Never Betray the Brotherhood: Lauren Nossett’s debut novel, "The Resemblance," as a Lens into How Far Greek Life Goes to Protect Their Own
I met Lauren Nossett at a local book club in Nashville, both of us trying to expand our social and literary horizons. I’ve found it incredibly difficult to make solid connections and form friendships with adults my age, but for some reason I could tell right away that Lauren was a keeper. For starters, we both didn’t mention we were authors. I enjoy this kind of humbleness among fellow writers. Writing is part of our identity, yes; but we are also people– people who have had hardships and successes and joys and loss– all while riding this roller coaster of life.
After exchanging information at the book club, we met for oat milk matcha lattes at Frothy Monkey. A woman after my own heart! When I found out Lauren was an author with a novel debuting this fall (and not just a novel, but a mystery campus novel!!), I was in awe of her and wanted to know more. We chatted away and lost track of time and by the end of our hangout we had divulged personal stories, publishing stories, and it was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
Lauren Nossett’s debut novel, The Resemblance, follows Detective Marlitt Kaplan as she investigates an “accident” at the University of Georgia campus. An Athens native and daughter of a UGA professor, Marlitt is well-versed in the underbelly of the campus’s chilling secrets. But the boundaries between her police work and her own past traumas begin to blur as Marlitt strives for justice in a place where justice is often not served. Can she find the answers she’s looking for amidst a corrupt cast of characters? You’ll have to read to find out!
Can you speak a little toward your experience with academia and Greek life? How do you think fraternities and sororities have changed over the years or in what ways have they stayed the same? What’s the allure? What’s the draw?
I can speak to academic and Greek life from both the perspective as a student and as a professor. As a student, I had friends in sororities and fraternities, attended Greek life parties, even vacationed with fraternity brothers at beach and lake houses. I was just as guilty of some of the overindulgences The Resemblance’s lead detective Marlitt Kaplan criticizes; and at the same time, I was fascinated by the power dynamics I watched play out between fraternity brothers, and how often capable and intelligent men would defer to fraternity rank rather than reason when making decisions. As a graduate student, I lived next to a fraternity house and witnessed both the dangerous drinking culture—one game in particular involved guys doing keg stands and racing across a busy street trying not to get hit by a car or vomit—and also the late-night conversations during which they comforted one another over breakups and other heartaches. As a professor, my perspective shifted again. On one hand, I saw how Greek life offers a community to students struggling with increasing social isolation and digital alienation on college campuses; on the other, I witnessed the rampant cheating, alcohol abuse, and split priorities of its members, and became more aware of the dangerous hazing culture that is often reported in the news. The semester I finished writing the first draft of The Resemblance, five men at five different universities died in fraternity-related incidents. As a professor, I didn’t want to imagine any one of my students suffering such a fate; and as a person, who has experienced my own sudden, personal loss this year, I’m all the more cognizant of the far-reaching tragedy of such out-of-order deaths and the pain such loss causes families, friends, and communities.
Marlitt is such an awesome heroine and I was completely compelled by her! Do you feel akin to her in any way and did you pull any real-life experience to help bring her to life on the page?
Thank you! In general, I would say Marlitt’s much tougher than me, more impulsive, and more set in her views—particularly when it comes to Greek life (although she has her reasons!). I tend to see the nuances of situations and look for the best in other people, where Marlitt has strong opinions and often finds the worst. And yet, maybe because we’re so different, it was fun to write from her perspective.
We do have one thing in common: our favorite coffee shop in Athens is Walker’s Pub & Coffee, a cozy café with garage-door-style windows and rod iron patio tables set right across from the university.
What are some books/authors that helped guide you while writing The Resemblance?
I’ve been a fan of campus novels since I read John Knowles’s A Separate Peace in high school, and like many fans of the genre, I love Donna Tartt’s The Secret History and the number of campus mysteries that have come out in the thirty years since its publication. Many are set at Oxford or small, northeastern American liberal arts institutions, so it was interesting to think of my own college experience at a large southern university, where football culture and Greek life are intimately tied to the social fabric of the campus. What happens in The Resemblance could never happen at a Bennington College (the inspiration for Donna Tartt’s Hampden) with its 700 or so students or even at a Wesleyan-type private university with its 3,000. So, to a certain extent, the large university setting allowed for the events surrounding the mystery itself.
I’m also a firm believer that mysteries and thrillers can deal with complex contemporary social issues the same way literary fiction can. I knew I wanted The Resemblance to tackle topics like toxic masculinity, abundant privilege, and abuses of power, so I looked to other thrillers that deal with societal concerns, like Liz Moore’s Long Bright River, for the way she addressed the opioid crisis, and Julia Clark’s The Last Flight, for the way the book treated domestic abuse and addiction.
When did you know that this story would be a mystery? And what draws you to this genre?
To a certain extent, I think the story becoming a mystery was a result of what I was reading at the time I began writing. I studied Comparative Literature and German as an undergraduate, continued with German studies as a graduate student, and taught nineteenth-century German literature as a professor. In my free time, I wanted to read less weighty stuff and fell headfirst into the fast-paced, page-turning nature of thrillers, so when I had this idea of a conflict between two students, it seemed only natural to write it as a mystery.
What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever received? Do you have any advice for writers working within your same genre, or any good writing advice in general?
I think the best writing advice is also good life advice, and it’s a quote by Mary Oliver. She says, “things take the time they take.” In writing and in life, you have to have patience and trust the process.
You have another novel in the works- congrats! Can you say anything about what’s to come or give us a sneak preview?
Thank you! I can’t give away too much, but I will say that our favorite detective Marlitt Kaplan will be back with a new perspective on the justice system, and we’ll see other familiar characters return as she navigates her new role in it.
Give us all the dark academia recommendations!
Well, of course, I have to begin with Donna Tartt’sThe Secret History, but more recent dark academia novels I’ve loved include Ashley Winstead’sIn My Dreams I Hold a Knife, Laurie Elizabeth Flynn’sThe Girls Are All So Nice Here, Elisabeth Thomas’sCatherine House, Kate Elizabeth Russell’sMy Dark Vanessa, and M.L. Rio’sIf We Were Villains. And then, there’s the less recent but other favorites by Tana French:The Likeness and The Secret Place. Recently, I saw a dark academia booklist that included Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. I’ve never thought of her novel that way, but the gothic setting, the university student overcome by obsession, and the creature’s self-discovery and self-education, has much in common with the current dark academia genre!
Lauren Nossett is a former professor turned novelist with a Ph.D. in German literature. Her scholarly work has appeared in journals, edited volumes, and a book with Northwestern University Press. She currently lives in Atlanta, Georgia.
About the Interviewer
Brittany Ackerman is a writer from Riverdale, New York. She earned her BA in English from Indiana University and an MFA in Creative Writing from Florida Atlantic University. She has led workshops for UCLA’s Extension program, Catapult, HerStry, Write or Die Tribe, and forthcoming for Lighthouse Writers. She currently teaches writing at Vanderbilt University in the English Department. She is a 2x Pushcart Prize Nominee and her work has been featured in Electric Literature, Jewish Book Council, Lit Hub, The Los Angeles Review, No Tokens, Hobart, and more. Her first collection of essays entitled The Perpetual Motion Machine was published with Red Hen Press in 2018, and her debut novel The Brittanys is out now with Vintage. She lives in Nashville, Tennessee.
