In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book.
Previous contributors include Jesmyn Ward, Lauren Groff, Bret Easton Ellis, Celeste Ng, T.C. Boyle, Dana Spiotta, Hanif Abdurraqib, Andrew Sean Greer, Roxane Gay, and many others.
Kathleen Furin’s collection The Loneliness of Glass is filled with captivating stories of women on the edge.
Christine Sneed wrote of the book:
“Arrestingly vivid. . . . Furin’s stories pulse with bewitching vitality.”
In her own words, here is Kathleen Furin’s Book Notes music playlist for her story collection The Loneliness of Glass:
The Loneliness of Glass is a short story collection, so it makes sense to offer a song for each story. This collection focuses on women on the borders living messy lives and navigating issues around trauma, oppression, and identity. The theme of loneliness threads these stories together — many of my characters feel alone even when they are surrounded by other people. Sometimes this loneliness arises from a desire for self-preservation, sometimes it stems from situations which arise out of navigating oppressive systems, and sometimes it develops as a result of the character’s own flaws. These stories were created over the course of many years, some of them starting as snippets of ideas based on events and issues happening in the world and some of them inspired by creative writing prompts. Each song is intended to reflect some element of the story with which it is paired. The order of songs here aligns with the arrangement of the stories in the book, which may feel a bit discordant for listeners; this discordance, however, is also a reflection of the spaces of discomfort my characters inhabit.
“Drunkard’s Prayer” by Over the Rhine
The opening story, “Animal Control,” is heavy, so I wanted to pick a song that was mournful and brooding. This song is about the type of relationship that truly nourishes someone, which is exactly what the protagonist in the story, Emma, is lacking. Emma wants the type of comfort offered by this song, but she will not allow herself to access it. She punishes herself by living within the rules, accepting the rigidity of harmful systems and her family’s inherited (and erroneous) understanding of how to be in the world. Her little sister Pom is more authentic and courageous — but Emma’s reaction to Pom’s authenticity is the thing that ends up destroying her.
Emma is a character who has absolutely every reason under the sun to reject supremacist systems. She personally suffers from her allegiances to racism, classism, sexism, and heteronormativity, but she lacks the ability and will to reject these damaging systems. The tragedy of her story is not just the harm she causes but also the fact that she will probably never fully accept herself or challenge the things outside of herself that need to be challenged — and therefore she will never heal, because the things that are wrong in the world are not just outside of her, but also within her.
“Baile Inolvidable” by Bad Bunny
For me this song speaks to connections in a relationship which are deep and true, even though the relationship may not last. In the story “Unit 51” my character Janey experiences this type of passionate chemistry, but in order to nurture this connection she must sacrifice her relationship with her mother, who is strongly opposed to her being in a relationship with a Black man. Having been in an interracial relationship for almost 35 years I think a lot about people’s expectations and assumptions about people in interracial relationships, as well as what some of us sacrifice to be with the people we truly love. What are these types of systems we live in that make us choose one type of love, one human relationship, over another? When you look at things systemically you can just see how wrong that way of thinking is, but it is still way too prevalent. Often chemistry or physical passion is what drives the initiation of relationships, interracial or otherwise. I don’t think passion can hold relationships together, but that kind of crazy chemistry can dissolve a lot of barriers, at least at first. Janey succumbs to the thrill of the “unforgettable dance” but by the end of the story she is unsure about whether she can actually sustain what this relationship is asking of her.
“Journalistes en Danger” by Alpha Blondy
This song accompanies the story “Sanctuary,” which focuses on April, a woman who volunteers at a program for recently arrived refugees. In his music Alpha Blondy, an artist from Côte d’Ivoire, grapples with political and social issues similar to those April is concerned with. April makes an earnest effort to try to do something to help people, but gets caught up in the messiness of being human and realizes how inadequate her efforts are. Many of Alpha Blondy’s songs would work as a companion to this piece, but as the US slides further into fascism each day this song, about the assassination of Norbert Zongo and what it means to be a journalist expressing oneself outside the confines of “free” speech, speaks to our particular moment. Mainstream media has failed us miserably at this time in history. How do we hold onto our integrity and humanity in the face of so much hatred and brutality? What do we do when we are tested? Many of us in the US are failing. We can know deeply that things are wrong and yet still get distracted by the same things which distract April. Is there a way to turn this around and create new just and equitable systems? I think so, and I hope so. I see the new young leaders who are passionate and authentic and articulate about human rights — and still, I believe the USA will never truly thrive until it settles its karmic debts. We are up against evil, so we all need to get to work.
