AILSA CHANG, HOST:
So are you one of those people hanging on to August, like just trying to cling to the last days of summer? Well, maybe one way to hold on to that summer shimmer is through books. So we wanted to talk to a writer about what summer means to her, what she's reading to keep summer going and to talk about her newest novel, which I just read this summer, called "What A Time To Be Alive." Joining me now is my dear friend who I love hanging out with here in LA, author Jade Chang. So cool to have you at NPR West with me.
JADE CHANG: Hooray.
A CHANG: (Laughter).
J CHANG: It's such a pleasure to be here. Hi, Ailsa.
A CHANG: Hi, Jade. OK, so summer is kind of a whole vibe, right?
J CHANG: Yeah.
A CHANG: It's a feeling. It's not just a season.
J CHANG: Yes.
A CHANG: What does summer mean to you?
J CHANG: Well, you know what? I'm going to tell you what summer reading means to me, and I think...
A CHANG: Yes.
J CHANG: ...What summer itself means to me is kind of encapsulated in that, which is we always think of it as, like, time by the pool, time at the beach. But I feel like summer is about time itself and how it kind of stops. I mean, I think the reason we love summer is because, as kids, it was non-school time...
A CHANG: Yes,
J CHANG: ...Right?
A CHANG: I have this association with freedom...
J CHANG: Yes.
A CHANG: ...Boundless freedom.
J CHANG: Yes. And yet, also, there's something almost kind of like, you don't have to reckon with your own mortality in the summer...
A CHANG: Ooh.
J CHANG: ...You know (laughter)?
A CHANG: OK, now we're getting very deep.
J CHANG: Yes.
A CHANG: I see that you brought some books here to...
J CHANG: I did.
A CHANG: ...Conjure up this vibe of reckoning with, or not reckoning...
J CHANG: Not reckoning.
A CHANG: ...With mortality.
J CHANG: Not reckoning.
A CHANG: Tell me what you brought in. Some of these books were published quite a while ago, I will just say.
J CHANG: Yeah.
A CHANG: OK.
J CHANG: So that's the other thing is I think that summer makes you feel like things don't have to be so current. Like, you don't have to be, you know...
A CHANG: Yeah.
J CHANG: ...Immediately on trend, figuring out the exact next thing. Although, for the first book, if you did go see the big summer blockbuster...
A CHANG: Yes.
J CHANG: ..."The Odyssey"...
A CHANG: Yes. I did.
J CHANG: ...This is a great book to read after that if you want to stay in that great Greek world. It's "The Corn King And The Spring Queen." It came out in 1931. It's definitely not a current book. It's by Naomi Mitchison.
A CHANG: But what's the timelessness of it that you're tapping into? Why does it pertain to this theme of timelessness in summer?
J CHANG: It's because it's a long journey. I feel like there's something about a journey where - this is a little cliche - but it's not about the destination, right? It's about...
A CHANG: Yeah.
J CHANG: ...Traveling through all these different lands. It's about discovering different kinds of philosophy, different kinds of food, different kinds of ways of being and...
A CHANG: Ooh.
J CHANG: ...Yeah. And that's very much what this book is about.
A CHANG: I see that you brought another book about the Sahara Desert.
J CHANG: Yes.
A CHANG: Tell me about that one.
J CHANG: OK. So you - I wonder if you are familiar with this writer, Sanmao. She is a Taiwanese woman.
A CHANG: Oh. No.
J CHANG: She was writing...
A CHANG: I haven't heard of her.
J CHANG: Yeah. So "Stories Of The Sahara" is a recent translation, but she wrote travelogues for a Taiwanese newspaper about living in the Western Sahara Desert...
A CHANG: Whoa.
J CHANG: ...In the 1970s. So when I was growing up, my mom would tell me about having read these.
A CHANG: Oh, very cool.
J CHANG: Yeah.
A CHANG: And then you finally have recently...
J CHANG: And then...
A CHANG: ...Recently read them.
J CHANG: ...I recently read them. It came out - this translation came out in 2020. I sadly cannot read Chinese.
A CHANG: Me neither...
J CHANG: (Laughter) Yeah.
A CHANG: ...Except my name, but yeah.
