'The Take' and 'The Left and the Lucky' explore peculiar friendships across age

Hey there, I'm Melissa Nadwarni and this is NPR's book of the day.

Today, two novels focused on vital connections between the young and the old.

In a minute, we'll hear about a story that focuses on friendship between a young boy and

a middle-aged man, both a bit down on their luck from working class families.

But first, in the book The Take, an older woman and a younger woman agreed to exchange

ten years of their lives through a blood transfusion.

Author Kelly Yang spoke about where the idea came from, and its grounding in real medical

research, with all things considered host Elsa Cheng.

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Would you give up ten years of your life for $3 million?

Well, for Maggie Wang, who's desperate to jumpstart her career as a writer, the answer

is yes you would.

When she's 23, she agrees to an unusual transaction with a woman decades older, a prominent Hollywood

producer named Ingrid Parker, who wants nothing more than to get her youth back.

The two women submit to a medical experiment, a blood transfusion that will accelerate Maggie's

aging while reversing Ingrids.

This is the premise for the new novel The Take, a story about how age shapes power, especially

for women.

That's what author Kelly Yang argues as she joins me now at NPR West.

Welcome is so great to have you here Kelly.

Thank you so much for having me.

This is so exciting.

Oh, it's so exciting to have you right here in front of my face because I want to talk

about age at the very beginning of this story when we first meet your character Maggie.

She's actually talking to another older woman, a very established writer who's telling Maggie

that she's just too young to write a novel that she needs to live more life in order to

say something interesting.

Tell us how you are setting up the relationship here between age and power.

Yeah.

No, I mean, I remember being in my 20s and I'd always wanted to write, but I felt like

I didn't know if I could do it.

You know, and I remember standing in the signing line of a very famous author and getting

up there and talking to her and saying, Hey, you know, I really have this great story.

I want to write about my childhood.

Like, do you think I could do it?

And she's like, How old are you?

And I said 24.

Uh-huh.

And she just looked at me and she said, Yeah, I don't, what could you possibly have to write

about?

Oh, my God.

So that interaction with Maggie and the author was not, wow, that burned into the brain.

Yeah.

You know what?

I just melted as a person just felt so mortified.

But I also, I kind of understood what she was saying, but it set me back decades.

That interaction, it gets at this idea that yes, with age does come experience and as

women accrue experience, they can accumulate power and when they accumulate power, they become

gatekeepers, right?

If he's in and who's out, but youth can sometimes threaten that authority that those older women

have, right?

Yeah.

I think there's so much of this whole like, have you paid your dues?

Totally.

Culture.

Yep.

And it comes from the fact that like we have been paying our dues, the previous generation

had to work so hard and there was so much suffering.

It's almost like we can't just measure you by your ideas.

We also have to measure you by how much you've sufficiently suffered.

Exactly.

So, Ingrid and Maggie enter a deal, this medical procedure and I'm so curious, Kelly, why

did you make blood transfusion?

The mechanism for the exchange between these two women, like one woman literally sucking

the life out of the other.

Yeah, yeah.

Why that metaphor?

Well, first of all, it's based on real research that's coming out of Harvard.

Oh my God.

They've been doing some experiments with rats and they've found that when we joined the

two rats together and more than just blood transfusions, a little more calm.

It's complicated, but essentially the older rat de-agents and the younger rat agents.

Wow.

Yeah.

They're actually some scientific basis.

There is.

There is.

And it has been proven to work with rats so far.

And then we already have like Silicon Valley, a lot of tech billionaires using young blood

plasma.

Yes.

So, it seemed to make sense in my mind as an author like that, this is only like five minutes

into the future.

Right.

This is coming.

Okay.

We're actually trading here.

Besides blood, what is the real barter that's happening?

Yeah.

They're tempting fate.

I think they're trading the idea that we can rewrite like who gets to live without this

discomfort, whether it's the discomfort of having to prove yourself experience wise

or the discomfort of, you know, being a little older now and having to still prove your

relevancy.

Yeah.

At certain points in this story, you make a declaration, quote, there are only two ways

to get ahead in this world.

You either make something or you take something.

What does that mean, even?

And how did you arrive at this conclusion?

Yeah.

Well, first of all, it's a conclusion I don't agree with.

I just want to say that.

But when we see someone who's younger and doing super well and super ambitious, there

is a feeling like, oh my gosh, what does that mean for me?

You know, and it's a, it's a way of seeing that this pie is only so big.

There's fine night.

There's fine night.

There's only so many seats at the table, especially for women, which I think is a flawed

way of thinking.

Me too.

But it is the way a lot of people feel.

And you know what, we don't talk about it enough because we want to subscribe to this idea

that women help women.

And I wanted to subscribe to that so badly too.

And often it is that case, but sometimes it's not.

Some women treat it as a zero-sum game.

Yes.

Well, this idea, a young woman in a hurry, as you mentioned, it applied to you, but maybe

a lot of people listening right now don't know this about you as well.

