The linked stories in Sue Mell’s collection A New Day vividly create a world where the characters navigate new chapters of their lives in surprising and unforgettable ways.
Kirkus wrote of the book:
“Endlessly fascinating characters propel these wonderfully ardent stories.”
In her own words, here is Sue Mell’s Book Notes music playlist for her story collection A New Day:
Contemporary characters strive for new beginnings—or to recapture the past—in the thirteen stories that make up A New Day, and there’s a lot of my own musical nostalgia that played into their creation. The book is divided into three parts, with each part titled after the woman it centers around. Within those parts, the stories are linked, but told from multiple characters’ points of view.
The stories span a thirty-year period, but half of them take place in the 1980s, and the music of that era holds significant sway. Some of the songs in my playlist tie directly to a story that references them regardless of era, while others served as either a significant source of inspiration or a tangential association.
One song per story, in the order they appear, mirroring the collage—or perhaps kaleidoscope—effect of the reader’s experience, with the whole, like any good mix tape, being greater than the sum of its parts.
PART 1: RACHEL
1. “If I Only Had a Brain” – Ray Bolger and Judy Garland (from the The Wizard of Oz)
In “Serendipity,” Rachel recalls how slow she was to realize her friend Evan’s romantic interest, first detailing the Halloween he let her roommate and their mutual good friend dress him up as the scarecrow to her perfect copy of Dorothy’s outfit in The Wizard of Oz. Rachel goes on to note that when Evan finally kissed her weeks later, “like Dorothy in Kansas, she needn’t have looked any farther than her own back yard” for love. But, having run into Richard, her college mentor and old flame, it’s Rachel who wishes she weren’t such a nothin,’ her head all full of stuffin,’ her heart all full of pain.
2. “Should I Stay or Should I Go” – The Clash
In “Lily & Devin,” Rachel’s best friend Lily, contends with Devin’s inability to commit and her hopes for something more. The lyrics and the chaotic chorus running behind the lead vocal make this song especially fitting.
3. “At the Zoo” – Simon & Garfunkel
Reeling from a breakup with someone else, in “Decorative Arts,” Paul tries to resurrect his relationship with Rachel on what turns out to be the same day Lily is undergoing a bone marrow transplant. In their joint effort to find comfort and distraction, at Rachel’s request, they spend the day at the zoo. A throwback song for a throwback relationship.
4. “Chances Are” – Johnny Mathis
In “Chances Are,” set seven years after the one-time they had sex—and told from both points of view—Rachel meets up for coffee with Richard, who undermined what may turn out to be the only long-term relationship of her life. This story was named after and inspired by this song—especially the lyric “ ‘cause I wear a silly grin the moment you come into view.”
5. “Here I Go Again” – White Snake
In “As If,” a pique of jealousy and pride runs roughshod over Miguel’s potential future with Lily. A little heavy metal for a hard-headed guy.
PART 2: EMMA
6. “Golden Slumbers” – The Beatles
In “House-sitting,” months into Emma’s exile from the apartment she’d shared with Dennis, after his confession that “he loved her, but more like a brother—this when he had two sisters to boot,” she still mourns the “late-afternoon sunlight skimming the keys of their old upright piano, her Broadway sheet music and his Beatles and Motown songbooks piled together on top.” Once there was a way to get back homeward . . . Nothing more apt than the sweet but pained yearning of this song.
7. “While You See A Chance” – Steve Winwood
“This isn’t some stupid play,” says Tina to aspiring actress Emma in “All the World is Not a Stage.” Like the song prescribes, Emma has seen—and taken—a chance at romance with Tina, but faking her way past their initial connection may prove to be too much.
8. “It’s Gonna Take a Miracle” – Laura Nyro
Oh, the ache of this song and Nyro’s soaring voice! In “Saturday, 2:30 AM,” Sherise can’t stop herself—or Abby’s attraction to someone else—even as she knows the fight she’s picking will only push them further apart.
9. “I’ll Be Seeing You” – Billie Holiday
Lost chances and missed connections are threaded throughout the book. But they feel especially poignant in “Emma Redux,” where Emma finds herself missing Tina thirty years after their brief romantic entanglement—along with the touchstone restaurants, stores, and clubs of their particular era in 80s New York.
PART 3: NINA
10. “Kiss” – Prince
Prince’s unabashed and hearth-thumping song of seduction for the story “Single Lens Reflex,” where a coke fueled night spent with Mick, a photographer with a faded rockstar charm, comes at a regrettable price.
11. “Cheek to Cheek” – Fred Astaire (from Top Hat)
“C’mon, Ginger Rogers, let’s see what you got,” Rob says to Nina in “Fallout,” before he whirls her around the dance floor of the wedding where she’s working as his photo assistant. A Cinderella-like moment of pure pleasure on the cusp of her inevitable crash from a manic episode triggered by an anti-depressant.
12. “Better Be Home Soon” – Crowded House
“Better be home soon,” DJ says on the phone to Nina, crediting the band and promising he’ll see her later, in response to her accusatory string of time-related song titles directed at his continued delay in leaving his wife. The question of what—and who—home is, lies at the center of “Lapses,” where songs abound like a currency of affection and shared understanding. Bonus points for that organ break and the slight rasp in Neil Finn’s yearning vocal.
13. “New Morning” – Bob Dylan
With its hopeful lyrics and jubilant beat, “New Morning” is a song I associate with the collection as a whole. But nowhere more so than In “Photo Finish,” where the one-night stand that once proved disastrous for both Nina and Mick takes on a different light when they bump into each other, over a decade later, in Central Park.
also at Largehearted Boy:
Sue Mell’s playlist for her novel Provenance
Sue Mell’s story collection, A New Day, was a finalist for the 2021 St. Lawrence Book Award, and is forthcoming from She Writes Press Fall 2024. Her debut novel, Provenance, won the Madville Publishing Blue Novel Award, and was selected as a 2022 Great Group Read by the Women’s National Book Association, and a 2022 Indie Fiction Pick by the Community of Literary Magazines and Presses. Her collection of micro essays, Giving Care, won the 2022 Chestnut Review Prose Chapbook Prize. Other work has appeared in Narrative Magazine, Cleaver Magazine, Hippocampus Magazine, Jellyfish Review, and elsewhere. She earned her MFA from Warren Wilson, was a 2020 BookEnds fellow at SUNY Stony Brook, and lives in Queens, New York, where she cares for her aging mom and a gray tuxedo cat named Poppy.