Heather McElhatton
With her second book, the local novelist hopes to break up some weddings.
Heather McElhatton
Heather McElhatton wrote her second novel, Jennifer Johnson Is Sick Of Being Single, during a hot summer while an anxious pug puppy cried on her sweaty chest. And it shows. Like a woman with a whiny pug stuck to her skin, Jennifer Johnson is impetuous, uncomfortable, and frustrated, even as she lands her Prince Charming, Brad, the heir to a Dayton’s-like department store fortune. In contrast to McElhatton’s previous book—Pretty Little Mistakes, a clever take on the ’80s-era Choose Your Own Adventure books applied to life as a single woman in the mid-2000s—Johnson seems like a more conventional “chick lit” novel. But the hardheaded narrator and the ominous cover hint at its real message. The book is about subverting the fairy-tale expectations of the genre, smashing some tired and overly familiar tropes on the way to a dark and deflating (though satisfying) ending. Decider sat down with McElhatton—who’s also a radio producer and commentator for Public Radio International—recently at her home in Minneapolis’ Kenwood neighborhood to talk about her book and her aim to implode chick lit from the inside.
Decider: Did you inherit Jennifer Johnson’s Cinnabon addiction while writing this book?
Heather McElhatton: I became a total carb junkie. It’s impossible to talk about delicious piping hot icing and not go get some. She was a fascinating, wonderful person to inhabit, and also kind of a pain in the ass. I just wanted to write someone totally opposite of me—the bad parts, anyway. I wanted to take the typical constructs of the chick lit book—dashing man, gay boyfriend, little sister getting married—I wanted to take all of those ingredients and have a totally different outcome.
D: It’s an honest outcome.
HM: I wanted her to be honest. I’m glad people call it honest. I was bemused by the “dark, dark, dark” label. I guess it’s just my world. [Laughs.] My world is a dark comedy, apparently. I thought it was more in the normal range.
D: Brad, the object of Jennifer’s affection, seems almost too normal, until it gradually becomes apparent that he’s something of an overgrown man-child. In fact, near the end of the book you dub him “Baby Huey.”
HM: He took some constructing. At first I made him just awful. But it became unrealistic that she would put up with it. Then I tried making him fabulous and I played with idea that maybe marriage just wasn’t right for her. But then I was thinking: You know what, he’s not a bad guy. He’s insensitive. He can’t connect and empathize. And his sophistication of his emotions is different. He’s an absentminded bad guy. He’s not malicious. He’s… doofy. He’s the kind that, well, you better have your diaper bag with you because you’re going to have to change his Pampers.
D: Jennifer has her own faults. Does she know how awful she is?
HM: She’s not a victim. She has outs. She has good people around her. She’s got good guys who like her. But there is this willful passing of the exit signs and keeping on the course come hell or high water despite the red flags, despite her instincts. I think people see a pair of shoes—and marriage is a pair of shoes—and you wedge your feet into them and say, “I got in! I got in! Okay!” But how long do you walk in those shoes before it becomes horrible? And you yourself become so uncomfortable that you’re irascible and vindictive?
D: Do you speak from experience?
HM: I grew up with a lot of religious family around me. And a lot of those women were just grim-mouthed and unhappy and incredibly holy. How do you get to that point? It’s a slow process, a tightening of the screws.
D: This doesn’t sound like typical chick lit at all.
HM: I don’t mind the term “chick lit,” but if there is something called chick lit, then there’s no reason it wouldn’t evolve. The women who enjoy chick lit are incredibly intelligent women all over the globe and when they get a moment to relax in the tub, they pick up something that is going to give them whatever it is they’re getting from chick lit. Hopefully this will give them a little different flavor. This book is a sleeper cell. I know it’s going to end up on the chick lit tables. I know it’s going to be packaged that way. I’m slipping one in there. I’m really hoping this breaks up some weddings.
