Larissa Pham

And that helped me decide on some of the artists.

The Art Institute of Chicago does have some Selmans in its collection, for example, but a great part of it was really just like what energy and what themes and these visual artists can I bring into these chapters that kind of like align with the sort of sub themes of each chapter.

And so Selman's, I always really enjoy talking about because her work feels so close to many of the concerns in the book, but I see her work as being about realism and replicating life and what it means to try to really, really replicate life, like, you know, stroke by stroke, like pixel by pixel even.

And Christine's project is very interested in like, yeah, like, you know, what does it mean for something to

to feel real, but not be true.

And then an artist like Katz, for example, you know, Katz is actually based in Maine, but I find his work to have like a lot of resonance with LA, like a lot of beaches, a lot of sun, a lot of fashion, bright colors.

And so his work, you know, it's very, it's very polished.

It's very beautiful.

And it seemed like a really good foil for this chapter where Christine is talking to Francis, who is her friend, who is much more successful than she is.

and who is still a painter and has succeeded in a way that Christine isn't.

So I was interested in where those artists could resonate with what I was trying to explore.

It's so much fun.

I really, really enjoy writing fiction.

I would say fiction was my first love.

I've always enjoyed reading it and I have like a really great admiration for the novel.

And I think the greatest point of difference in terms of switching genres was like realizing that there were kind of different formal concerns that I could play with and also that I had access to genre.

I was able to play with the thriller, including like a kind of thriller element in the book.

I was able to touch on auto fiction.

I was able to experiment with, you know, set pieces, like having two characters talk to each other and writing dialogue.

So I really enjoyed getting to play in that way and getting to kind of interact with that long history of the novel.