Jessica Andrews’ Sensual Second Novel Explores the Politics of Want

One of the crucial frequent items of writing recommendation is to determine, early on, what your characters need – it might be a short craving that performs out over the course of a scene, or a deep need that informs the arc of a complete novel. In most books, these needs are what propel the plot ahead, and the characters’ proximity to them defines the emotional peaks and troughs. Jessica Andrews’ new novel, Milk Tooth, nevertheless, tells the story of a younger lady who’s struggling to grasp what precisely it’s that she needs, or – when she does – the best way to let herself act on her wishes. “I need to reside on the planet with out feeling responsible about my wants or needs,” she says, “to allow them to transfer via me of their animal warmth.” And but, repeatedly, she denies herself.

Jessica Andrews printed her debut novel, Saltwater, in 2019. Like its follow-up, the semi-autobiographical e-book adopted a working-class protagonist, Lucy, who moved between Sunderland, London, and Eire, attempting to grasp her place on the planet – a story that received Andrews the Portico Prize, an award for writing that “evokes the spirit of the North“. Milk Tooth equally attracts a parallel between the protagonist’s emotional and bodily journey. Rising up within the north of England within the mid-2000s, she traverses London and Paris, the place she works as a barmaid and a nanny, and spends the remainder of her time watching different ladies at bars and events, teetering between aspiration and acceptance that she is going to by no means transfer via the world with the convenience and freedom they mission.

Issues begin to change, nevertheless, after she meets somebody new: a person who gives a blueprint for an additional technique to reside. Following him to Barcelona, she spends a sticky, sultry summer season attempting to recollect the best way to be messy, and the best way to indulge after years of denying herself the issues she needs – years influenced by the harmful magnificence beliefs of heroin stylish, morphing right into a worldwide obsession with self-image on the creation of social media. In Spain, she eats fried octopus and drinks Catalan wine; she takes capsules from her associates and dances with strangers; she has (pleasurable!) intercourse.

“It felt actually essential to write down a e-book that had optimistic intercourse between a person and a lady in it,” Andrews explains. “I really feel like there’s not a lot illustration of optimistic sexual experiences.” It does really feel refreshing to learn an unabashed celebration of intercourse in all of its pleasure and complexity, embracing each a part of the physique, from a hidden freckle or smudged tattoo, to the bobbled texture of a shaving rash. That being mentioned, Milk Tooth isn’t all tapas and intercourse and swimming within the sea; in brief, fragmented chapters, the protagonist additionally appears to be like again on the failed relationships in her previous, with males that made her really feel nugatory or insecure in her personal physique.

There are moments of heartbreak and longing in her new relationship, too, exposing the uncooked vulnerability of romantic intimacy in the identical means that Saltwater uncovered the delicate bonds between Lucy and her mom. By way of all of it, Andrews’ lyrical, sensory prose – describing candy fruit and comfortable our bodies, sweat and smoke – holds us near the protagonist, placing us in her place. Her writing slows us down to soak up the sluggish summer season warmth, giving us time to pause and ask ourselves: what do we actually need?

TW: Talking in regards to the autobiographical factor of Saltwater prior to now, you’ve talked about that you just started to lose monitor of the place your actual historical past ends and the fiction begins. Had been the 2 equally intertwined in Milk Tooth?

JA: [Milk Teeth] is extra fictional, nevertheless it’s nonetheless rooted in a few of my lived experiences. I believe the fiction, memoir, autobiography query is to do with emotional reality, and which type will allow you to get nearer to the emotional reality. With Saltwater, I believe the way in which to entry that was a narrative that had a whole lot of ‘reality’ in it. However with Milk Tooth, I discovered that I used to be in a position to get nearer, typically, to the emotional reality of what I wished to say by fictionalising issues. 

My books really feel true to me, despite the fact that if somebody sat me down and made me confirm every thing that had occurred, I wouldn’t be capable to. However it’s as a result of the emotions in them are emotions that I’ve felt. For writing to really feel significant to me, I believe it has to have that emotional reality. That may all the time be a query that I’m attempting to work out, I believe: why do some varieties permit that greater than others?

