Carolyn Kuebler’s novel Liquid, Fragile, Perishable is a mesmerizing debut that brings to life a small New England town through its ensemble cast of unforgettable characters.
Kirkus wrote of the book:
“[A] mesmerizing novel-in-stories . . . No matter the scenario, Lacroix shows a gift for cutting to the heart of things: the way you inevitably open yourself up to both injury and transformation when you try to love and be loved . . . As kaleidoscopic as the queer experience, this is an introduction to a writer of great imagination.”
In her own words, here is Carolyn Kuebler’s Book Notes music playlist for her debut novel Liquid, Fragile, Perishable:
If Liquid, Fragile, Perishable were a play, it would call for an ensemble cast of ten and a few important but smaller roles. Ages 15 to 57, all residents of a small town in Vermont, circa 2007. Setting: an apiary, an airport, an inn, the river, the post office, the woods. These songs offer some clues into the characters’ temperaments, interests, and personal histories—the back story that didn’t make it to the page. During the year that this novel is set, these are the songs that preoccupy or in some way define these characters—even in those cases where the song won’t be released for another decade or so.
In order of appearance:
Nell Castleton (b. 1955)
“Complicit” by the Weather Station
Nell has always felt complicit—in climate change, in her sister’s death, in taking more than she deserves. There’s a frantic urgency to this song despite the beautiful imagery, the “swallows delicate in their flight.” The way Tamara Lindeman gets “for all the parts per million” into a song along with “I trail my hand down through the water” is pretty thrilling and creates a fitting underlayer of this quiet character’s psyche.
Jeanne Hess (b. 1955)
“Suite: Judy Blue Eyes” by Crosby, Stills, and Nash
“Chestnut brown canary, ruby-throated sparrow” – Jeanne belts this part of the “suite” in her old Subaru, when she drives home from a dull day at work with the windows down, on a dirt road, in May. It reminds her of high school when it was on the radio all the time, and she and Don had just started dating. They were such hippies back then, and the sun was always shining. She never gave a thought to what the song might be about, but it never fails to get her heart going.
Eli LeBeau (b. 1990)
“The Way I Am” by Eminem
Eli wants very badly to have some swagger, so this is his anthem. “I’m not Mr. Friendly, I can be a prick if you tempt me.” He listens to it in his room, with headphones, since he can’t afford an MP3 player. He may be the youngest, the runt of the family, but he knows that he’s much more than this little town takes him for. He’s not sure what that is yet though. (Froggy Fresh, “Baddest,” might honestly be more Eli’s speed—“Ya’ll think I don’t get girls cause I ain’t very tall”—but Eminem is aspirational.)
Sophie Pierce (b. 1992)
“Pink Moon” by Nick Drake
Two minutes and four seconds of soulful bliss, as far as Sophie is concerned. She first heard it when she was a kid, on a VW commercial, and her dad was so pissed. How dare they? Nick Drake was sacred. But Sophie remembered it, the teenagers driving around in a convertible at night, turning away from a party, and stole the CD for herself. Now she tries to play it on the guitar. It’s more difficult than it sounds.
Sarah Calper (b. 1960)
“Don’t Worry” from Into the Trees by Zoë Keating
Now that her son is about to go to college, Sarah is trying to retrieve some part of herself she lost when becoming a parent—not to go back to the stuff she loved when she was young in the city, but to find something new. When she discovers solo cellist/electronic musician Zoë Keating she knows she’s onto something. It doesn’t hurt that this artist lives in Vermont (even if she didn’t back then), since Sarah also desperately wants to get more connected to the place.
Willoughby Calper (b. 1989):
“Just Like Honey” by Jesus and Mary Chain
Will listens to “vintage” music, wears “vintage” rock T-shirts, so this 1985 song is just for him. All summer, this song. He needs no other. When he goes to college in the fall he’ll figure out what to study, what he might be good at, where he’s going in this life—but he just wants to stay here a while.
Jim Calper (b. 1960)
“Born to Run” by Bruce Springsteen
He’s always immersed in research, interviews, and writing and doesn’t keep up much with music. He lets Sarah be the dinner music DJ and he likes what she puts on. But when he’s driving to a job or just needs to wake up, he always goes back to The Boss. Good, earnest, hard-driving rock ‘n’ roll that leaves it all on the table.
Cyrus LeBeau (b. 1986)
“Homesick” by Noah Kahan
Cyrus hasn’t heard this song. It won’t come out for another 13 years and even then it might not hit his radar. But it’s about him anyway. He’s definitely “tired of dirt roads named after high school friends’ grandfathers.” There was a road named after his own grandfather, but it got washed out last summer in a heavy rain. He doesn’t want to leave Vermont but he’s stuck in a particular rut that Noah Kahan understands better than anyone. Or, he used to, before the thousands of screaming fans.
Sophie Pierce (b. 1992)
“Willie’s Lady,” Child Ballad 6, by Anaïs Mitchell and Jefferson Hamer
Sophie gets a second song because she’s trying to be a musician. The Child Ballads caught her interest in part because nobody else listens to them, and in part because of the surprisingly dark and complicated tales they tell, of kings, witches, hangings, evil mothers, obsessive love, drownings, spells, errant pregnancies, revenge, insanity, and obsession. The pileup of verses and the very strangeness of the story in this one impressed her particularly.
David Mitchell (b. 1950)
“On Children” by Sweet Honey in the Rock
The name of the Mitchell family’s apiary, Honey in the Rock, is found in Psalms, in the Old Testament. It suggests that God provides even in the toughest times, and people assume this is why David gave it the name. But really it was this a capella group that was on his mind. He has no idea that the lyrics are from a Kahlil Gibran poem, but faith is faith, and this song is speaking to David lately, whether he’s listening to it right now or not.
Leila Pierce (b. 1962)
“A Kissed Out Red Floatboat” by the Cocteau Twins
Blue Bell Knoll is one of the few albums Leila ever bought for herself on vinyl and she’ll keep it forever, even if now she only listens to the MP3 version. It never fails to lift her out of a mood, and now it’s layered with all the years and all the times it has been there for her. If Elizabeth Fraser’s singing any actual words, Leila doesn’t want to know.
Carolyn Kuebler was a co-founder of the literary journal Rain Taxi and is now the editor of the award-winning New England Review. Her stories and essays have been published in The Common and Colorado Review, among others, and “Wildflower Season,” published in The Massachusetts Review, won the 2022 John Burroughs Award for Nature Essays. She lives in Middlebury, Vermont, where she enjoys bird-watching and cross-country skiing. Liquid, Fragile, Perishable is her first novel.