Excerpt
I show up at Sara’s house around
eight, and book club is in full swing. I’ve come straight from the office, and
my prescription is still in my purse. I’d say that I haven’t had time to fill
it, but even I know that for once, lack of time isn’t the issue.
I
ring the bell. Zoe answers and steps out onto the porch with me for a moment.
“I was hoping it was you,” she says. “I’m not ready to tell anyone else about
what’s going on with Richard, OK?” She gestures toward the house, where the
rest of the book club is waiting.
“Of
course,” I say. And in any event, I feel a little fuzzy on the details of Zoe’s
marital crisis. Lunch feels as though it happened a week and not six hours ago.
“How
are you feeling?” I ask.
She
shrugs. “It helped to see you at lunch,” she says. “But I think this is one of
those situations where it’s going to keep feeling worse until something big
changes. I’m just not ready to think about what the something big is.” I give
her a hug, and we go in. “Look everyone,” she calls. “It’s a special guest
appearance by Sophie!” She drags me into the living room, where the rest of the
book club bursts into enthusiastic applause.
“I
haven’t read the book,” I say.
“Don’t
be silly,” says Laura. “No one ever reads the book.”
“I
do,” says Sara pointedly. “And it would be great if we could make a tiny effort
to talk about it once in a while, even for five minutes. Hi, Soph.” She pauses.
“What did you do to your arm?”
“I
sprained my wrist,” I say. “It’s nothing.”
“What
was the book again?” asks Laura.
Sara
raises an eyebrow. “Are you really interested, or are you just trying to humor
me?”
Laura
laughs. “Was it good?”
“Not
especially,” says Sara. “We can stop talking about it now. What’s Megan going
on about?”
Like
Sara, Megan is one of my old friends from the student newspaper, and I’ve
caught her in mid-rant. Nora is leaning back slightly to avoid Megan’s violent
gesticulations, which are, as usual, aimed at hapless, absent Bob: “And then he
looks into the stroller and says, ‘I’m starting to get to the point where I
remember that he’s around. Do you know what I mean?’ And I think, ‘What kind of
fucking question is that? It’s kind of hard for me to forget that our
baby is around when he’s hanging off my tit 24/7, but I guess you
don’t have that problem, do you Bob?’ Honestly! I just looked at him and said
‘I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about.’”
Megan
takes a breath, looks around, and realizes that she is the main attraction.
“Hi, Sophie,” she says. “Good to see you.”
I
wave. “Still married?”
Megan
snorts. “Barely,” she says, but she smiles a little before turning back to Nora
to continue itemizing Bob’s shortcomings as a husband and father.
“What
can I get you to drink?” asks Zoe. “Prosecco?” I nod, and she disappears into
the kitchen. I sit down next to Sara.
“How
have you been?” she asks.
“Bad
day to ask,” I say. “I’d say I’ve been stressed to the point of hysteria, while
at the same time struggling to find enough meaning in my work to justify my
level of anxiety. I mean, shouldn’t you have to care about a job to get this
worked up about it?”
“Of
course not!” Zoe reappears with my glass and plops down on the sofa with us.
“Do you remember the I Love Lucy episode where Lucy and Ethel are
working on an assembly line at a chocolate factory? No? You know the scene in Pretty
Woman where Richard Gere takes Julia Roberts up to the penthouse for the
first time, and they have a fight, and then they make up, and then they stay up
late watching TV?”
“Oh,
yeah,” says Sara. “Right before she gives him the blow job.”
“Exactly.
That moment where you think, am I really supposed to be rooting for
these two to get together in the end?”
“Totally.”
Megan and Nora have finished with Bob and rejoin the group. “But they aren’t
watching the chocolate factory episode,” Megan says. “They’re watching the
wine-making one, where Lucy runs around in a giant barrel and throws grapes at
everyone.”
Zoe
rolls her eyes. “The point I’m making,” she says, with the deliberate
enunciation of a woman who has had too much Prosecco, “is that the chocolate
factory is a perfect example of a job that is both stressful and meaningless.
The chocolate starts coming faster and faster and they can’t wrap it quickly
enough, and by the end they are stuffing the chocolates down their shirts and
in their mouths and looking completely panic-stricken, but to no real end.”
“And
this relates to Sophie’s job how?” asks Laura.
Zoe
waves her hand vaguely. “Email, voicemail, staff meetings – the whole tedious
routine is a modern-day, white-collar version of the conveyor belt.”
“Well,
that’s a pretty bleak assessment,” I say.
“Only
if you plan to be stuck beside the conveyor belt for the rest of your life,”
says Zoe. “But since you don’t actually work in a chocolate factory, you have a
few options. And if you would admit that you are having a midlife crisis, you
could start looking at ways to change it up.”
“I’m
not having a midlife crisis,” I say.
Laura
laughs. “Everyone’s having a midlife crisis, Sophie,” she says. “You might as
well join the club.”
Interview
with the Author:
When did you know you wanted to become
an author?
I’ve wanted to be a
writer for as long as I can remember, but I didn’t have a story that I needed
to tell and life filled up with other pursuits and priorities. Then, just
before my 38th birthday, a character (Lil Parker) started to take
shape. I couldn’t get her and her fox stole out of my head, and the story
evolved from there.
Where did you come up with the premise
for this book?
I wanted to try to
write a book for working moms in their 40s. I loved I Don’t Know How
She Does It, but I wanted to find a book that spoke to women in my own
generation (Generation X) who were juggling the demands of work and
family. I couldn’t find that book, so I decided to write it.
Describe your book in three words.
Smart, funny, real.
What can your readers expect next from
you?
I’d love to know the answer to that
question! I’m just starting to think about my next book project. In
the meantime, readers might enjoy smaller doses of my writing on Twitter
(@katemhilton) and on my blog (www.katehilton.com).
Author Bio:
Kate
Hilton has worked in law, higher education, public relations, fundraising and
publishing. She has an English degree from McGill University and a law
degree from the University of Toronto. She holds down a day job,
volunteers for community organizations, raises two boys, cooks, collects art,
reads voraciously and likes her husband. In her free time, she writes. On
good days, she thinks she might have it all. On bad days, she wants a
nap.
The
Hole in the Middle is Kate’s first
book. Kate is represented by Beverley Slopen of the Beverley Slopen
Literary Agency in Toronto.
Connect
with Kate!
Website * Blog *
Facebook page *
Goodreads * Twitter
*Anyone who leaves a
comment on the tour page will be entered to win a $20 Amazon
gift card! Anyone who purchases their copy of The Hole in the
Middle before January 27 and sends their receipt to Samantha
(at) ChickLitPlus (dot) com will get 5 bonus entries!*
