DIVERSIONS

City Lights

Sarah Gerard discusses True Love

In the first sentences of True Love, Sarah Gerard’s latest novel, the heroine, Nina, navigates irreconcilable differences with her estranged mom, sarcastic phone conversations with her best friend, and scintillating sexts with her editor, Brian. It’s Nina in her full paradoxical glory as a college dropout, writer, cheater, and liar in the pursuit of love—or at least, in the pursuit of feeling worthy of something like it. Gerard will discuss her heroine’s desperate quest for some sign of human life and closeness in an age of disconnection as part of Alexandria’s Old Town Books’ reading club, which, like so many of Nina’s encounters, will be virtual. Gerard wrote her book as a commentary on womanhood and identity in the post-Trump world, though much of her expository, earnest take on the human want for affection feels hyper-relevant in the wake of socially distanced living. In its sadness, witticisms, and humor, Gerard’s novel feels in some ways like a follow-up to her prizewinning essay collection, Sunshine State; it even features the same Floridian backdrop. Gerard also curated a playlist in honor of the debut. It gets at the same cocktail of grit and sweetness as the book, and is appropriately (if obviously) titled “True Love.” (Then again, isn’t true love a little obvious?) Gerard is clearly a crafter of big bang openers: The first song, “Oh Nina,” by the ’90s rock band The Muffs, is just as provocative and affirming as the novel’s first pages. The event will begin at 10 a.m. on Aug. 1. RSVP at eventbrite.com. Free. —Emma Francois

The Almighty Holler

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