Author Snapshot: Susie Luo
Book jacket biographies don’t tell us nearly enough about the authors we love. That’s why Zibby Mag launched the Author Snapshot, giving readers an inside look at the lives and work of our favorite writers.
This week we are featuring Susie Luo, whose debut novel Paper Names released earlier this month.
What was the inspiration behind your novel Paper Names?
I began Paper Names during the very first month of lockdown—March 2020. I’ll never forget how scared we all were. No one was sure what was happening and all we could do to help was stay inside. Thank goodness for technology! Even in isolation, I could still talk to and “see” my friends and family.
After a while though, I realized that there were people who I couldn’t connect with as easily. People like the security guard outside my office building, who always gave me a reassuring nod and a cheerful “good morning.” Or the barista, who upon spotting me, would ring up a “medium Americano—hot but with three ice cubes.” I hoped they were healthy and I wanted to know how they were managing through the pandemic. That led me to becoming interested in exploring what a deeper friendship between someone (like a resident of a building) and someone who’s consistently in his life, but on the periphery (like a doorman), would look like. And that kicked off Chapter 1 of Paper Names.
Can you share a bit about your journey to becoming an author? How long did you work on this book? How did you balance writing and your work as an investment banker?
Let’s just say “balance” isn’t quite the right word! I worked on the book pretty much without a break for eight or nine months. Most nights, I would turn to it after I wrapped up everything for my banking job (around 10 or 11 p.m.) and write until my brain stopped producing coherent sentences. Weekends were dedicated to the book, and I even took vacation just to have a week of uninterrupted writing. It wasn’t pretty. Towards the end, I was basically crawling towards the finish line. It really took a toll on me—physically and mentally—and there was a point when I knew I had nothing left to give to my manuscript. I took that as a cue to start querying agents, and I landed my dream agent within a week! That was completely unexpected and it gave me another wind to push the manuscript a bit farther before submitting it to publishers.
One of your main characters immigrated to give his family a better life; another grapples with familial expectations; and a third is living with a family secret. What draws you to write about the complexities of family?
I think families are endlessly fascinating. We all have them, yet they’re all unique. We share common experiences, but we also face circumstances other people will never see. At the end of the day, maybe what draws me to families is their lasting ripple effects. We often think about inherited traits in the form of physical manifestations. You may have your mother’s eyes or your grandfather’s nose. But I think we also inherit certain emotional traits. Your father’s patience, your grandmother’s grumpy humor. We often carry our families’ expectations and secrets deep within our bones.
I also noticed that after meeting a close friend’s parents, I actually understand my friend better. I have more insight into why certain things make her happy while others trigger her. Understanding her family—even a little bit—gives me a more holistic picture of who my friend is as a person. Our families shape who we are, whether we like it or not, and none of us can truly be known without that context.
What do you hope readers will take away from reading Paper Names?
The three main characters in Paper Names—Tony, Tammy, and Oliver—are so real to me. While in the middle of writing the book, I even ended up dreaming about them! And in being real, they are all parts lovable, admirable, frustrating, and horrible. They’re courageous, they’re flawed, they’re human. In writing from each of their perspectives, I hope readers are better able to empathize with their decisions, or at least understand how, sometimes, they each fool themselves into thinking that their choices are right.
In general, I think people are inherently good, but we are also born into a certain environment and through that and other formative experiences, develop our own internal logic for doing what we do. Even when we hurt others, that’s often not our actual goal. Perhaps in understanding a little more about where each of us is coming from, as well as our own traumas from our past, we can extend more forgiveness to each other and ourselves.
What books would you recommend readers pick up after finishing Paper Names?
I’m currently reading (and loving) J. Ryan Stradal’s new book Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club. The book I’ve always felt was a kindred spirit to Paper Names is Mary Beth Keane’s Ask Again, Yes. Both books are centered around family and capture the beauty and pain in everyday moments. J. Ryan and Mary Beth are such inspirations to me and push me to constantly improve my own writing.