And that is you entered college when you were 13 years old, which is just astonishing.

And then you entered law school when you were 17.

Yeah.

So let's not even talk about the point in your life later when you wanted to become a

novelist.

Yeah.

Judge you poorly for trying to accelerate your education like that.

How did you feel back then?

Yeah.

I always felt like I had to keep my age a secret because if it was revealed, then all

of my ideas would be reduced.

Interesting.

Yeah.

For being just inherently immature.

Just everything you said, it would be like she said this, but she's 15, you know.

What does she know?

Yeah.

What does she know?

What could she pose like?

Where is she coming up with this?

This makes no sense.

Let's just disregard her.

It's terrifying to people finding out.

And then when they did find out, eventually, I had all this attention on my age.

And it was really cool and it was fun, but it was also terrifying because I was worried

what if the most fascinating thing about me, the fact that I'm young, is no longer the

case.

Oh, interesting.

Right?

Like, what if I, what's going to become of me when I'm just a normal middle-aged one with

normal ideas?

Yeah.

When I returned to that interaction you had with that author who told you, what do you

have to say?

You're only 20-something years old.

Like, you know, this book that you've just written, The Take, it actually is your first

adult novel, even though you've been writing award-winning children's books for years.

But now that you are on the other side of this adult novel, is there something to the advice

that you should accrue more life experience before you write a literary novel?

Is there any merit to that idea?

I mean, I don't think she meant it maliciously.

I can see where she's coming from, but I am of the opinion if you have a story, go do

it.

Go write it.

Do it now.

You're never too old or too young to do something.

There isn't like the right amount of maturity, the right amount of experience to be a storyteller

to have something to say.

Yeah.

There's never the perfect age or the perfect circumstance.

It doesn't exist and don't wait for people to give you permission, either.

I think that was the mistake I made in my youth.

I tried to get a sign, you know, permission from someone, a nod, from someone more experienced.

And I was so devastated when it wouldn't happen, when in reality, we're not necessarily

going to get that sign, but we can give ourselves that permission.

Right.

Turn on your own green light.

Absolutely.

Kelly Yang's new book is called The Take.

Thank you so much for coming into Empire West today, Kelly.

Thank you so much, Elsa.

This is so much fun.

It was so much fun.

Up next, The Left and the Lucky, sometimes even adults need a friendship or a relationship

to help them grow up.

In Willie Vlotton's latest novel, he focuses on the connection between a middle aged man

and a young boy, both stuck in their lives in different ways.

Vlotton, who is also a musician, talks with Weekend Edition's Scott Simon.

Russell is eight years old.

Small for his age, bullied by his troubled older brother, often left on his own by his mother

and a fading grandmother.

He dreams of building a bow to airplane to whisk him away to an island near Hawaii.

Eddie's in his 40s and lives next door, paints houses six days a week as divorced and

comes home to an empty house.

One night Eddie encounters Russell in the coffee aisle of a Fred Meyer grocery store.

It's ten at night.

He figures out the little boy has walked there.

He buys him a quesadilla and they talk.

Can I ask you a question?

The boy nodded.

Why were you in Fred Meyer so late?

Russell shrugged.

You don't know?

I was just walking.

On a rainy night with no coat.

Again, he shrugged.

How's your grandmother been since your granddad died?

She doesn't get along with my mom or my brother, Russell whispered.

Is that why you took a walk?

His wild and Russell's eyes and he nodded.

I'm sorry, man.

That stuff's rough.

Next time, remember to bring a coat and maybe a flashlight and leave a note so your grandmother

doesn't go nuts.

Russell nodded.

What's that night grows into a kind of partnership in which two people help each other, man and

boy, to grow up.

The left and the lucky is the new novel from Willie Velotin, a writer who is also a musician

with the Portland Oregon Band, The Delange.

We join just now.

Thanks so much for being with us.

Oh, thanks for having me.

I really appreciate it.

Help us understand Russell's home life at the age of eight.

Well, it's a family and collapse.

I always think of Russell's house as noir.

It's black and white.

It's full of shadows and darkness.

And like so many times when you're in those rough situations, you can't see outside that

darkness.

Next door is Eddie, who I always think a technicaler.

He's like those big, old, beautiful technicaler movies with his, you know, rag tag guys of degenerate

house painters.

It's like a heaven to a little kid.

Eddie works and then works more.

It doesn't.

Yeah.

I mean, sometimes you don't know what to do with your life like his wife leaves him and

when in doubt you just work more because it's easier than being at home alone with your

own thoughts.

So yeah, he's a workaholic.

And I think he also loves security.

I think he's never had much security in his life.

But it's work kind of brings him closer to a little boy, doesn't it?

Well, I think, you know, why I named it the left and the lucky is there is a lot of luck

involved in life.

And for Russell's sake, he lives next door to a guy and Eddie who takes in strays.

