Dear Reader,
I had a book club too, you know. I was ten years old. I called it the Red Ranger Club (because obviously). My cousins and I would sneak into secluded spaces with armfuls of my auntie’s Johanna Lindsey and Jude Devereaux books and crack them open right to the middle. We read about women’s experiences and their pleasure. Starting a book club was one of my first transgressive acts.
It was with that same kind of impish mischievousness that I wrote Pride and Protest . Liza Bennett (pronounced Leesa) is the only DJ who gives a jam in a redeveloping neighborhood in Washington, DC. Dorsey Fitzgerald is the adopted Filipino son of a wealthy white family trying to make all the right moves. If you love Jane Austen, you’ll recognize most of the characters you love—and love to hate—from Pride and Prejudice . You’ll enjoy reading along to see how I have modernized, revamped, and changed the classic themes of the world’s favorite novel.
But if ninth grade and the accompanying required reading are something you’re actively suppressing, Pride and Protest still delivers the no-context-needed feels of the century. The Bennetts are a wild, riotous family that will make you cringe or cheer for them.
INSPIRATION
By trade I am a doctor of cultural anthropology. My field of study was aesthetics and power. I ran across an article about the data on dating apps in the United States. What the study found was that Black women and Asian men were the least responded to in dating apps across the
country. This was wrapped up in our notions of what types of bodies get to be vulnerable, delicate, and desirable, and what types of bodies get to be masculine, powerful, and brooding. Dorsey is an Asian American lead with a POV in my novel. I am in no way trying to tell an Asian American story, but I did write Liza and Dorsey in those gendered and raced bodies on purpose. I believe church on Sundays, cemeteries, and romance novels are still the most segregated spaces in the country, and I hope my novels will trouble some of those mainstream spaces.
Please enjoy these characters. They made me laugh and made me angry, but most importantly, they made me love them. And I hope they do the same for you.
Nikki PayneDiscussion Questions
1. A large theme in the book revolves around each character growing to become the person that they want to be. Why is Liza a DJ? Is it a job she loves? Similarly, why is Dorsey a CEO? Is it a job he enjoys?
2. Mother-daughter relationships are fraught with so much tension and expectation. What is at the heart of Bev and Liza’s discord?
3. Why did Liza mistake Dorsey for waitstaff? What does it say about her own views of the world?
4. Dorsey seems to field many microaggressions from people around him. Why was Liza’s mistake particularly egregious?
5. Why doesn’t Dorsey correct Liza when he has the opportunity to do so?
6. Considering her past, why do you think Janae drank at the office?
7. At the Hotel Washington, why is Dorsey so cynical about Liza’s methodology?
8. In Philadelphia, Liza was excited to see WIC, and then something soured. Was it her deeper connection with Dorsey or WIC’s own behavior that made Liza wary?
9. Another major theme of the book revolves around surface understandings and deeper truth, and how one could look like the other. Social media makes this false reality even easier to believe. What were the differences in Liza’s and Dorsey’s approaches to managing the truth?
10. Why did Liza love the gift in the Tiffany box so much? What does it say about the way Dorsey fulfills her needs? Compare that to the gifts she receives from WIC.
11. Why doesn’t Liza tell anyone about her love for Dorsey?
12. What is Dorsey looking for when he roams Liza’s neighborhood? Does he find it? 13. Why does Liza believe it is still over between them even after they shared a passionate night? 14. At the embassy, the next time Liza and Dorsey meet, what has changed? 15. Do you think Bev and Liza’s relationship will ever change?
