Friendship stories typically deal with younger women, either kids or young women. Friendships among older women are rarely chronicled, and when they are, they’re usually a footnote in a larger story.
Grace Sammon has crafted an authentic and still entertaining, moving, and conflict-ridden women’s fiction story in her novel, The Reliable Narrator. Below is my review of the novel followed by an interview with Sammon. Then, enter to win a copy of the book via the SweepWidget form below.
The Reliable Narrator plot summary
Darby Small is living a quiet life working from home as a ghostwriter in New York when she gets a message from her childhood friend, Phoebe Zaslove. Phoebe is dying and wants to collaborate on a book with Darby which will unearth their shared past traumas and finally give Darby a byline in the bookstores.
Over the next few months, Darby will come to terms with her past, present, and future as she finally focuses on her own story and not just those of the people who hire her to write theirs. This journey takes her out of her comfort zone, challenges her as a writer, and helps her to put herself front and center at her own pace and in her own way.
The story
The Reliable Narrator lays out the writing process in a very realistic, yet interesting way. It’s difficult to convey the brainstorming, plotting, drafting, and editing process, particularly to non-writers, but Sammon works it in so organically and makes it part of Darby’s inner monologue.
Even when collaborating with Phoebe, and later Phoebe’s daughter, Diane, the writing is worked like clay being molded, reformed, and even restarted multiple times. It shows both the mechanical and therapeutic side of writing and how it can be used as a way to both face and escape your problems.
The story touches on a lot of heavy subjects, ones that will have the trigger warning blaring for any sensitive readers. But it lingers on no single subject. They’re worked in like the steps of a dance, attempting to show the experiences that make up a life, from the triumphs to the traumas to the expertise and the tragedies.
The characters
The story is essentially a platonic love story between two friends, but it’s not all about their friendship. It’s about who they are individually and how their lives turned out as a result of their experiences, personalities, and choices. And it’s about how they deal with those life experiences together.
Darby and Phoebe are older women, but they don’t read as old. Sammon paints them as the young girls they were when they first met at camp only in older bodies. There’s nothing immature about them.
Any woman with some mileage to her knows that you still feel young in a lot of ways as you age. These two friends have a more realistic portrayal as women who are living for the first time and facing, and sometimes deflecting, their conflicts as they come.
Behind the two women is a great supporting cast of characters who help enrich the story without taking away its focus. Darby’s 84-year-young mother, Theresa, at first feels like she’s going to be the foil to our protagonist. Instead, she becomes an invaluable asset to both women. Likewise, Phoebe has Roy, a kind-hearted man who has volunteered to care for her in her final months.
Phoebe’s children and grandchildren feel like a comforting distraction, as do Darby’s clients whose memoirs she still works on in between writing sessions of the book she’s writing with Phoebe. At one point, the story pivots to some military training that Darby has to go through in order to better help ghostwrite a client’s book.
At first, it feels like it’s going to be an unnecessary chapter meant to beef up the story and lengthen its word count. What it becomes is the jumping off point for Darby to come into her own and really take her collaboration with Phoebe seriously.
This quote sums it up:
“It feels ridiculous to be finally growing up at this age. I’ve spent my career camouflaged by my clients’ voices. But this week, in borrowed books and borrowed rank, I feel what it is like to be seen, to belong. I don’t want to disappear again.”
The message
The message of this book to me was an encouraging one that drives home the age-old advice that it’s never too late to start over or at least try something new. Of course, it helps to have a tenacious friend like Phoebe to steer the way, as well as a very crushing time limit that lights a fire under our hero to actually produce something of her own and finally take the credit for it.
I’m immensely impressed by Sammon’s ability to juggle multiple storylines, help the technical beats flow with the emotional ones, and write something unique, yet universal that will connect with readers, particularly female readers, of all adult ages and backgrounds. There’s nothing hokey about her dialogue, nothing Lifetime movie about the series of events as they play out, and no excuse to stop me from diving into this book night after night until I had read every last word.
My rating
Enter the giveaway!
An interview with Grace Sammon
This is a book about writing a book. How did you go about portraying the writing process in a way that would keep even a non-writer’s attention?
I’m so glad it kept your attention! I didn’t intend for the book-within-a-book element to be as central to the story as it is. A few things happened all at once to make that happen.
First, my beta readers really loved the themes of ghostwriting and Darby hiding behind others’ stories. Then, as I wrote, I found that I could better bring other issues and character voices to the fore if Darby and Phoebe were actually writing their book.
With well over a million books published each year, and with so many people wanting to write, I wanted to give readers a real peek into the reality of being bookish, AI, and all. And, lastly, adding in the inspiration of Virginia and Leonard Woolf didn’t hurt!
Virginia and Leonard Woolf are like Darby’s imaginary friends. At what point in the writing of this book did they come into play? Why does Darby gravitate to them as both literary idols and imaginary therapists?
I love that you “get” them, and I love talking about them, so thanks for asking! I have always been drawn to Virginia’s book A Room of One’s Own and thought it was a good landing point for Darby claiming her space.
Very early on, I wanted Virginia and Leonard to ground Darby’s space with the first edition book and their picture on her desk. The surprise, even to me, came when they started chatting in my head, inspiring and helping to push the plot forward.