J CHANG: Yeah. Yeah.
A CHANG: (Laughter).
J CHANG: But, luckily, a wonderful translator named Mike Fu translated them, and they're so good.
A CHANG: I think I want to check that one out.
J CHANG: I really think you will love it. Also, it's so rare that you see a travel journey from the point of - in English - from the point of view of someone who is not from a western country...
A CHANG: I agree.
J CHANG: ...Who is not a man, generally. Yeah. And...
A CHANG: Ooh, I cannot wait.
J CHANG: ...It's very exciting to see the world from her point of view.
A CHANG: I do want to talk about your most recent novel, "What A Time To Be Alive."
J CHANG: Yes.
A CHANG: It takes place during the first year that the main character, Lola Treasure Gold, is grieving the death of her very, very, very close friend, Alex.
J CHANG: Yes.
A CHANG: And then this video, where she's talking about his death, it ends up going viral after someone else posts it. Can you just, first of all, talk about how that moment...
J CHANG: Yeah.
A CHANG: ...Radically transforms Lola's life?
J CHANG: There are so many ways that we can point to befores and afters in our lives, and I think her close friend dying is one of those moments for Lola. But then, in a way, that video is another moment because it changes her from a private person to a public person.
A CHANG: Yes.
J CHANG: And it also presents her with this choice of will she kind of step into all the possibility of that...
A CHANG: Exactly.
J CHANG: ...Or not?
A CHANG: Well, you know, and as she grows increasingly comfortable with her status as an online celebrity...
J CHANG: Yeah.
A CHANG: ...This self-help guru...
J CHANG: Right.
A CHANG: ...It made me think about how so often we do seek the advice of strangers...
J CHANG: Yes.
A CHANG: ...Especially, like, in this day of social media...
J CHANG: Yes.
A CHANG: ...You know, people we don't actually know.
J CHANG: Right.
A CHANG: And these can be people who, in reality, lead very, very messy lives.
J CHANG: Yes.
A CHANG: They can be lost, very conflicted people. And we still let them...
J CHANG: Yeah.
A CHANG: ...Tell us what to do.
J CHANG: Yes. That is at the core of what interested me about this book. I really wanted to write from the point of view of the guru, right? We always see things from the point of view of, you know, the, like, timid acolyte who's walking in their footsteps, or the, like, skeptical journalist who's watching them.
A CHANG: Right.
J CHANG: But I was really interested in how someone takes on that mantle of authority of knowing, of being willing to be this kind of self-help persona. And I've been to events where you see these people talk, and then you go backstage, and you realize...
A CHANG: They're just...
J CHANG: They're just...
A CHANG: ...Like us.
J CHANG: ...Literally just like us, right?
A CHANG: (Laughter).
J CHANG: Gurus - they're just like us.
A CHANG: OK. So Lola, in this book, she's seen as this guru. She's hosting moon viewing parties. She's seen as a spiritual leader, in a way. What do you make of that?
J CHANG: Yeah.
A CHANG: Someone who's just a normal, regular person can be almost elevated to the level of a deity to some people.
J CHANG: Well, first, I think that it's a good reminder that every single person who is purporting to have some kind of answer, to know some kind of divine way is a normal person, right? And I do think that's the appeal of it, also. Because I think we want to believe that we, ourselves, just a regular, fallible human...
A CHANG: Yeah.
J CHANG: ...Can also know the answer. Because I actually really think that is the entire project of our lives is just to figure out how to live...
A CHANG: Yeah.
J CHANG: ...Is to figure out how to be on this Earth as a human with each other.
A CHANG: And how to love ourselves.
J CHANG: Yeah. And how to be fully ourselves. There is no other project, really. And I feel like, why write a novel if I'm not going to write about (laughter) just the point of our existence.
(LAUGHTER)
A CHANG: No biggie (laughter).
J CHANG: Come on. Let's just try to go for the whole thing. Yeah.
A CHANG: Jade Chang, her latest book is called "What A Time To Be Alive." Thank you so much for coming in today, Jade.
J CHANG: Thank you. Such a pleasure to be here.
(SOUNDBITE OF JONAS BROTHERS SONG, "SUMMER BABY") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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