book club kit
Discussion Questions
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What do you think Alicia was searching for on her visit to London? How does her
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Super Host opens with Bennett Driscoll struggling in his relationships and his career, yet he’s seemed to have found his calling as a host on AirBed. What do you think drives Bennett to excel at hosting? What comfort or joy
view of herself, and her former relationships and friendships, change? Have you ever visited a place from your past, and if so, what did you try to recapture from that time?
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does he find in it? Do you think you could ever
Emma and Bennett are both artists. Dis-
achieve Super Host status?
cuss the different ways in which they use
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This novel features the perspectives of guests
art to see the world.
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Alicia, Emma, and Kirstie in addition to Ben-
As much as his guests inspire him, Bennett
nett. How did this style of narration impact
seems to form a particular kinship with
your reading experience? Were you able to
Kirstie. Talk about their connection. What
connect with some of the characters more than
do you think Kirstie sees in Bennett?
others? If so, which ones, and why?
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Discuss Bennett’s relationship with his
Talk about Bennett’s living arrangements. In-
daughter, Mia. How do they relate to one
stead of sleeping in his own home, he rents it
another, especially after the divorce?
out and stays in his studio. Did you find this strange? How do you think this proximity allows him to connect with or distance himself from his guests?
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In our contemporary society, we’re supposedly more connected than ever before. But Bennett, as well as Alicia, Emma, and Kirstie, all feel lonelier than ever. Why do
Bennett has never drawn a woman he was
you think this is? How do you think tech-
in a relationship with before Claire. Why do
nology pulls us farther apart? How can it
you think he’s compelled to paint her, first
bring us closer together?
with the drawing at the bar and then with the portrait? What else about their relationship is new for Bennett?
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What do you think is next for these characters, especially Bennett and Claire? Do you think their ending is a happy one?
What is your debut novel, Super Host, about? At its simplest, Super Host is about becoming unstuck.
A C O N V E R S AT I O N W I T H
Kate Russo
The book is the result of satisfying two disparate writing impulses, really. I wanted to write about loneliness and failure, but I also wanted to write something with a lot of humor. The idea to follow the host and guests of a house share—like an Airbnb—came to me when I was an Airbnb host myself, thinking about how little my guests knew about me and how little I knew about them. It felt like the perfect scenario not only to explore loneliness in contemporary society, but also the perfect situation for the kind of misunderstandings that are inherently humorous. Bennett, the host and main character, is a bit like a toll collector on the interstate—guests come to his house and then they go, but he is trapped there. This book starts
© To m B u t l e r
when he decides he doesn’t want to be stuck anymore.
Tell us about the main character, Bennett Driscoll. He is middle-aged and divorced, with a washed-up career as a painter. Why hasn’t his life worked out the way he thought it would? If only he knew! That’s one of the most endearing things about Bennett, I think. He is so desperate to understand how he got where he is. The problem is, he’s looking everywhere but inward. Privilege plays a role in Bennett’s downfall at the beginning of the book. He’s had an easy ride up until the point his wife and his gallery ditch him, almost simultaneously. He was getting comfortable, too comfortable. He wasn’t a bad husband or a bad painter, but he was complacent.
Where were you, or what were you doing, when inspiration for this story first struck?
in some respect. It’s not malicious, it’s just oblivious
True story! I was cleaning a toilet. I’d been looking
as a newly divorced man, he can’t help but fantasize
after a summer vacation rental at the time. Not at all
about romantic possibilities when a woman comes to
where I wanted or thought I would be at this point in
stay. He’s looking for a new life and a new way to
my life. I’d been painting professionally for ten years
exist; when he watches these women he’s wondering
and I was frustrated with the art world. I’d been writ-
if they could somehow be a part of his new life.
and self-serving. There’s a level of entitlement with Bennett that even he’s not aware of. And of course,
ing for a while, too, but no character had ever come to my mind as swiftly and articulately as Bennett did then. It was another couple of months before I had the time to start writing, but I think that worked in my favor, because I imagined a lot about Bennett’s when I was cleaning that summer. Maybe it sounds ridiculous, but I’m glad I got to know him before I started writing him.
The three guests— Alicia, Emma, and Kirstie —each bring their own troubles to Bennett’s home, from profound loneliness to crippling fear to unrealized dreams. How do their short-term stays awaken Bennett’s own latent sense of self?