They are also incredibly droll. If I was enjoying them, I thought readers would, too. But it was the research that gave their place in the story meaning.
There were so many bonuses in diving into the lives of the Woolfs that benefit Darby and the story – Virginia was self-published, experienced abuse, chose to take her life, and was, with Leonard, a force in the publishing world. Virginia and Leonard see who Darby is and want more for her.
Darby sees that and sees herself in some of Virginia’s struggles. The Woolfs come out of the picture frame for Darby and for the reader.
Have you ever collaborated on a book? If so, what was the process like? If not, what type of book would you like to collaborate on? Any dream collaborators in mind?
I spearheaded a three-book anthology on writing, publishing, and marketing called the Launch Pad series. They are remarkably helpful tools for authors. Collectively, they involved 40 authors, publishers, and marketers.
It was a bit like herding cats, specifically around style and grammar. It was a unique process. I learned a lot and would welcome it again.
I also recently moderated a panel for Brad Thor and Ward Larsen. Brad is the author with the most number-one NYT bestsellers. Ward has been a NYT bestseller “only” 17 times.
Listening to them talk about their collaboration, the fun of it, the ability to be more productive because of it, and the outcome of another NYT bestseller certainly made me want to explore a more individual collaboration as well. But it’s hard to find that person, that perfect yin and yang writing partner
The settings of this book are very diverse. Can you elaborate on the way the setting of Darby’s home versus Phoebe’s mirror their distinct personalities?
I wish I had some wonderful, well-thought-out, plot-driven answer here. It did work out that way, but it was not specifically planned. I love writing settings and creating worlds for readers where they feel at home in my characters’ spaces.
Darby is a renowned ghostwriter hiding behind other people’s stories. As a reader, I want you to be able to stand on the small dock surrounded by mist in Darby’s backyard. I want you to feel the tug of her rowboat’s oar handles as she tries, in a small, almost hidden town just outside New York City, to navigate her life.
Phoebe, on the other hand, is larger than life. Even though she is dying, the sheer expanse of Albuquerque’s lush north valley and the great Sandia mountains can’t hold her in. Yet, I still want you to know where she keeps her coffee cups, smell the pine wood fire, and fall in love with her Golden Retriever.
What was the most fun part of writing this book? The most challenging?
For fun, hands down, Virginia and Leonard! They are funny and poignant. They are self-aware and surrounded by the tragedy that was Virginia’s life. They don’t take themselves very seriously. For me, they pop up at all the right times.
There were two aspects of the writing that were challenging. The first was that there are some really tough subjects in the book: abuse, domestic violence, and the right to die, among a few.
The challenge was how to weave them into a plot that felt comfortable and not affronting to the reader. As an author, how I dealt with those issues, and issues of family, generational silence, true friendship, and life changes had to be delivered in a story that is engaging, not heavy-handed, ultimately uplifting, and rooted in resilience and reinvention.
The second challenge was in writing the character of Theresa, Darby’s mother. She is not immediately likable. Over 40 years ago, she bartered Darby’s silence about her abuse for a sort of personal safety that isn’t easily understood. Giving Theresa a redemptive arc and having her earn it was emotionally exhausting.
You include recipes of the food featured in the story in the back of the book. How important was food to you in telling the story? Where did the recipes come from?
I loved doing this in both my novels, and I am working to include something similar in my next novel. When my novel The Eves launched, I heard over and over from book clubs how much they enjoyed using the recipes and the book club questions for their meetings.
Since I love visiting and zooming to book clubs, I wanted to do the same for readers now. They are in the back of the book and downloadable on my website.
The inclusion of food goes back to your question about setting, to making “place” tangible to my readers. You can practically smell Theresa’s penne pasta recipe, and you can almost taste the southwestern dishes. I love that about a story.
The recipes themselves are a mix of personal recipes and, as noted in my author notes, some created by ChatGPT. Darby has quite a love-hate relationship with Chat, so that felt like a fun element to add into the mix.
Who do you most want to read this book? What is the most surprising/welcoming comment you have received from a reader so far?
“Everyone” probably isn’t a fair answer, is it?
I think the answer is anyone who has ever wrestled with being seen, or has paid a price for their silence; anyone who has lost a best friend and found themselves in the process; and anyone who loves discussing literary fiction.
As you know, reviews are an author’s lifeblood, and I hope your readers will both read The Reliable Narrator and leave a review. Two reviews come to mind, although I like so many of them.
One says the book is “compulsively readable,” that’s a huge emotional win for me.
The other stated that it “lifts women’s fiction to a whole new level,” high praise, for which I am grateful.
Do you have any plans to feature Darby in a future novel? Have you given any thought to how her story continues?
Darby actually has a cameo in my next novel, which I hope to have out in early 2027. Honestly, David will be my ninth book. It’s about a woman who is in love with and married to a pathological liar.
The tag line is “Because love changes everything except the truth.” The main character is a renowned radio host.
Darby makes an appearance on Izzy’s show. If I’m lucky and write book 10, Darby and Theresa wind up at The Eves, and that would really be something!
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