Interrogation: Edan Lepucki

The author of the new novel Time's Mouth on Toni Morrison, Larry McMurtry, Big Thief, mint tea, dread, euphoria, and the Rodriguez cocktail.

Aug 01, 2023

Edan Lepucki’s third novel, Time’s Mouth, which comes out today, has already been earning gobs of pre-pub buzz — summer preview picks by the New York Times and NPR, a People ‘Book of the Week’, an Indie Next pick for August, and Edan was profiled in the LA Times. (I’ll have a review later this month.)

In our Q&A, Edan discusses music she writes to, her favorite writers (including Morrison, McMurtry, MacDonald), mint tea, and a drink called the Rodriguez.

You can find Edan’s newsletter here:

Italics Mine

Your book in 5 words

Thrilling intergenerational Californian time travel.

The first line ("You've wondered about me"): at what stage did you write that line and what does it say about the book?

The first two pages of the book come before the first chapter and are narrated by time's mouth, literally. "I'm not time, but I hold it," is the explanation. The narrator is an omniscient voice, a bodiless figure that also has a personality. She (or maybe they or maybe it?) doesn't interfere too much with the story to come but occasionally her intelligence and authority are felt in the text. I wanted the opening to set this up, to teach the reader how to read the book, and I loved the intensity and straightforwardness of the direct address. When I write as time's mouth I feel more confident, a little sassier, than my usual voice; I have a swagger. I mean, when you can hold time, when you "slurp" it up--how can you not feel like a badass? I wrote this opening line early on in the drafting but the section came later in the book, maybe 60 pages in. Only much later on did I move this to the very beginning.

Where are you currently writing and what's usually within reach?

I am currently writing at my desk in my office, which is below my house; it used to be a large storage area, and now it houses my office and my husband's in a railroad style (that is, he has to walk through mine to get to his/to get out). It's dark and cool in here, with an unfinished ceiling and boarded over bedrock that serves as a bookshelf. My two windows look out at my street, which is at the dead-end of a narrow canyon road in northeast Los Angeles. I am usually working here or at one of my local coffee places.

Anything you listen to while writing?

I always listen to music while I'm writing. For this book, I listened to minimalist composer Julius Shulman, singer-songwriter Phoebe Bridgers, indie rock band Big Thief, among others. The song "Disorder" by Joy Division shows up twice in the novel so I listened to that song over and over again as I wrote those scenes.

Coffee or tea? Morning person or night owl?

Always coffee. I drink it every morning and have a bad habit of going out to purchase an espresso-based drink in the afternoon (usually a cappuccino or a flat white; if it's super hot I drink an iced cortado.) My husband and I do drink mint tea in the evenings after the kids go to bed, which is funny if you've read Time's Mouth because the villain, Ursa, who leads a cult of women in Santa Cruz county, drinks mint tea every morning as a special ritual. Patrick and I are not spiritual about our mint tea, though.

Are you a cocktail person? Any go-tos or faves?

I love cocktails. If I'm at home on a Saturday night, I'll typically have something simple, like a gin martini, sometimes with more vermouth than usual so it's not too lethal. (I prefer an olive but occasionally I like it with a twist.) I also like mezcal-based drinks. A few months ago I was at a bar in my neighborhood called The Grant, and I had a drink that I loved called the Rodriguez. I loved it so much, in fact, that I attempted to recreate it at home. It's got mezcal, bianco vermouth, and Amaro Angeleno, which is made in Ventura. I can't recall what proportions I landed on, but it's nicely smoky and bitter, yet, also, fresh and smooth. Try it!

What's the weirdest thing in your writing space?

My office also doubles as storage for children's art and old schoolwork, plus random stuff my dad gives me as he cleans out his own house. I have photographs of my own birth, as well as preschool art by my 12-year-old, plus old moldy and waterlogged magazines I made with friends when I was seven. I have a giant self-portrait my daughter painted in kindergarten. I have a retired nursing pillow. None of this feels weird, per se, but it's all interesting to me, especially as I consider that I wrote a novel about time traveling to one's past as the records of my own past surround me.

Early on, who did you read? Who made you think, I want to do that - and I can do that?

Very early on, I read Judy Blume and then L.M. Montgomery, and I think that's where I got a real lust for character-driven realism. In high school I was all about Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, Tom Robbins — they're all about voice on the page, and a sense of immediacy, and wildness. In college, I got into Margaret Atwood, Paul Beatty, Don DeLillo, Lorrie Moore, George Saunders, as well as Nathaniel Hawthorne, Judith Butler, and all the post-structuralists. After that, I discovered Jennifer Egan, who remains a favorite of mine for how deftly she weaves the literary with different genre devices or tropes. I believe I read Middlemarch and We Need to Talk About Kevin in the same couple of years, and they both gave me permission to be bold, to show complicated characters, to get inside a character's consciousness.

I often cry over my own writing, and I feel terrible that I chose this profession that fills me with such dread. Inevitably, though, I have a day where I want to shout, I love to write!

A recent favorite book or two? Maybe another California book?

Another great California book that came out a week before mine is The Possibilities by Yael Goldstein-Love. It's about a new mother who enters a multiverse where all the possible outcomes for her child come true. It takes place in Berkeley and aside from exploring deep, important questions about parenting and parental anxiety in a thrilling and suspenseful way, it also makes present day Bay Area come alive with such humor.

Who do you read for inspiration or distraction?

In 2022 I read half of Toni Morrison's ouvre. (I still have the final six novels to read — maybe a 2024 project?) She is great on the language level — she just takes it wherever she wants to take it, and it's textured and ornate and sonorous. I began to read her novels for the passages alone, for the images alone, even, and revel in that, and be inspired. This year and last I got into Larry McMurtry and now I read him to relax — every few books I read, I'm like, "Time to go back to Larry." Even his lesser novels have beautiful passages, funny dialogue, and an immediate evocation of place. I'm currently reading Moving On, his nearly 1000-page meandering slice of life of 1960s Texas. I love it. Oh, and every couple of years I get back into Ross MacDonald. I get a few vintage editions of his paperbacks off ebay and pretend I'm a housewife from the 1960s, reading his sharp as glass prose about a bygone LA. I love a good detective, and Lew Archer is a favorite.

What's sustained your writing? What routines or goals help you get the words down?

The writing itself. As challenging as writing can be, I love it. (It's also true I have no other skills, so maybe at this point I have no choice but to write.) But I love dreaming up characters, crafting sentences, fiddling with a paragraph, and figuring out a scene. When it's going well, and I am locked in, there's nothing I'd rather be doing. I try to hold myself accountable by scheduling it into my work day, and keeping a document on my computer where I record what I plan to write, and then, at the end of a session, I record how it went, and what my plans are for the next writing session. Importantly, I turn off my internet. I also go on writing retreats once or twice a year to have marathon writing sessions, turning feral as the pages pile up. On these retreats, I often cry over my own writing, and I feel terrible that I chose this profession that fills me with such dread. Inevitably, though, I have a day where I want to shout, I love to write! When it's going well — oh you know that delicious euphoria.