“Because the protagonist is falling for the world, I wished the reader to type of fall together with her. Falling into the love story, and falling into the humidity. I assume it’s a type of letting go” – Jessica Andrews

TW: There’s a robust sense of place in each books, and Milk Tooth spans the north of England, London, Paris, and Barcelona. How did you method the setting of this e-book?

JA: As a result of it’s a e-book that’s partly about denial, and there’s a hardness to it in that sense, notably the denial round meals, I felt very strongly that I didn’t need it to be a chilly, hole e-book. I additionally wished it to have a whole lot of fullness in it, and I wished the reader to really feel hungry for meals and the world and expertise whereas they’re studying it. The setting of Barcelona actually loaned itself to that as a result of it was so lush and humid and sticky. The more durable, colder cities like London or Paris, and even the North East, the place [the protagonist is] from, function a distinction.

I wished the reader to really feel like they’re very a lot throughout the protagonist’s physique, to grasp the way it feels when she is denying herself issues, or when her life was laborious, but in addition to really feel all of the sensory experiences of her coming into her physique. Because the protagonist is falling for the world, I wished the reader to type of fall together with her. Falling into the love story, and falling into the humidity. I assume it’s a type of letting go.

“I discovered that I used to be in a position to get nearer, typically, to the emotional reality of what I wished to say by fictionalising issues” – Jessica Andrews

TW: The e-book additionally appears to be involved with the converse relationship – how individuals have an effect on the locations they inhabit, which is commonly tied up in conversations about class.

JA: There’s a bit in Milk Tooth the place she interns at {a magazine}, and she or he meets some younger ladies working on the journal, and so they find yourself going for coffees and stuff collectively. However the metropolis of London appears to be made for them in a means that it doesn’t really feel prefer it’s made for her, as a result of they’ve this class privilege or social ease with which they transfer via it, whereas she looks like she’s scrambling on a regular basis, she’s struggling on a regular basis, and she or he by no means has any cash, and she or he doesn’t know what to say. I assume that’s one thing that I’ve skilled, and it’s a posh intersection of issues, as a result of it’s to do with class, to do with privilege, however then it’s additionally partly to do with gentrification. As a result of in a metropolis like London, it’s so troublesome now to make a dwelling as a inventive particular person, typically. Particularly if you happen to’re from a working-class background, and also you don’t have cash to fall again on, or you will have a little bit of an impostor feeling in these areas. 

With the housing disaster, and issues turning into increasingly costly, and folks being pushed out, I wished to ask the query: who’re cities for? Notably London. Clearly, it’s so thrilling and it’s so culturally numerous and wealthy. However then in so lots of the areas you’re pondering, ‘Okay, however who’re these retailers for, who’re these eating places for, who’re these cafes for? As a result of I don’t actually really feel like they’re for me.’ 

TW: Meals is a very essential a part of Milk Tooth, tied up with concepts of need and denial. How did you land on that theme?

JA: I began the e-book with a knot of issues I wished to untangle. I knew the factor that I used to be attempting to work out was to do with wanting. Like, what do I would like? Why do I deny myself issues that I would like? How will we be taught to suppress our needs? I assume [there are] class and gender parts of that. A number of ladies I do know have sophisticated relationships with meals, and it felt very emblematic of every thing else [the protagonist] was attempting to discover in different areas of her life. She denies herself one thing easy like meals, which can also be nourishment, and it’s additionally safety, and it’s additionally the other of self-destruction. It actually functioned as an emblem that I felt might maintain a whole lot of these emotions.

TW: The narrator’s points with meals typically originate in an exterior area, after which they’re internalised. “We discovered the language of self-destruction,” she says, “in hip bones and heroin stylish.” Might you discuss that dynamic?

JA: I can solely converse from my very own expertise, however there are two edges to it. In case you do really feel like an outsider in sure areas, due to systemic issues, if you happen to don’t have the language to grasp or articulate these systemic issues, you internalise it, proper? It’s like, ‘Oh, I’m unsuitable, I’m bizarre, I don’t slot in.’ All of that will get turned in on you, to make you’re feeling such as you’re not likely deserving of issues. However then on the opposite aspect, I used to be pondering loads in regards to the messaging round my very own teenage years. I used to be a youngster within the early 2000s, and it was the entire dimension zero, Kate Moss, heroin stylish type of vibe. I believe the language and the rhetoric round that point was all the time about diminishing your self and making your self smaller. And there was a really self-destructive ethos round that point. Popular culture was Skins or The Libertines, and it was all about taking a great deal of medication and doing wild issues on a regular basis.

