In the Spotlight: Alice Berman
Alice Berman, author of I Eat Men Like Air, talks crime podcasts, the #MeToo movement, and instinctual writing.
Where does the line of true morality lie? If a bad thing is done for the greater good, is it still bad? These are the questions Alice Berman poses in her engrossing mystery-thriller, I Eat Men Like Air. Expertly interwoven through a story on the prestigious life of the upper-class, this is a novel that does not shy away from the darker truths. The son of a billionaire found dead in a bathtub, a well-known crime podcaster exploring the scene, and a group of 20-something rich kids with skilfully planned alibis; though on surface level it can camouflage as a classic “whodunit” story, it is just as much a piercing commentary on the pitfalls of modern life and the historical protection of the elite. In a time of the #MeToo movement and greater awareness of minority inequalities, the title itself plucked from a Plath poem says it best, ‘out of the ash, I rise with my red hair, and I eat men like air.’
Author of I Eat Men Like Air, and Lost Boys and Technicolor Girls, Alice Berman, speaks to us about writing from experience, the importance of research, and the inspiring advice she’d give to herself looking back.
Having grown up watching Gossip Girl, I can’t deny that I immediately fell in love with ‘I Eat Men Like Air’ because of the similarities. But looking at your impressive background of a political family, success with app design, and the attendance of a prestigious college, it seems your perspective is more one of an insider. How much of your book would you say is based on the reality you’ve experienced or observed personally?
I think, as with many writers, my experience in life absolutely has informed my work. It would be incredibly difficult for me to separate the two! The exciting part of being a writer is observing one small moment and letting that grow into an idea that becomes a huge plot point. Sometimes it will be something as trivial as half of an overheard phone conversation when you're waiting for a coffee. You just never know!
The character I felt who stood out the most was Lulu, who struggles in finding peace despite leading a seemingly “perfect” life. She read as emotional, complex, coming from a more personal place, that allowed me to feel connected to her. In many ways, she felt most central to the book, more so than the other characters. Would I be wrong to sense you drew inspiration from your own personality when constructing her?
That's so nice, because I love Lulu! I think most of the characters sprang from pieces of reality and then became entirely their own people as they started to form. The early draft versions of Lulu were very different than the later drafts, and that in turn changed the plot. There was one moment, towards the end of the book, where I thought to myself Lulu just could not do this, and it ended up completely altering her trajectory as a character.
Your writing touches on some sensitive subjects- infidelity, rape, self-harm- did you have any apprehensions at all when approaching these topics? Or were there certain measures you took to ensure you went about them the right way?
I did a huge amount of research for this book. I'm always amazed by people who just sit down and write; the research and outlining piece almost always takes longer than actually writing the book, for me. I read Chanel Miller's statement to her rapist probably ten times, and I cried every single time. I read interviews with serial rapists and psychology books that touched on just about everything. I talked to friends who had been assaulted -- and that was really what brought me down the path for this book, honestly: hearing about these difficult experiences and realizing how stigmatizing it could be to share what had happened to you. I really hoped (and I still hope) that even one person would read this book and think I feel less alone for what has happened to me. It's been wonderfully gratifying to see how people have responded to differently to the characters and the plot lines. Yael in particular has been a polarizing character for women; they either love her and relate to her, or they despise her and are shocked by her behavior. I always saw her as kind of the moral center of the novel, but almost no one has agreed with me on that.
I was completely gripped through the end and was definitely pleasantly surprised when the “killer” was finally revealed. Looking back, I can see how such an ending can be symbolic of alliance with women in a time where the MeToo movement is present. Was this always the ending you envisioned?
This was always my ending! Small pieces of it changed, but I knew from the start that I wanted that kind of quiet shock. I started writing the book in May, 2017, which was about six months before the #metoo movement really exploded with revelation of the Harvey Weinstein allegations. There had been some pivotal moments leading up to that, with the Women's March, the Roger Ailes suit, the Fox News expose, and the Susan Fowler Uber essay (to name a few!), and I think I was definitely picking up on that energy.
What was your inspiration behind having the story be partly told through a crime podcast creator, rather than solely through the group?
I love podcasts -- I love any audio medium, obviously! -- and I found myself so drawn in by crime podcasts, especially the ones that took years of reporting, which meant that the reporters grew so incredibly close to their subjects. I really wanted to include that dynamic: what happens when those lines start to blur?
The other piece of the podcast plot line, without giving anything away, was the manner in which I wanted to deliver the murder. I wanted it to feel like a foregone conclusion, like nothing else possibly could have happened -- I wanted the reader to understand that, to the murderer, there was no other option. As a result, it would have been really difficult to trickle in the kind of information you as the reader deserve on a murderer if I had just written it in a linear fashion. Tyler gave me the ability to drop hints and shine the light on pathways that pointed to what really happened.
Having two books now under your belt along with Lost Boys and Technicolor Girls, is there any writing advice you’d give yourself looking back?
Listen to your instincts! I lost so much time taking everyone's opinion as gospel, changing my work until it was unrecognizable, and then not being able to sell it until I brought it back to something that was really true to the characters. I would also tell myself to make friends with other authors. They are the best support group in the entire world!
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Alice Berman is a New York City-based author whose first Audible Originals book, “I Eat Men Like Air,” was published September, 2019. The fiction author sold her book, “Lost Boys and Technicolor Girls,” to ABC, where it is currently in development to become a show with Freeform. Hailing from a political family in Washington, D.C., Berman attended Choate Rosemary Hall in Connecticut and graduated Magna Cum Laude with a degree in English Literature from the University of Pennsylvania, winning the Gibson Peacock Award for creative nonfiction. Alice is a founding board member of animal advocacy group Creatures Great and Small; she serves on the Young Collectors Council Acquisitions Committee at the Guggenheim. Find her on Instagram at @alicecanaryplum. Alice is represented by Inkwell Management and Anonymous Content.