In both writing and painting you have to be willing to look at the same thing over and over again. You have to be willing to look deeper and deeper and not get bored or frustrated.
Bennett spies on the women who stay in his AirBed home, not realizing how obvious it is to his renters that he does so. Why is he so curious about these women and yet so oblivious to them, as well? I love this question! More than anything, Bennett’s curiosity about his guests is a symptom of loneliness. I’m sure if anyone asked him, he’d probably say that it’s natural for an artist to be curious about the world around them . . . but that’s not really the truth. Being a painter allows him not to see things as they truly are. He’s painted hundreds of women over the years, they all “sat” for him. In that way, I think it’s hard for him not to see all women in his eyeline as “sitting” for him
I think Bennett’s spying has some unintended consequences! As a painter, Bennett poses women. They stay in his chosen position and he paints what he sees, but also, crucially, what he wants to see. Like writing, every painting has an agenda. Bennett edits out what he doesn’t need. However, the way he observes Alicia, Emma, and Kirstie is different. After all, he’s spying on them; he doesn’t have control over what they’re doing or saying. It’s not for him. The editing process in his mind is no longer so easy. The messier parts of their lives seep into his and force him to think about himself in ways he’d previously been able to ignore before.
Although he is a master painter, Bennett has always struggled to capture the facial expressions of his models. It isn’t until he sketches bartender Claire that he is able to bring life to his art. What makes Claire different from the models he has painted in the past? What makes her different in that sketch is, at first, she doesn’t know she is the subject of his drawing. She hasn’t been posed and Bennett is forced to capture her “essence” while she moves around, does her job and interacts with other customers. He’s drawing her, but she’s in charge. This tension is what brings life to the drawing.
Bennett compulsively listens to one musician on his iPod—rap artist Roots Manuva, a seemingly out-of-character choice for the 55-year-old Bennett. What does Bennett get from this artist’s music? Bennett wants to be someone else. When his wife leaves him, saying she “can’t be stuck with him anymore,” Bennett would like to go with her. He doesn’t want to be stuck with himself either! For Bennett, Roots Manuva is a new lease of life, a chance to see himself differently. It’s exactly the fact that the rapper is an “out-of-character choice” for him that he loves. Despite the fact that others might see the rapper as out-of-character for him, Bennett takes everything Roots Manuva says personally. However misguided, to Bennett’s mind, all these lyrics have been written for and about him, starting with “the demons that you’re stuck with.”
The neighborhoods of London hold meaning for Bennett and some of the other characters in the story. How do you see the neighborhoods interacting with your characters? London is such a territorial city. Because of its size and the way it’s laid out, everyone has their patch. Northerners never got south of the river and vice-versa. East and West are similar that way. I wanted the reader to get a sense of that. For example, Alicia, who comes back to visit London five years after living in Camden Town, North London: Staying in Bennett’s West London house, she feels like she might as well be in different city, entirely. Immediately, she feels out of place. Similarly, Claire lives in Northeast London and thinks Bennett is from another planet, a posh one.
You are an established painter. Are there similarities—or differences—to writing a novel with making visual art? For me, they pair well mainly because of their differences. In some ways, they feel like they require different brains. I can rest one while I work the
Amaretto Sour Recipe
other. The commonality, I think, is in the editing. Writers never publish a first draft and painters more tweaking to be done in both. Every painting
Ingredients:
has several coats of paint, every story has several
1½ ounces amaretto liqueur
don’t exhibit a first coat either. There is always
drafts. In both writing and painting you have to be willing to look at the same thing over and over again. You have to be willing to look deeper and deeper and not get bored or frustrated. I think this is why I like doing both. Inevitably, taking a break from one gives clarity to the other.
¾ ounce cask-proof bourbon 1 ounce lemon juice, freshly squeezed 1 teaspoon rich simple syrup ½ ounce egg white Garnish: lemon twist
Super Host is your debut novel. Are you at work on a second one? Yes! Novel number two is underway. Too early to divulge much else, but I am writing it!
Garnish: 2 brandied cherries
Steps: Add amaretto, bourbon, lemon juice, simple syrup, and egg white to a shaker and dry-shake (no ice) for 15 seconds. Add ice and shake again until well-chilled. Strain into a rocks glass over fresh ice. Garnish with a lemon twist and 2 skewered brandied cherries.
Recipe from Liquor.com liquor.com/recipes/amaretto-sour
Paint t he cover
“Some moments are like paintings—no words necessary.”