I began to consider the legacy of these years, if you’re somebody who has additionally internalised these systemic points, but in addition your first expertise of maturity was in a panorama during which you have been by no means taught to worth your self, or that your physique had price, or that it was good to take care of your self. The protagonist in Milk Tooth, she’s in her late twenties, about to show 30, and it’s about: how do you free your self from that, and start to suppose otherwise about your self and the world?

“I believe it’s harmful typically to equate visibility with social change” – Jessica Andrews

TW: Have you ever seen these attitudes change in a significant means in your lifetime?

JA: I believe there’s extra dialog. Now, individuals discuss feminism, or there’s #MeToo, or individuals discuss much more about LGBTQ+ points. I don’t suppose that type of dialog existed a lot once I was a youngster, however I don’t actually suppose issues have modified. There’s a lot backlash in opposition to this stuff, there’s a lot transphobia, or there’s what simply occurred within the US with Roe v Wade. I believe perhaps it’s harmful typically to equate visibility with social change. Then I additionally suppose, is wellness tradition equally as damaging? Though the messaging of that’s basically about taking care of your self. However is that simply masking issues like consuming issues, and a type of puritanical means of being, simply via a special language?

TW: The boys in Milk Tooth lack that language too, and it typically results in misunderstandings, even within the extra well-intentioned relationships. How did you method the boys on this e-book?

JA: With Saltwater, I very a lot wished the main focus to be on the relationships between the ladies, so the boys are barely shadowy, or the love story is barely within the background. With Milk Tooth, the protagonist has numerous horrible encounters with males who make her really feel nugatory, or make her really feel like her physique doesn’t belong to her. However then throughout the central love story, I didn’t need to write a personality that was simply horrible and abusive, making you suppose, ‘Why is she with this man?’ In some methods, it’s extra fascinating to me to discover the complexities of whenever you each really imply effectively, however you simply can’t fairly get there. You’re not absolutely speaking. 

Additionally, it felt actually essential to write down a e-book that had optimistic intercourse between a person and a lady in it. Lots of the books I learn are about trauma and rape and sexual abuse. And whereas it’s actually essential that we now have these conversations, I really feel like there’s not a lot illustration of optimistic sexual experiences. If we solely have the trauma, and we don’t have the optimistic issues as effectively, then how do we actually transfer on from it, as a result of then do you not really feel afraid, and do you not really feel harm, and do you not really feel scared?

“I used to be fascinated by individuals like Tracey Emin, or Louise Bourgeois, how they arrive again to their childhoods repeatedly and once more of their work, nevertheless it by no means feels boring. It all the time feels unique and refreshing” – Jessica Andrews

TW: You’ve beforehand written in regards to the affect of Tracey Emin in your work – have been there every other notably essential influences, writing Milk Tooth?

JA: I actually love Louise Bourgeois, and I believe Tracey Emin could be very a lot a descendant of that college, with a number of the themes that she works with, and the way in which they characterize the physique. I struggled at one level to suppose: oh, effectively, can I preserve writing about class? Can I preserve writing about gender? And might I write about this stuff that also really feel actually central to me? And I used to be fascinated by individuals like Tracey Emin, or Louise Bourgeois, how they arrive again to their childhoods repeatedly and once more of their work, nevertheless it by no means feels boring. It all the time feels unique and refreshing. You recognize that whenever you go into their work, that you just’re going to be in dialog with a few of these issues. With Tracey Emin, once I first encountered her as a youngster, I believe it was extra the autobiographical nature of her work that felt very liberating. I wouldn’t say she instantly influenced the story [of Milk Teeth] or something, however as a wider affect, of a lady from a specific background who was making work about her life on this very visceral, bodily means – that felt tremendous essential to me.

Jessica Andrews’ Milk Tooth will probably be printed by way of Sceptre on July 21.