‘I Have Some Questions For You’

by Gregg Shapiro

Beginning with her first book, 2011’s “The Borrower” and continuing with her 2015 short story collection “Music For Wartime,” novelist and straight ally Rebecca Makkai has created some of the most unforgettable queer characters in contemporary fiction. This inclusion reached a crescendo with 2018’s award-winning and acclaimed novel “The Great Believers,” about a group of gay friends in 1985 Chicago as AIDS was beginning to make its impact felt on the city.

In Makkai’s new novel. “I Have Some Questions For You” (Viking, 2023), she not only features characters that are lesbian and non-binary, she manages to perfectly illustrate the present mood with podcasts and COVID figuring prominently in the story.

Gregg Shapiro: The last time I interviewed you was in 2018 right before your award-winning third novel “The Great Believers” was published. Were you prepared for the reception that the book received?

Rebecca Makkai: I was certainly surprised, and absolutely thrilled. I’m honestly glad that it all happened with my fourth book, rather than my first; I enjoyed and appreciated it more, and I understand how much luck has to do with it.

Your new novel, “I Have Some Questions For You,” has been appearing on a number of Most Anticipated Books of 2023 lists. What does that mean to you?

There are really two places that comes from. Some of those lists are just about the buzz, and about the audience an author already has, and some lists are made by people who’ve already read early copies of those books. Both types of lists mean a ton to me, and I’m so grateful to know people are waiting for the book. It definitely makes for a more fun book tour, not having to worry as much about showing up to an empty bookstore.

The title of the book comes from chapter 26. Which came first, the title or the chapter? If it was the chapter, how did you know that it was the right title for the novel?

We (my editor and agent and I) searched forever for a title. The book’s working title was “Ninety-Five,” which I liked, but it didn’t do much to telegraph the novel’s tone or content. I found the title late in the editing process, so the chapter title definitely existed first. I like how, as a novel title, it signals the complications and uncertainty at the heart of the narration.

Did you have a particular boarding school in mind when you created the boarding school Granby, the main setting of “I Have Some Questions For You” or is it more of a composite?

Neither; it’s completely made up. I did make a lot of maps, which was fun.

Throughout the book, there is this kind of mantra of victims and their fates. Were these written all at once or organically as you wrote the novel?

These litanies came about because I wanted there to be some major news story going on, something that really triggered Bodie, but I neither wanted it to be a real story nor one I made up for the book. At a certain point I just said, “Fuck it, it’s all of them at once.” Because that’s so often what it feels like. I did not write those parts all together; they found their way in as the novel needed them.

As you’ve done in the past, you have incorporated queer characters into “I Have Some Questions For You,” including lesbian couple Fran and Anne, and non-binary student Lola, which is sure to make your LGBTQ readers very happy.

I mean, it would be weird to have a fully populated novel and not include LGBTQ characters. When we look back on high school, it’s interesting to think not only about who we were, but who we were pretending to be. Like Bodie, I graduated high school in 1995, and there were only one or two kids in the whole school who were out. I’ve imagined things the same way at Granby, where Fran had to disguise herself more than most other students just to get by.t www.rebeccamakkai.com

Read the full interview on www.ebar.com.

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From page 13

Caroline Renner and Rose Zilla-Ba.

They all live in a hotel where all the people they might date also live. So it’s wild and has that “no rose for you” aspect like “The Bachelor” where folks get kicked out of the game.

Per all these shows, everyone is beautiful and buff and trés magnifique There’s a lot of fun, drama, some sadness and tears (but nothing like the hysterics on “The Bachelor”), and Paris! There’s a multiplicity of talents here, a little soupcon for everyone.

“It’s so open to LGBT and the queer community, which is just so exciting to be able to see that in a dating show,” Josielyn told TV Guide. “Myself, being a part of the LGBT community, it just made me feel safe and happy to just date like everyone else and in a comfortable, safe spot.”

Rose added, “There has not been a show that is this inclusive in a dating format. It’s really about love and finding that. [Watch] for representation, for the beautiful views of Paris, and there is a lot of drama as well.”

Rural down under “Rurangi” is a groundbreaking transgender drama series set in rural New Zealand in a fictional small-town dairy community. It tells the story of Caz Davis (Elz Carrad, who is amazing), who comes home as himself for the first time since transitioning.

It’s absolutely fabulous. Full of incredibly powerful scenes of really deep emotional heft, carried beautifully by the extraordinary cast, “Rurangi” is captivating from the first scene and compelling throughout.

As part of its 15-year anniversary in March, Hulu is making a lot of material available for streaming including the complete seasons 1 and new season 2 of “Rurangi.”

In season two, Rurangi’s culture war intensifies between the transgender activists, farmers, and local Maori, all while ancestors from the past reach out to the living with unfinished business. There are a myriad of conflicts that include Caz’s coming out to his family, a love story he’s part of, the environmental crisis, Maori conflcts: “Rurangi” has got so much in it. It’s mesmerizing.

CNNemies

In the “you hate to see it” category, one of our fave news anchors, out gay CNN host Don Lemon, said some wildly inappropriate and flagrantly misogynist stuff about former UN Ambassador and governor Nikki Haley after she announced her presidential bid on February 16.

“While Don Lemon’s egregiously sexist comments about women being ‘in their prime’ have no place on CNN or anywhere in the news media, this isn’t the first time Lemon’s bias has influenced his on-air reporting,” said Bridget Todd, director of communications at UltraViolet, a leading national gender advocacy group. “From athletes to politicians and even his co-anchors, Lemon has used his power and platform to consistently undermine and demean powerful women.”

Lemon, 56, while sitting between his two female co-hosts, Poppy Harlow and Kaitlan Collins, said, “Nikki Haley isn’t in her prime, sorry. A woman is considered to be in their prime in 20s and 30s and maybe 40s,” he added. Haley is 51 and the first woman of color to run for president as a Republican.

Many hours later, Lemon tweeted that his comments were “inartful and irrelevant, as colleagues and loved ones have pointed out, and I regret it.” Regretting the blowback is what this sorry-not-sorry apology means. Lemon has already been accused of diva behavior against Collins and Harlow. Lemon was not on air on Friday, replaced with Audie Cornish, the Black woman anchor on CNN+.t Read more on ebar.com.

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