As you learn in the novel, why he's like this, he can't say no to broken people or wayward

people.

His wife was like that.

The guys he hires are like that.

And he can't kick him to the side of the road.

And when Russell shows up, Russell, I think intuitively sees this and says, Eddie's my ticket

to a safe life.

And Eddie's a guy that just can't say no.

What does an old Pontiac Le Mans do for them?

Eddie buys the Le Mans.

So he has something to do at night, something to keep his mind occupied.

And the kid, you know, like any kid sees an old Pontiac Le Mans, it's like a hot wheel.

And he's instantly attracted to it.

And every night, Eddie's homies in his carport working on it.

And so the kid drifts over and before you know it, Eddie's got this kid who won't leave

him alone, who wants to be a part of Eddie's life.

And he'll do odd jobs for Eddie, he'll watch Eddie work and he's always kind of asking Eddie

for dinner.

Well, Lee, what put this relationship in your mind and heart?

You know, it's weird.

You try to write about different things.

But I think over the years, I realized I really do write about broken families a lot

and wayward kids or guys falling through the cracks.

And so I got obsessed with the idea of the older brother being, you know, he's good

look and he's strong, but full of rage.

And then you have this little kid who still wets the bed, who's scared of everything.

But he's got what Charles Porter said, true grit to survive.

And I was really interested in those who sabotage the door that opens towards a better life

and those who will at any cost go through the door to try to get to a better life.

And so I think I was obsessed with that.

And you know, once in a while, I think it's because I'm getting older.

You know, you can't save anybody, but once in a while you can save somebody in a novel.

And so I was dead set on trying to save Russell and to save Eddie at the same time.

Got to tell you there's a scene where Russell, the little boy, is terrorized by his brother.

To so vivid and so real, I had to put it down a few times to get through it.

And I say that with admiration for you, the writer.

What was it like to imagine and write something so terrifying?

You know, it's really interesting.

You say that because some friends of mine have read it who have older brothers and it

glosses over them with not a problem in the world because they understand it.

They go, oh, yeah, my brother was that bad.

My brother did stuff like this and you start hearing these pretty gruesome stories of,

you know, older brothers really beaten up on their little brothers to somebody that hasn't

gone through that.

It seems horrifying.

My own brother is a saint.

He wasn't like that at all.

My brother's like literally probably as close to a saint for me as anyone.

But I've been around a lot of guys like that.

So yeah, it makes you cry, you know, if it doesn't break me up, then it's not working.

But yeah, it's hard to write those scenes.

And I don't do it very often.

Like I said, I'm getting softer as I get older and it takes more at of me to write those

kind of scenes.

What does it say about American literature right now that there aren't a lot of novels about

people with a background like Eddie's, a working class man?

That's interesting.

I think about that a lot, you know, I grew up when Steinbeck was king in my school.

But whatever reason in Reno High School was taught, you know, six of his novels, his

big works.

You know, my mom was a struggling, single mother was paycheck to paycheck.

Plus, she was an overshare.

So I knew all about that she got paid less than man that she was sexually harassed at

work.

I kind of grew up knowing all those things.

So Steinbeck was king for me, you know, I had a picture of him next to the clash and

the jam and the pugs as a kid.

He was a real hero of mine.

And I didn't have much talent in any regard, but I always knew I wanted to write stories

like Steinbeck.

I always wanted to write working class stories.

But as I've found out, literature kind of turns their back on that, but who doesn't turn

their back on that is crime fiction.

Crime fiction tells the stories of the working class.

You know, granted you have a crime involved, but really if you want to read working class

fiction, you have to read crime novels.

13 albums of music and eight novels.

How do you go back and forth between the two?

Well, you know, sometimes I don't feel like I do it very well.

I don't tour as much as most musicians because I love writing more.

But writing takes forever and I love the work ethic of writing more than anything.

I always think of it as like you're just in a ditch digging.

You're not bothering anybody and you're just working day after day and I love that.

You know, sometimes I'll get stuck and it takes the air out of me and I end up writing

songs about it.

Or, you know, I'll go through stages with a novel where something will break my heart

to the point that I just start writing songs because I always write songs when my heart's

broken.

And so it's really the novels give me all the ideas for my songs and I just end up writing

a lot of songs while working on a novel.

The left and the lucky is the new novel from Willieville Lawton.

Thank you so much for being with us.

Oh, thank you.

It's a real honor.

That's it for this week on NPR's Book of the Day.

Let us know what you think.

You can write to us at bookofthedayatnpr.org.

I'm Alyssa Nathwini.

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Our founding editor is Petra Mayer.

The show elements for this week were produced and edited by Melissa Gray, Samantha

Ballabin, Allie Schweitzer, Katie Klein, Elena Torek, Mark Navin, Janaya Williams, Ed

McNulty, Dave Mistich, Courtney Dorning, Patrick Jaron Watananan, and Catherine Fink.

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Thank you for listening.