Read Online If You're Not Yet Like Me by Edan Lepucki - Free Book Online

point of view. I’d recently read A Thin Place by Kathryn Davis, whose omniscient narrator bestows thought upon beasts and people alike, and I adored it. I also love The Known World by Edward P. Jones, which is told in this gorgeous, juicy omniscience, and for years I’d wanted to see how that kind of narrative flexibility felt. Now that I’ve read more 19th century novels like Anna Karenina and Middlemarch, I realize that the shifting, elevated third person narrator isn’t new at all, just out of fashion. I’m not sure why that is, because it’s just as exhilarating to write as it is to read.
One difficulty with the omniscience in “I am the Lion Now” was deciding how often people in L.A. have sex. I kept changing the number. They should have asked that question on the census!
Knickerbocker
The end of a book is kind of like the end of a movie—the music plays, the credits roll, and the audience, hopefully, feels satisfied, yet sad that it’s all over. Sometimes, though, you’re lucky enough to get a reel of bloopers and deleted scenes—a little peek behind the curtain. I’m hoping you’ll talk about your bloopers and deleted scenes—what was the revision process like for you with these stories?
Lepucki
To be honest, I can hardly recall writing “I am the Lion Now”—I think I burned all the discarded reels.
Writing the end of the novella? Oof. Unfortunately, that process is still vivid in my mind. I rewrote the ending at least four times. On my first draft, I withheld the identity of Joellyn’s imagined listener until the final pages, but it didn’t take long to see that this was a misstep. The rest of the drafts were all about the final scenes—it took me a few tries to nail the right tone, and to sustain the drama and emotion after the major events of the story had happened. My editor Deena Drewis kept my habit for sentimentality in check. She continually urged me to hang onto Joellyn’s essential voice and nature, which was so helpful.
I can only stand to show you one discarded ending: Joellyn has a fantasy of Zachary making a piñata. Of himself. Blooper, indeed.
Knickerbocker
Last question, very important: You seem to be obsessed with bathtubs. Discuss.
Lepucki
Despite my valiant efforts to stop this ritual because of its water usage, I can’t help but take a bath almost every night. It’s true, I am obsessed. I guess you caught me writing what I know.

Thank you …
… to the hardworking folks at Flatmancrooked, in particular Elijah Jenkins, fearless publisher, and my incredibly astute and exacting editor Deena Drewis.
    I’m grateful to a number of friends who read this manuscript at various points and gave me insightful feedback, and whose own writing keeps me engaged, challenged, happy, and humbled: Julia Whicker, Madeline McDonnell, Douglas Diesenhaus, and Paria Kooklan.
    I owe a special thank you to Heidi Cascardo and Laura Shields for their firsthand knowledge of pregnancy, and to Mike Fusco and Emma Straub (M+E) for their design talents.
    I’m lucky to have such a supportive and fun family, and it’s a pleasure to acknowledge them here.
    Thank you especially—especially—to my husband, Patrick Brown: first, last and favorite reader.

EDAN LEPUCKI is a graduate of Oberlin College and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Her short fiction has been published in the Los Angeles Times Magazine, Narrative Magazine, Meridian, and FiveChapters, among other publications, and she is the winner of the 2009 James D. Phelan Award. She is staff writer for The Millions and lives in Los Angeles, California, where she was born and raised.