Nathan Newman’s debut How to Leave the House is one of the year’s funniest books, and highly profound.
Publishers Weekly wrote of the book:
“Newman debuts with a witty and endearing mosaic novel…The situations are enjoyably farcical, but there’s also depth to them, as Newman delves into their characters’ hidden passions and shows how they grapple with their self-defeating choices. This raucous adventure is great fun.”
In his own words, here is Nathan Newman’s Book Notes music playlist for his debut novel How to Leave the House:
Every other chapter of How to Leave the House follows a different character that our hero, Natwest, meets during his small town odyssey. These characters were basically ciphers for my changing obsessions during the different phases of writing and editing the bulk of the novel – obsessions that were frequently musical. Here are some of my favourites:
Strange Overtones (Everything That Happens Will Happen Today) – David Byrne
The best place to start: Byrne’s second solo album with Brian Eno, Everything That Happens Will Happen Today, a regular companion as I was writing this silly novel – a novel in which everything that happens, does, in fact, happen in one day.
People Like Us (True Stories) – Talking Heads
Another Byrne-fronted track. I share his obsessions with houses, towns, strange locals and silly dancing – motifs that recur in both my first novel, and the Heads’ most underrated album, True Stories. This is my favourite track from it.
Times to Die (Teens of Style) – Car Seat Headrest
I probably listened to every Car Seat Headrest song while I was writing this book. Will Toledo, the frontman, is really our first great online poet of social alienation and frustrated artistic aspiration – all things that tragically chime with Natwest. I’m choosing Times to Die because of this Natwestian triplet: “Get a job!” / Job lying in bed while all his friends chant / “You must’ve done something wrong”.
Watch Those (Yeeeah Baby) – Big Pun / Notorious Thugs (Life After Death) – The Notorious B.I.G.
I share Georgie, Natwest’s ex-boyfriend’s, obsession with bigger men who rap – and who make being big hot as fuck. These are my favourite verses from two of the biggest and hottest. Biggie never topped his flow on Notorious Thugs.
Did I say big enough?
400 Lux (Pure Heroine) – Lorde
When writing Lily – the redpilled fifteen year old – I was listening to a lot of the music I listened to when I was her age. This is one of my favourites from that era.
Stars / Feelings (Live at Montreux 1976) – Nina Simone
I’m a Nina stan, and there was a period of about three months where I listened to a Nina album every morning before getting up and starting my writing day. Her live albums and bootlegs are always superior to her studio material; this is her rawest live performance – and one of my favourite songs.
Sunglasses (For the First Time) – Black Country, New Road
There’s a lot of walking down the street in this novel. This is the first BC/NR song I ever heard, and the one that captures the paranoia and ecstasy of walking down an English street: ‘I am invincible in these sunglasses / Cars are going “beep, beep, beep” / And there are so many roadmen on this street / And they cannot tell that I am scared’
Entr’acte (Orange) – Caroline Shaw
Shaw’s Orange album was pretty much looping in the background while I wrote the majority of this novel. Perfect thinking music.
Parsifal Act 1: Prelude (Knappertsbusch at Bayreuth 1962) – Wagner
Dr. Hung, the opera obsessed dentist, listens to Parsifal over the course of his chapter. His is a story that mimics the beats of Wagner’s opera, but with a dildo, instead of a “Holy Spear” at its climax. So I was listening to it a lot when I wrote his chapter. Wagner is always best in Bayreuth – this is my favourite live recording of the piece.
Cold Wind Blows (Recovery) – Eminem
Okay, all I will say is that if you want to stay fit while writing a novel, running really fast around Finsbury Park while Eminem screams homophobic slurs at you works really well.
STUPID (Saturation III)– Brockhampton
For some reason this song shuffled into my ear the first time I went to meet my agent, and then again when I met my UK publisher. Rather tragically, it’s now become my defacto hype song.
Wise Up (Magnolia – Music from the Motion Picture) – Aimee Mann
I always thought of How to Leave the House as a kind of hyperlink novel – I’m pinching the phrase from Alissa Quart’s “hyperlink cinema” here. Magnolia, another circadian story, is one of the best hyperlink films, and its Aimee Mann soundtrack was a big inspiration when writing.
Cantril Farm Love Story (Cantril Farm Love Stories) – John Kearns
Sometimes when I’m prepping an idea, I’ll type relevant words into Spotify search and listen to the most obscure songs. This is a track byJohn Kearns, an artist with 3 monthly listeners, but who penned this very sweet love ballad about the council estate Cantril Farm in Merseyside – which if you believe the Liverpool Echo, was once the most violent estate in Europe. My mum was born and raised in Cantril Farm, and when I was writing the chapter told from Natwest’s mother’s perspective, I was listening to this song.
I’m in Love With an E-Girl (single) – Wilbur Soot
Don’t ask.
A Day in the Life (Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band) – The Beatles
Much silliness is made in this novel about the binary between Charlie Chaplin or Buster Keaton, Hegel or Kierkegaard, Truffaut or Godard, McCartney or Lennon etc. Here’s what happens when you find a way to be both. Sublime.
At Twenty (single) – Holda Sek
I had the insanely catchy hook of this song running through my head almost every day while I was editing How to Leave the House. A great track. And dammit – it’s stuck in my head again.
Yosemite (Chemtrails over the Country Club) – Lana Del Ray
Yes, I’m gay. But also I put on this song – and the rest of the Chemtrails album – when I need reminding why I’m doing this in the first place: “We did it for fun, we did it for free / We did it for the right reasons”.