In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book.
Alex DiFrancesco’s post-dystopian novel-in-stories The Grief Shop is inventive and enveloping.
Never Angeline Nørth wrote of the book:
“Sharp, inventive, and deeply human, The Grief Shop is a look at how emotions make us who we are and the way those same feelings link us together. Simultaneously zooming in to the personal and out to the global, DiFrancesco is an astute observer of how we all tick”
In their own words, here is Alex DiFrancesco’s Book Notes music playlist for their novel-in-stories The Grief Shop:
The Grief Shop and Other Stories from a Broken World takes place after “the tragedy” kills ⅓ of the earth’s population, and renders the rest clinically emotionally numb. The novel-in-stories follows Gemma, who works a lot of odd job hustles as the world recalibrates – most of them speculative. She works in a grief-infused coffee shop, a boxing gym for pain therapy, a funeral home, and more. Gemma went numb long before the tragedy due to trauma in her young life, and much of the book revolves around her trying to feel again as the rest of the world settles into its numbness.
The Catastrophe (Good Luck With That, Man) – Car Seat Headrest
Since an unnamed catastrophe hangs over the book, it only makes sense that this song would open the book’s playlist. I learned about Car Seat Headrest from a 20-something coworker at a bakery I worked in last year, and fell in love with their bombastic indie sound.
Another World – Anohni
I first heard Anohni’s voice on the cover album of Leonard Cohen’s songs, I’m Your Man, singing a perfect version of “If It Be Your Will.” Anohni’s mournful list of things she will miss from the old world, but her longing for a new world seemed to encapsulate Gemma’s longing for things lost and her faint hope for things to come.
Comfortably Numb – Pink Floyd
I spent a fair amount of time in my youth listening to classic rock, so when I thought of a world that was completely devoid of feeling, it seemed fitting to put this song from Pink Floyd’s The Wall on the playlist. There’s been some debate through time about whether this was a song about doctors getting a sick lead singer ready for the stage, or heroin, but in either case, it speaks to the numbness of the world in The Grief Shop.
Search and Destroy – The Stooges
The main character of The Grief Shop, Gemma, while adjusting to the new world with ⅓ of the population killed in the tragedy, takes up crafts. One of the crafts she does is cross-stitch hoops with inspirational images and Iggy Pop lyrics on them. “I’m a street-walking cheetah with a heart full of napalm,” and such.
Fuck All the Perfect People – Chip Taylor and the New Ukranians
Gemma is pretty jaded, and so is this Chip Taylor song about all the people sleepwalking through life, and how they can all go to hell.
I Wanna Be Sedated – The Ramones
Gemma spends a fair amount of time in the book drinking with her best friend, Xander. The numbing desire behind that is very reminiscent of this punk song.
zombie girl – Adrianne Lenker
From the moment I heard the lyric “vacant as a closed down fair” in this song, I knew that it was something that Gemma could relate to.
Road To Joy – Bright Eyes
At a certain point in the book, Gemma moves towards feeling again. This 2000s Bright Eyes song, based on the “Ode to Joy” isn’t about an uncomplicated road to feeling, so it seemed fitting. “I read the body count out of the paper/ and now it’s written all over my face.”
White Elephant – Nick Cave and Warren Ellis
During the COVID-19 pandemic, when I first started writing The Grief Shop, Nick Cave and Warren Ellis were writing Carnage, which (coincidentally!) was also about a post-disaster world. This song from it is, hands down, my favorite Nick Cave track in about a decade. One reviewer of it wrote something along the lines of how long it had been since Nick threatened to shoot us in the face, and how nice it was to return to that.
How Sad, How Lovely – Connie Converse
Connie Converse and her legend play a huge part in The Grief Shop. She’s idolized by one of the characters, which leads to thoughts about what hero-worship of legendary artists really means. This song, ostensibly about watching a sunset, seems like the perfect close for this playlist, and not just because it’s about endings.
also at Largehearted Boy:
Alex DiFrancesco’s playlist for their memoir Breaking the Curse
Alex DiFrancesco’s playlist for their story collection Transmutation
Alex DiFrancesco’s playlist for their novel All City
Alex DiFrancesco’s playlist for their essay collection Psychopomps
Alex DiFrancesco is the author of the dystopian novel All City, the story collection reflecting trans realities Transmutation, and the memoir Breaking the Curse (2024). About their debut story collection, Patrick Cottrell wrote in the New York Times: “At the affective core of Transmutation is the question of how we can offer shelter for one another’s pain, real and imagined.” They are the winner of an Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award for 2022, and their novel All City was the first awards finalist by a transgender author for the Ohioana Book Awards in its eighty-year history. They served as an assistant editor for Sundress Publications in Tennessee, and edited LGBTQIA+ non-fiction for Jessica Kingsley Publishers. Their work has appeared in Tin House, Electric Literature, Pacific Standard, Eater, and Vol. 1 Brooklyn, among others. DiFrancesco lives in Philadelphia.