THE LADY UPSTAIRS Book Club Kit

BOOK CLUB KIT

READING GROUP GUIDE 1

Discuss the ways in which The Lady Upstairs does or does not fit into the noir genre.

What noir tropes do you see in the novel? How does the author subvert more typical conventions from this genre?

2

How did the first-person narration in the novel affect your reading experience?

Did you always trust Jo as a narrator?

How does viewing things through her eyes change your perception of the events in the novel?

3

Jo is determined to take down men who treat women badly, and yet it could be argued that she herself does not always treat women well. What do you think of Jo’s attitudes toward other women?

Do those attitudes change over the course of the novel? Would you consider her to be a feminist?

4

Take a look at Jo’s romantic relationships, particularly those with Jackal and Lou. How were these relationships different? How was Jo herself different in each of them?

5

Compare and contrast the different ways that characters in The Lady Upstairs command power over others. How do traditional definitions of power—whether political, financial, or professional—compare to the kind of power that Jo, Lou, and the Lady create?

6

What do you imagine Jo’s past looked like before she joined in with the Lady Upstairs?

Additionally, what do you imagine happens to Jo after the novel’s end? Is history doomed to repeat itself?

7

Many of the characters in The Lady Upstairs believe that money will solve their problems. Which instances in the novel support that idea, and which undermine it?

8

Did you guess the identity of the Lady Upstairs while you were reading? If so, when?

9

Consider the different moral codes that guide each character. Who do you think bears the most responsibility for Ellen’s murder? How are “good” and “evil” defined?

10

Did you ultimately find Jo to be a sympathetic character? Discuss the different consequences of her actions. Did the ends justify the means?

A DISCUSSION WITH

Halley Sutton The Lady Upstairs is your debut novel. Can you share a bit about your experience as a first-time author?

It’s a strange thing to have your childhood dream come true in the middle of a global crisis. I would say that the best part is having access to the writing community and to writers whom I admire, in a different way than I did before. For example, I’ve attended Noir at the Bar events for years—getting to read at one of those, from my own book, is a life highlight I won’t easily forget. Along with seeing my name on a book for the first time!

What inspired you to tell this story?

I wanted to write a story about power and sex and heartache and regret. It doesn’t get more noir than that.

Jo’s first person voice is so unique and powerful. Where did that voice come from? Which came first, the character of Jo or the plot of the novel?

I had Jo’s voice in my head early; I knew I wanted to spend more time with her. I didn’t have a story for her yet, but her voice was definitely the first thing that grabbed me and made me think, I could spend a novel untangling this person. She didn’t spring into my head fully formed, but her snappy, snarky voice was always there, sort of parallel, narrating events in my head all day long. Maybe she was just waiting for her chance to find the right story to waltz into.

The Lady Upstairs is a modern take on the classic noir genre. Did any particular noir authors impact your writing? Do you have any favorite noir movies or novels? How is this book different from a traditional noir story?

If you’re writing about LA noir, there’s no escaping Raymond Chandler, and The Long Goodbye is one of my favorite books.

Nobody packs as much pain per ounce as James M. Cain—he can do more with one hundred pages than most authors can in a trilogy. Dashiell Hammett, Dorothy B. Hughes, Jim Thompson.

But the writer I return to over and over is always Megan Abbott, particularly her novel Queenpin. Sara Gran’s Dope. Vicki Hendricks is another favorite—I don’t think anyone spends enough time talking about what a fantastic book Miami Purity is. Whenever I feel like my writing needs better rhythm, I pick up Elmore Leonard (my particular favorite being Gold Coast, featuring one of Leonard’s many compelling leading ladies named Karen).

For films: I watched Body Heat almost daily while writing The Lady Upstairs (frighteningly, that’s only the tiniest bit of an

© Faizah Rajput 2019

exaggeration). Gilda and Jackie Brown were movies I returned to again and again, and it doesn’t get much more hard-boiled dame than Linda Fiorentino in The Last Seduction. Devil in a Blue Dress—both the Walter Mosley book and the film starring Denzel Washington. Steph Cha’s Juniper Song books were great modern noirs I turned to repeatedly.

As for how this book is different from a traditional noir story—I wanted to take all the noir tropes that I love and shift the spotlight. I wanted to create a femme fatale who was the center of the story—and a literal femme fatale at that. What if women had weaponized the anxieties of classic noir to work for them, to take back a little money and power for themselves?

The city of Los Angeles feels so alive on the page—it is almost a character itself! What is your own personal experience with LA, and why did you choose to set the novel there?

