In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book.
Alexa Yasemin Brahme’s novel Good News is a striking debut that thoughtfully explores the confluence of youth, art, and ambition.
Publishers Weekly wrote of the book:
“Brahme’s appealing voice-driven debut finds Turkish art student Maggie Arif navigating a love triangle in New York City while struggling to complete an ambitious painting . . . Brahme’s character work is top notch.”
In her own words, here is Alexa Yasemin Brahme’s Book Notes music playlist for her novel Good News:
While Good News mainly focuses on visual art, every facet of the art world has influenced the novel, and music is no exception. Though the main character is a painter, she gets her name from a fictional musician. Music plays in a few scenes to signify belonging and estrangement, tenderness and seduction. Specific songs even came to mind while crafting certain scenes and characters. What follows is an eclectic playlist that could make you cry or dance or say “what the fuck?” As with all good things, it ends with Cher.
Sensiz Yaşayamam by Ayla Dikmen
I absolutely had to include a dramatic Turkish ballad about lost love. Sensiz Yaşayamam translates to, “I cannot live without you,” and that is the exact kind of song that reduces Maggie’s mother to tears. In the novel, the main character Maggie, whose real name is Müjde, is named after one of these classic, beautiful Turkish singers who specialize in High Drama: I cannot live without you, your presence is warmer than the sun, my heart is empty, come back before my heart stops beating for you, etc. I love Turks. Long live their yearning.
Cherry, Cherry by Neil Diamond
There’s a scene early in the novel in which Maggie is in the car with her boyfriend Rob, and a very American song comes on the radio. Maggie can recognize that the song is famous but could never be counted on to know its name or the artist. Americans (Rob included), seem to know the words to this artist’s every song. Meanwhile, Maggie thinks Neil Diamond and Willie Nelson are the same person.
Big Time Sensuality by Björk
I say this with love and respect: I adore a freak. And I adore Björk! She is only listening to herself and her inner voice. This is something Maggie strives to do throughout the novel, and something the Artist (also a freak, a character who has denounced her name and simply goes by “the Artist”) does effortlessly. People may not understand the Artist or her antics, but they certainly respond to her. And the lyrics of this song feel apt for any artist who is trying to make it in their field: “It takes courage to enjoy it.”
Not to give anything away, but it’s moving to think of Maggie and the Artist when I hear the line, “Something huge is coming up/and we’re both included.”
Mujeriego by Ryan Castro
If Maggie’s ex-boyfriend Rakib had a theme song, it would be this. The lyrics loosely translate to, “I’m a womanizer, I can’t deny it, I steal a woman and say ciao, then go steal another.” But the song is so hot and fun that you just have to dance? Criminal, Ryan Castro. Rakib is a sexy, cruel mess who appears in the novel to ruin Maggie’s life. A runner-up theme song for him was Pimping All Over the World by Ludacris, which he would think was cool but is obviously insane.
Something About Us by Daft Punk
Speaking of Rakib… There’s something about him! There’s something about him with Maggie! “It may not be the right time, I might not be the right one. But there’s something about us I want to say, ’cause there’s something between us anyway.” Terrible that this is the case, considering Maggie is seriously dating Rob when Rakib pops back up. But when there’s “something about us,” it’s terrible to ignore.
Blue by Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell, the queen of sadness. This whole album could kill a person. I thought of it often while writing Maggie in the depths of her despair. There’s a scene when Maggie and Rob are going to sleep together, and Maggie says to Rob, “You’re blue,” cherishing the look of his face in the dark. She means literally, in the unlit room his skin is blue-ish. But she’s thinking of Joni. You’re blue, this is ruined, I’m sad, you’re sad, and it’s the blue kind of sad. Sadness forever. Brutal.
Águas de Março (Live) by Stan Getz & João Gilberto
Rob plays this song in an ultimate act of emotional warfare against Maggie toward the end of the novel. The two are growing apart, though neither can correctly pinpoint the reason why. In an attempt at tenderness, Rob plays this song in their apartment because it evokes their first years of dating, when things were simple and beautiful and easy. At least, that’s what it evokes for Rob. For Maggie, the song makes her think of the first time she’d ever heard it. She was nineteen, in her early days in New York—single, exploring herself and the city and men. She was standing at the precipice of her life, everything about to begin.
Memory Lane by Minnie Riperton & O Günler by Ferdi Özbeğen
Both of these songs are absolute perfection and are about those days. Those days in the past that are ossified in amber, inaccessible and beautiful and painfully distant. Minnie writes the American version and Ferdi writes the Turkish version and their vibes are…different. Memory Lane is such a beautiful song. She’s looking at a photograph and appreciating the beauty and love of a former flame. It’s not that sad and it’s a groove. Ferdi? That man may as well be weeping on the record. He sings, “My whole lifetime got taken away from me just for the one day of happiness I had.” That’s the High Drama I mentioned earlier. I thought of both these songs when Maggie looks at a photograph of her and Rob and takes a bit of her own trip down memory lane.
Believe by Cher
Do you believe in life after love?
I do. Maggie does. Listen to this after finishing the book for the feeling that all worked out the way it was supposed to. Reject despair! There is life after love!
Alexa Yasemin Brahme is a writer from southern California. She received her MFA in fiction from The New School. Her work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, the Robert J. Dau PEN Award, and Best of the Net. She currently lives in Brooklyn, where she is a bookseller at Books Are Magic. Good News is her first novel.