I have always loved books about mentorship or positions of influence taking for granted the trust placed in them—almost in equal measure to stories about how these relationships can foster pathways of acceptance and accountability. But there is something about the cautionary tale, the warning of a narcissist in the ascendant, that has always elicited a very strong response from me. I felt that making a contribution to this category of literature might be worth attempting and even possible to do, if only I took in the right influences.
I read as many books about apprenticeship and formal training as I could, with depictions of vendettas, gatekeeping, and prima donna tetchiness in abundance. Sometimes they featured the lives of painters, actors, and writers, or concerned professional disciplines of law and government—maybe lovers at opposite ends of their lives. Being a mentor in some instances was as simple as someone being present during a poor soul’s moment of crisis.
I was able to combine these elements in my latest novel , which aims to put the problematic nature of intellectual stewardship and the vapidity of a creative life on full display. While I was writing, the following books were never far from my reach. * The women in Paige Cooper’s speculative collection find themselves at the mercy of imbalanced power arrangements.
Whether they are wriggling under the thumb of imperious handlers or exercising their wills in arenas of romantic destiny, Cooper’s characte.