Salon on Demand: Jenni Fagan and Monica Heisey with Damian Barr
We returned to The London Library for our first in-person Salon of 2023! And what a fantastic night it was!
We were spellbound by Jenni's reading of an extract from her memoir, 'Ootlin'. And Monica had the whole audience laughing at the Harry Styles fantasy from, 'Really Good, Actually'.
'Really Good, Actually' is Monica Heisey’s debut novel. Her heroine is Maggie, 29, who manages to get divorced before most of her friends have even considered getting married. And her marriage ended just 608 days after it started. Sure, she’s alone for the first time in her life, can’t afford her rent and her obscure PhD is going nowhere . . . but she’s fine – she’s doing really good, actually. Like Maggie, Monica is a ‘Surprisingly Young Divorcée TM’. Here she uses fiction to tell a bigger truth than her own. It is so funny I have lightly stained some pages. Monica has contributed to The New Yorker, the New York Times, Vogue and The Guardian. And she’s written on shows including Schitt’s Creek!
We are honoured that Jenni gave us the world premiere of her long-awaited memoir. Jenni is the author of 'Luckenbooth', 'Hex', 'The Sunlight Pilgrims' and 'The Panopticon'. 'Ootlin' has been twenty years and a lifetime in the making. Jenni takes us on her journey through the broken care system from birth to the age of 16. It is a story of loss, love and longing. Of trying to find your way and finding your place in an often-hostile world. It is a story about the stories we tell ourselves of ourselves. It is powerfully alive and heart-breaking and ultimately hopeful because Jenni’s story lives in every page she’s ever written. Ootlin is sure to be a classic.