“One Day” by Matisyahu
The story “North Coast” is complex and layered. In some ways it is about the loss of innocence, but this is also one of the few stories in the book where the relationship between the couple is authentic and loving, so I paired it with this song, which feels to me like a reflection of a type of love that transcends supremacist systems, and offers possibilities for transformation.
“Quisiera” by N’taya & Laen
There are some similarities between the couple in my story “Boy” and the couple in “Unit 51,” so I chose a similar type of song for “Boy”: one which also celebrates raw sexual energy and passion. The couple here have powerful chemistry which initially connects them, but then they don’t know what to do with it. Beth is unwilling to examine the ways in which she has been socialized into white supremacist culture and is ultimately unwilling to give up her allegiances to white supremacy, so she will never be able to successfully sustain an interracial connection. She fetishizes Alex, but when she seriously considers what it would mean for her to have children who don’t “look like her” she experiences a true crisis. This song is probably too upbeat and fun for this mess of a couple, but I think my point with this story is that attraction will only get you so far.
“Rebelion” by Joe Arroyo
At its heart the story “The Cookie Jar” is really about how white people have so much trouble giving up control of the narrative, even when we think we are doing the right thing. We are so poorly informed and ill-educated about history and colonialism and enslavement and what actually happened and how it actually looked. Yet most of us don’t want to admit to this ignorance, and much of the time we are not in a position where we have to examine it. I wasn’t thinking consciously about any of this when I wrote the story — it just poured through me — but when I reread it I was sort of laughing at this character who wants to “save” something by owning it, by making it hers. That is the phenomenon of cooptation in a nutshell, and white people (including myself) do this all the time, sometimes unintentionally or subconsciously, but harmfully, nonetheless. So Arroyo’s song, about the brutal absurdity of enslavement and people who have had enough, seems like an apt companion.
“Dream Team” by Spearhead
This song is paired with “Gunnysack at the Smithsonian.” Again, the protagonist of this story is so ridiculous — the idea of a white woman feeling jealous of someone who was enslaved is ludicrous. But I observe white people wanting to appropriate Black ideas and Black culture all the time, and I think I was trying to say something about that. White people are drawn to what they perceive as “coolness” and talent and resilience and can so easily disconnect from the pain and the trauma and the ongoing impacts of history. I connect this song with this story because the song, with its roll call of historic freedom fighters, offers a more accurate representation of what a true “dream team” in the USA looks like. Leaders currently in charge want to eliminate “DEI” but the reality is that they themselves are utterly inadequate. They can try to control their narratives about a “master race,” but their incompetence is palpable.
“Fast Car” by Tracy Chapman
“Mountain Pose” is about the drudgery of work and what it takes for people working behind the scenes to create “magical” experiences for other people. When I think about situations like that, I think about “Fast Car,” which emphasizes the impact of oppressive systems and the difficulty of escaping those systems. I am interested in the hypocrisy of healing spaces which tend to put all the emphasis on healing the individual, and none of the emphasis on healing culture and society. You cannot escape systems which are meant to oppress you easily, and maybe it’s for this reason that many of us spend our time focused on individual rather than systemic change. This story is an attempt to explore some of these realities.
“Little Girl Gone” by Chinchilla
The character in my story “Being Clarisse” does end up standing up to her antagonist, and I think she can relate to the raw rage and pain and unfairness about the ways men act within patriarchal systems in which rape and abuse are normalized, a rage which is expressed through this song. Women are exhausted by the brutality inflicted on us. The song, and hopefully the story, encapsulate this fury, along with ideas about what it means to fight back.
“Okra” by Olu Dara
For my story “Tomb of my Heart,” which is about a young girl’s struggle in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, I wanted a song that was reminiscent of the beautiful, complicated culture of New Orleans. Olu Dara is from Natchez, not New Orleans, but I do think this song is reflective of elements of the culture I was trying to capture, including the sense of lineage, the way history lives in the present, combining mourning with joy, and of course, amazing food and music which are so strongly rooted in place.
“Rhiannon” by Fleetwood Mac
The protagonist in “The Loneliness of Glass” is so weird, and the events she describes are so eerie — I needed a haunting song to go with this story, and “Rhiannon,” about a birdlike woman who is difficult to understand, let alone love, felt perfect. I am fascinated by characters who don’t want what women are “supposed” to want, who are not afraid of death, and Claudine is certainly one of these characters.
Kathleen Furin’s work has been published in American Literary Review, Coolest American Stories, So to Speak, Permafrost, Evanescent, Philadelphia Stories, Literary Mama, Mutha Magazine, and Midwifery Today, among others. She holds an MFA from New York University, and edits, consults, teaches, and writes, mostly in Philly.