relationship that Joy has with Theo, one that never is defined and is unhealthy but for Joy and even for Theo is very real in its own way. Love is complicated like that and oftentimes very painful.
Simple Kind of Life - No Doubt
I love this song, and its playful embrace of longing for those more traditional parts of life. I think all the women in the book want marriage and hope to have families, but I think they’d rarely admit that to themselves and when Annie finally does it’s revelatory for her. “You seem like, you’d be a good dad”—such a great lyric.
Once Upon a Dream - Mary Costa, Bill Shirly & the Sleeping Beauty Chorus
This song is also referenced in the novel. I think it is important to have a love song on this playlist. Even if the book is not a love story, it doesn’t mean it isn’t about love. Finding love, loving yourself, defining what it is you should or shouldn’t do for love. And what better love song is there really?
Music for a Sushi Restaurant - Harry Styles
Okay this is an out of left field one but even though I often write about complicated themes, I always want to write in a way that is entertaining and joyful and pulls my reader through, so I wanted to pick a song that is pure fun. Also, to me this song is the song of summer ‘22 and books are very much about the moment in time they’re released so this is me fully embracing my book and its moment in the world.
Jana Casale is the author of The Girl Who Never Read Noam Chomsky. She has a BFA in fiction from Emerson College and an MSt in creative writing from Oxford. She currently resides outside Boston, Massachusetts, with her husband and son.
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