An Obsessive Night at Books Are Magic
Award-winning literary translator and medical student Lizzie Buehler turns her own experience in academia into The Obsessed, a sharp, anxious debut about literary fixation, modern dating, and what happens when the books we love begin shaping the lives we live.
It was a hot summer night. I rode my electric Citi Bike all the way from my home in Queens to Books Are Magic in Brooklyn Heights. I rode it there to attend a book talk for debut author Lizzie Buehler and her book, The Obsessed.
Some are calling it the perfect summer night. To me, books really are magic!
Lizzie Buehler is kickass. Not only does she hold an MFA in literary translation and has studied comparative literature at Harvard and Princeton, but she’s currently in medical school. She is way outpacing me (and statistically, you). She had a career as a translator but said it’s hard to be a translator and make enough money to live. Well, now she’s on pace to be a doctor and a published author. Not too shabby.
In conversation with Weike Wang, Lizzie discussed her new novel, all about a young woman named Astrid who becomes entangled in more and more obsessive thoughts, especially after getting into a relationship with someone who shares her literary obsessions. The room was warm, clearly filled with Lizzie’s friends (from her PhD program, from med school, from other walks of life) and family, in addition to random community members like myself.
I’ve never been to grad school, so I don’t know what it’s like—but Buehler certainly does. She spoke of becoming obsessed with checking out campus novels while writing this book, carrying stacks in a shopping bag from her local library. (Yes, she became obsessed…Lizzie doesn’t deny that her own life can sometimes inspire her characters. In fact, the book’s main character got an MFA in translation and then went to Harvard for a PhD.) This novel was even born out of an exercise in grad school. Originally a 70-page novella, it caught the attention of a professor, who told her it might be worth expanding. Thus, The Obsessed was born.
“Grad students have free time, so characters have more time to be obsessed,” Lizzie said.
Wang laughed—bachelor’s-only degree holders like me may not think that, but she agreed it is true.
As she expanded the novel, Buehler kept coming back to add absurd details. She hasn’t ruled out writing about the absurdity of med school one day, either. This book, though, firmly lives in the world of the PhD.
Lizzie read aloud a passage, and the book almost reads like a letter from a friend. It’s breezy and familiar and drenched with anxiety. It feels like if Ripe by Sarah Rose Etter had a core of anxiety rather than depression. On the subway home, I whizzed through 50 pages—it’s certainly an easy read. On the first page, I had Lizzie’s signature, which I grabbed after the talk: in script, with a large smiley face on top of it.
The Obsessed by Lizzie Buehler is out now. If you like books and think they inspire wonder, I highly recommend talks at Books Are Magic. Many, if not most, tickets come with a copy of the book, and getting to hear from an author rules. Plus, we have a literacy crisis and all.
Come do your part.