I didn't realize later how much of a trope that is. Sarah Enni: That feels like a very "dad book". Just because my dad didn't have a lot of novels in the house, but he did have a lot of massive books of nonfiction. I remember reading David McCullough's Truman biography when I was, I don't know, eight or nine. I was a pretty voracious and a pretty indiscriminate reader. Sarah Enni: I'd to hear how reading and writing was part of growing up for you. Miranda Popkey: Yeah, up through high school until I went to college. Because that is my first question, is where were you born and raised? So Santa Cruz, was that all the way up through college?
The ocean was peripheral to her life as well. Sarah Enni: She was not much of a surfer. Miranda Popkey: She wasn't much of a surfer, put it that way. I don't think my main character was, I don't know.
And listen, Santa Cruz has all types of people, so that's fantastic. And occasionally was like, "I guess the ocean exists." But I hope I was helpful to you. I think I warned you before that conversation that I was a very particular kind of Santa Cruz resident in that I did not interact with Santa Cruz at all, and mostly just stayed inside and read. And you helped me when I was writing Tell Me Everything because you are from Santa Cruz. Sarah Enni: An esteemed author friend who is fabulous. Listen to her First Draft interview here, and her mailbag episode here! You can read them write about their friendship in The Atlantic’s Friendship Files here, and in the Two Bossy Dames newsletter here, and they shout out First Draft, too!) Sarah Enni: Yes, you and I have chatted before because you are friends with Zan Romanov (author of A Song to Take the World Apart, Grace and the Fever, and the forthcoming Look. Miranda Popkey: I'm very excited to be here. I'm so excited to chat with you in person and get to talk about Topics of Conversation. So it felt appropriate to sit down and discuss Miranda's brilliant, smart, and emotionally rich debut novel. Topics is about how women craft their own stories through conversation, to explain themselves to themselves, and to survive. I loved how Miranda was ready to get into her experience as an entry level editor in publishing, and all that taught her about the industry. This week I'm talking to Miranda Popkey, essayist and debut author of Topics of Conversation. Popkey offers a new, compelling layer to the conversation about consent.Sarah Enni: Welcome to First Draft with me, Sarah Enni. The narrator never reconciles the political with the personal, but that’s exactly what makes her struggle so relatable. Later, she argues she is paralyzed by the sheer number of choices she must make in her life, and simply wants another person to tell her what to do. The narrator ventures several theories as to why these women may crave submission: When she leaves her kale-eating, liberal husband because he’s too nice, the narrator wonders if she has been “tricked” by the patriarchy into desiring the wrong things in a partner. The stories are engrossing, even sometimes disturbing, but invariably filled with empathy.
#JOHN POPKEY SERIES#
Over the course of 17 years, an unnamed narrator has a series of discussions with women who want to be subjugated by men. Rather than dismiss these fantasies as patriarchal brainwashing, Miranda Popkey tackles the contradiction head-on in her debut novel, Topics of Conversation.
#JOHN POPKEY TV#
In the aftermath of the #MeToo movement, critically beloved works like Sally Rooney’s novel Normal People and Phoebe Waller Bridge’s TV show Fleabag have wrestled to reconcile some women’s desire to be dominated in romantic relationships with their espoused feminist ideals.
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