By Jack Brittle, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
On August 20, the Burlington Public Library hosted a Virtual Author Talk through the Library Speakers Consortium, with New York Times bestselling author Casey McQuiston.
The talk, hosted by Brandon Adler of the Library Speakers Consortium, focused on McQuiston’s latest book, a romantic comedy entitled The Pairing.
According to Adler, “The Library Speakers Consortium is a partnership of more than 500 library systems across the U.S., Canada, and New Zealand, with the goal of making author talks more accessible to communities of all sizes.”
McQuiston was named to the TIME100 Next 2022 list put out by Time Magazine. The list features “emerging leaders from around the world who are shaping the future and defining the next generation of leadership,” according to Time.
Another McQuiston novel, Red, White & Royal Blue, was adapted into a film in 2023 and released on Amazon’s Prime Video streaming service.
At the event, McQuiston explained the basic premise of The Pairing.
“It is about two bisexual exes who find themselves involuntarily reunited when they wind up on the same European food and wine tour for three weeks,” McQuiston said.
“And in order to prove to each other just how over their relationship they are, they embark on this competitive hookup competition across France, Spain, and Italy,” they continued. “And of course, are eating and drinking all of the most delicious things along the way.”
McQuiston said that The Pairing is their “coming-out-of-COVID-isolation book.”
They started drafting the book in 2022, shortly after completing their third book, which was mostly written during lockdown.
“I moved to New York six weeks before lockdown,” McQuiston explained. “So my first half of 2020 was living in New York for the first time during COVID, trying to draft a frothy YA [young adult] rom-com. And I just felt like I was going out of my mind.”
McQuiston said the pandemic was especially difficult in terms of its impact on their writing, as lockdown meant they couldn’t draw upon outside experience for their work.
“When it was time to start figuring out my next book, I really just desperately wanted to reconnect with what inspires me as a writer,” McQuiston said. “And that is sensation, experience, and, often, travel and food as well.”
They had also wanted to write a “European romp” and include a chef as a love interest for a long time. With The Pairing, McQuiston decided to combine both concepts.
“I think every chef I’ve ever met, I’m secretly in love with,” McQuiston confided. “I think that it’s just such a sexy occupation. And then I also love to try to find beloved tropes or types of romance novels that I haven’t done yet to try and tackle.”
“I hadn’t done ‘Second Chance Romance,’ as we call it in the genre, or ‘exes to lovers,’” McQuiston continued. “And if you put those things in a bag and shake them up, out comes The Pairing.”
McQuiston said that although romantic fiction is looked down upon by some, they believe it is one of the hardest genres to write.
Adler asked McQuiston, “Is it as hard as it seems to write that kind of double-meaning dialogue, where the character hears it as rejection, but the reader hears it as growing romantic tension?”
McQuiston agreed that it is a difficult needle to thread.
“I think part of it is building out the internal life of that character and making it plausible that you’re finding them in their weak points,” McQuiston said. “And we understand why they assume the worst when they hear something from another person.”
The Pairing is divided into two separate parts, one from each of the main characters’ points of view.
McQuiston said that they initially experimented with alternating the point of view for each chapter, but was struggling with the format.
“I typically write a very closed third-person narrative, and I couldn’t figure out how to maintain the tension while knowing what was going on in both characters’ heads the whole time,” McQuiston said.
While travelling in Brazil, fellow author E. Lockhart suggested that McQuiston split the narrative in half.
“It was one of those light-bulb moments where you forget that you have free will as a writer,” McQuiston said. “And just because you’ve not personally read a book that does something that way, doesn’t mean there’s a rule against it. I think that was one of the most exciting moments of my creative life. It was like, ‘Oh, I could do that if I want to. There’s nothing to stop me.’”
To find out more about Casey McQuiston, visit https://www.caseymcquiston.com/.
To see the availability of The Pairing at Burlington Public Library and to place a hold on a copy, click here.
