I grew up with the Midwestern Protestant view of not expressing your feelings, keeping everything locked inside. MA: Yes, and I see Minerva's mother as a real Midwesterner. When I arrived in Chicago for graduate school and saw the lake for the first time - I'd only known lakes from New England, where you can see across them - I didn't have any idea that a lake could be so big. And of course the Shedd Aquarium is a place every kid who grows up near Chicago visits. I'm also playing with allusions to The Little Mermaid. Minerva is wrestling with her absentee marine-biologist father and her (half) Hawaiian roots, so I really wanted to have her live in a place that was landlocked but has some connection to water. It's landlocked, yet you have this beautiful large body of water. Mary Amato: I grew up in Illinois, and I love the Chicago area as a setting for this novel. Whereas here, Chicago plays a big part in the story. Roger Sutton: What is the significance of place in Get Happy? I see a lot of books where, unless it's New York, the setting tends to be vaguely sketched. How about a guy? And what's the deal with her much-reviled, long-absent father?
Mary Amato follows up Guitar Notes with.a novel about a ukulele? Not exactly - while Get Happy's protagonist, Minerva, does pine for one as a sixteenth birthday present, a ukulele is just one of the things her life is missing. Talks with Roger is a sponsored supplement to our free monthly e-newsletter, Notes from the Horn Book.
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