Los Angeles was actually the missing piece to Jo’s story! I moved to Los Angeles for grad school and didn’t know that much about the city. When I first started trying to learn about the history of Los Angeles to make sense of my new home (admittedly, mostly via murder bus tours, which are not necessarily the same as diving into peer-reviewed research or history), I was struck by how much it felt like the myth of the city eventually just became the history of the place. I thought a good way to approach understanding LA might be to dig into it through a cultural lens, which refired my love of noir. Once I figured that out, I realized that Jo was a perfect femme fatale voice, and the rest of her story clicked into place for me.

“I WANTED TO CREATE A

femme fatale."

Were there any particularly challenging scenes or characters that you encountered while writing?

Were there any surprises during the writing process?

Jo’s scene seducing Carrigan was the hardest in the novel for me to get right. I probably wrote more than twenty drafts of that scene, each one maybe a little better than the last (maybe), but none of them right. It was the scene I was working on the longest in the book, but once it was the right version of itself, I knew. That was a very, very satisfying moment.

Did current events or the rise of the Me Too movement have an influence on your writing? Would you define The Lady Upstairs as a feminist novel?

Not as much as you’d think, or at least not in the sense that it was written with the Me Too movement in mind. It’s not like men abusing power or women started with #MeToo, but the movement did put a specific stamp on it. I started writing The Lady Upstairs in 2015, and stories about sleazy Hollywood men capitalizing on the casting couch to assert power over women have been around since Hollywood began. They probably started when the first couch was made, to be honest.

To me, The Lady Upstairs is a feminist novel because it centers on the experience of women—broken, jagged, fucked-up women. That said, they’re also working within the patriarchy, and much of their work and lives do revolve around men—they haven’t broken free of the structure, even if they’re subverting it for personal gain. Jo often prioritizes herself or Lou above the well-being of other women. I don’t know that I think Jo would describe herself as a feminist. I would not describe Jo as a feminist, either.

Sexuality and sex work are forms of both currency and agency in the novel. Why did you want to explore these themes? And why was it important for you to depict queer characters on the page?

In the noir genre, there is almost nothing more dangerous than the sexually empowered woman.

I wanted to take that fear and danger and make it explicit for my femmes fatales—what if they really were using their sexuality to destroy men? It felt like both a timeless and a timely idea.

I think representation in fiction is always important. But I also think when writing about sex, it wasn’t possible to imagine some of my characters not being fluid in their sexuality— that’s just not true to life, and it didn’t feel true to Jo or Lou, either. But I don’t think I ever specifically label them in the book, because I don’t think Jo would label herself as anything.

It’s not Jo’s relationship to sex or to being queer that’s hardest for her to deal with in the novel; it’s the fact that she has feelings for Lou (and Jackal!) at all, that it’s not actually possible for her to be the hardened woman she’s always striving to be.

“THERE IS ALMOST NOTHING MORE DANGEROUS THAN THE

sexually empowered woman."

What do you hope readers take away from Jo and her story? What lessons can we learn from Jo’s example?

At the end of the novel, Jo speculates that the business started as a way for women to take back power, before pivoting into another way to assert power, and that original idea isn’t flawed per se. But eventually, if you’re working within an institutionalized system that prioritizes money over people, any good that might have happened along the way becomes secondary. I think there’s strength in community and standing up to power and the patriarchy, but I don’t know if it’s possible for that not to be corrupted when it becomes about the individual.

What is next for you?

Hopefully twenty-five more books with my name on them.

Put Your Lips Together and Blow

A custom cocktail for THE LADY UPsTAIRS

2 oz. Beefeater gin ¾ oz. pineapple juice (freshly made if you can!) ¾ oz. lime juice ½ oz. orgeat (Small Hands Foods makes a great one that is widely available, but any will do)

3 dashes lavender bitters (Scrappy's is a good one) pinch of salt 2 thin slices of jalapeños 10 cilantro leaves lime wheel for garnish

Combine all ingredients in a shaker, muddle the jalapeños, shake with ice, and strain through a small wire-mesh strainer into your stemmed cocktail glass. Garnish with a lime wheel on the rim. Add a lavender sprig or flower if you have one!

Enjoy quickly, while the drink is still laughing at you.

Recipe by Benjamin Zor n

Benjamin Zorn (they/them) is a bartender and cook currently based in NYC. They have experience in top cocktail bars and kitchens around the country.

Their current focus is on the community created around food and drink, and how to take a less capitalist and more community-based approach to food and drink. They are currently doing consulting work on how to holistically open back up our wonderful establishments, with a focus on community and safety.