USA TODAY International Edition
Oh, ‘ That Again’: A political comic novel
Grant Ginder, like many an author, loves Joan Didion. So much so that a key character in his latest novel sets his ( far- fetched) sights on writing a musical based on the late writer.
“She would probably roll over in her grave if there were a musical made about her life,” Ginder says over a Zoom call discussing “Let’s Not Do That Again” ( Henry Holt, 352 pp.).
The novel – part political thriller, part romantic comedy, part family drama, part revenge fantasy – rotates between New York and Paris to tell the story of the Harrison family: Nancy, who is running for a Senate seat, and her children, the earnest, exhausted Nick and neglected, naive Greta.
When Greta’s Parisian escapades potentially threaten her mother’s race for the Senate – and therefore Democratic Senate control – Nick reluctantly flies over to retrieve her. Little does he know an evil French fascist has romanced his sister and intends to help her destroy her mother’s career.
And that’s not even half the chaos that swirls around characters as they flounder in the eye of a political Category 5 hurricane.
The title came to Ginder only after he completed the book ( atypical for the author of five novels). While “Let’s Not Do That Again” directly applies to the characters’ circumstances, it serves as a nod to the reader, too, about the past six years of American history.
“It’s been a hell of a time, and the news cycles don’t seem to stop,” Ginder says. “And it’s one thing after another, and I want to be able to put it behind us and go to very much precedented times as opposed to unprecedented times, and luxuriate in boredom and be able to say, Let’s not do that again.’ No more pandemics, no more rising fascism. Let’s just not do that again.”
The novel contains five acts – a la Shakespeare – and seamlessly blends comedy with tragedy. It also prizes kind- hearted intentionality.
“This is a book about inherently good people that are forced into a position where they have to make a really difficult choice,” Ginder says. “And politics is so depressing these days, I wanted to write something that was fun and exciting, and made you invested in politics.”
An obsessive planner, Ginder wrote with these acts in mind to keep himself organized. He immersed himself in mysterys – out of the ordinary for the writer of “The People We Hate at the Wedding,” a family dramedy with a film in the works starring Allison Janney, Kristen Bell and Ben Platt.
“I went through this really intense Agatha Christie phase when I was writing this book, and I found that it
was really pleasurable to see seemingly inconsequential details pop up again later in the story and for them to have huge consequences for the plot,” Ginder says.
We won’t spoil what said details look like ( hint: pay close attention to, well, everything).
“There is that element of Chekhov’s gun, that principle where if a rifle is hanging on the wall in the first act, it has to go off, or it certainly should go off, by the second or the third,” he says. “I established challenges for myself as I was writing it, where I was, like, ‘ I’m going to put this detail here. And this detail has to mean something later on.’ ”
Nick and Ginder seem similar on the surface: Both are queer; want to make their mothers happy; teach writing at New York University; obsess over musicals; and love Joan Didion. Hence the Didion musical in the novel.
“It would be insanity, because musicals are inherently sentimental, and Joan Didion is inherently unsentimental,” he says.
The book’s exact twists and turns stay far from obvious. “Let’s Not Do That Again” has been compared to TV political satire “Veep” and melodrama “Scandal”; Ginder started writing the book in 2018 as the U. S. political scene grew more and more turbulent.
Questions rang through his head about the future of our democracy: “How far would I go to protect this thing? How far would I go to protect something sacred?”
When the “Scandal“absurdity pops off – and you’ll know when it does – you might forget this is Ginder’s first foray into this level of mess.
“I’m very comfortable writing about dysfunctional families,” he says. “I’m very comfortable writing about the politics that exist within a family. But this major plot point I’ve never taken on before. It was scary, but it was also really exhilarating.”
Expect characters to grapple with the consequences of their actions – and figure out whether some secrets are worth keeping.
“When do we lie to the people we love to protect them? And is honesty always the best policy?” Ginder says.