Cassie McCullagh

So we are supposed to believe him as a physical character, although he does point out that Homer defamed people like him and these sirens who are luring people forth.

And I guess that was one of the things that I found intriguing was that on the one hand there's this very contemporary young woman who,

dealing with all her angst, as well as a commentary about Los Angeles and Venice Beach and all of that stuff.

Some very funny things about New Age ridiculousness.

And then you have this character who gets a bit pouty and put out if she's a bit late and he doesn't like dogs.

He's a bit scared of them.

And all of that's happening together.

So it's sort of playing around with forms a little bit.

Did it work for you, Margot?

Because there's also a whole series of arguments, as you have alluded to, about classical mythology because she's right, she spent nine years, this character spent nine years not finishing a PhD on Sappho.

Well, but what's funny about, what I thought was actually quite funny about that was that it's actually not a novel about Sappho.

It's about the spaces and gaps around Sappho.

And she does all this sort of academic turning herself on her head.

And even she knows that it's actually, it's a silly project and that it's really not working.

Not that talking about spaces can't work, but the way that she does it, you can sort of see why her PhD supervisors are rolling their eyes and going, no, no, no, not working, not happening.

Well, and that's, I guess that's what kept me going.

I did find that voice funny and arch and clever.

And even when the character was being a bit ridiculous, I thought the voice of the novel sustained it.

That's right.

Melissa Broder's The Pisces is published by Bloomsbury Circus.