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May 26, 2020
Madeline Stevens' Playlist for Her Novel "Devotion"
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, Amy Bloom, Aimee Bender, Roxane Gay, and many others.
Madeline Stevens' novel Devotion is an engaging and thought-provoking debut.
Willamette Week wrote of the book:
"Sexual and class tensions merge into riveting drama, as a nannying gig for a broke, 20-something college dropout turns into something more intimate--and perhaps more sinister.... As debut novels go, Devotion is about as promising as they come."
In her own words, here is Madeline Stevens' Book Notes music playlist for her debut novel Devotion:
When I think about trying to capture the tone of my life from ages 26 to 31, the years during which I wrote Devotion, what comes to mind first is a few lines from a James Wright poem:
“…somebody is weeping in a darkness I cannot see
through
I want.”
I lived those years inside a dark, lush, and certainly self-pitying state of perpetual desire.
Devotion took six years to write. Like my protagonist, I was working as a nanny for those six years, for various families across New York City, and underneath the daily grind of long subway commutes and longer hours, the grind of struggling to make ends meet, I was nurturing a deep sense of unrest. I held my unhappiness close, letting it grow in my mind and my notebooks. This wasn’t anything sexy. My desire during those years reminds me more of picking at a wound. I couldn’t just leave it alone.
Devotion—for me—is a case study in wanting. This playlist is a selection of what I was listening to as I wrote, usually late at night in my old Crown Heights apartment, nursing whatever beer had been cheap at the bodega. It’s no coincidence that these songs of longing also mirror the tone of the novel. I have them to thank for transporting me into a place where all my unhappiness could be translated into art.
I’m not going to say something about everyone selection I’ve included here, but a few deserve special mention:
“The Harder They Come”—Jimmy Cliff
I would be remiss to open a novel in Crown Heights and not include a bit of reggae. This one was written for the ‘73 film by the same name, which was a piece of cinema I was actually thinking about a lot as I wrote: the down-and-out protagonist whose optimism—whose wanting—gets beaten out of him harder and harder.
“Lacewings” –The Clientele
I feel something like obsession for this band. Not everyone understands it, but some do. I saw them live once, at a one-off show with the original line-up in Brooklyn. Behind me, two men were yelling, “Mexico City, man!” the whole show. They’d driven from Mexico City to New York just to see them. Everyone was swooning so hard (because that’s what one does while listening to The Clientele; one swoons) and Alasdair, overwhelmed, just leaned into the mic, staring out at us all while we screamed, and said, “Wow. You guys are nostalgic tonight.” I still swoon when I think of it.
“Journey in Satchidananda” –Alice Coltrane and Pharaoh Sanders + “Each Time You Fall in Love” –Cigarettes After Sex
These are two songs that are strange to place next to each other, yes. The only reason they go together in my mind is this: I separated from my ex-husband right before embarking on my last round of edits. For a long while, Cigarettes After Sex and Alice Coltrane were all I could listen to. I’m not sure I could explain why exactly. I just found them both very comforting.
“Rose Blood” –Mazzy Star
The first time I heard Mazzy Star I was thirteen and I downloaded So Tonight that I Might See on Napster. It took all night thanks to a dial-up internet connection, but that was okay. That just let me savor each of the songs longer. Listening to Mazzy Star was the first time I’d ever heard a girl sing about her fascination with another girl so directly. It was both scary and absolutely alluring.
“Kicks” –Lou Reed
I bought this album on vinyl, horribly scratched, at Goodwill when I was fifteen. Back then, artists didn’t fit into specific spaces in my mind. I didn’t know about the cultural moment Lou Reed had been a part of. When I discovered a musician at that age it felt like they could belong to any time at all. I didn’t yet know about Studio 54, Andy Warhol, or even The Velvet Underground. All that came later. All I knew then was I could listen to this weird record I’d found over and over—waiting by the record player to gently nudge the needle along each time it was caught.
“Angel in the Snow”–Elliot Smith
You can always count on Elliott to explore the blurriness between love and addiction. How we can use and use and use what we love until everything’s all used up.
Get Out Get Out Get Out –Jason Molina
This one has been in my mind as the “exit music” for Devotion ever since I started writing. I actually wrote the very last lines very early on in the process, and then spent years trying to catch up to that point. I picture credits rolling here. I picture Ella walking away.
Madeline Stevens is a writer from Boring, Oregon, currently based in Los Angeles. She holds an MFA from Columbia University and her work has been published in a variety of literary magazines. She spent seven years working as a nanny in New York City. Devotion is her first novel.
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