Andrew Limbong

I sort of got the vibe of what it was about without ever having touched it.

So, Brittany, being the only one who read this then and reading it now, did you feel like you grew up into the book?

We are now the grown folks.

Let's do a quick bio of Tara McMillan.

She's the oldest of five kids.

She grew up in Michigan.

She published her first short story, The End, while she was still in college.

Her 1989 book, Disappearing Axe, was a fictionalized account of a relationship falling apart.

And after the book came out, McMillan's ex and the father of her child sued her for defamation.

It's actually a pretty interesting publishing story about, you know,

what can or can't be written about.

But eventually, the suit was eventually dismissed.

I mean, he sort of volunteered the information.

Look, we would have never known.

He came up and said, this is too close to me.

So this novel, Waiting to Exhale, as I understand, was the second largest paperback book deal in publishing history.

And, you know, she's just like credited with having introduced like this interior world of black women professionals, right?

Women who are like in their 30s, working, available, unhappy, you know, human, as some might say.

And I kind of want to get into the influence of this book that we see today because I think you can make an argument that without this book, you don't get everything from like Sex and the City to Call Her Daddy to like the brand of like – Don't put that on her.

Take it back.