Since her 2008 debut, The Summer of Naked Swim Parties, longtime former Baltimorean Jessica Anya Blau has written novels about young women navigating the challenges of growing up in unconventional families. In her sixth novel, Shopgirls, Blau introduces us to nineteen-year-old Zippy Tremblay. It is San Francsico in the 1980s, and Zippy has landed her dream job as a salesgirl at I. Magnin, facing the more experienced sales team with innocence, a strong desire to be a good employee and a good person, and a work wardrobe of three Goodwill outfits that she rotates throughout the week.
Zippy sees the good in everyone. Her curiosity and ambition are grounded in a wholesomeness that seems as retro as the outfits Blau describes, down to the jewel tones, shoulder pads, and gold buttons. Zippy is trying hard to figure out who she really is, what she really wants, how to manage the difficulties that come her way, and how to be worthy of the positive turns her life takes. Her existential musings punctuate the novel’s scenes of grouchy salesladies, entitled customers, and earnest sex advice from Mimi at the makeup counter.
After Yolanda, an impatient and harsh saleslady, snaps at Zippy that life “is all a fraud,” Zippy thinks, “Maybe everything about being alive— other than birth, love, and dying—was fraudulent. But you did it anyway. Buying clothes putting on makeup, going to a bar — it was part of pretending you weren’t on route to death. Simply breathing was a way of saying, I’m here now, I’m here now, I’m here now.”
Early reviewers called Shopgirls “A quirky fairy tale with a vibrantly realized setting and a wonderfully outrageous twist.” We caught up with Jessica in advance of her local launch to find out more.
Baltimore Fishbowl: I know you get this question about your protagonists often, but people want to know! How much of Zippy’s experience in Shopgirls is drawn from your own life? Did you have certain details you knew you wanted to include when you started writing this?
Jessica Anya Blau: This started as a short story that was published in The Sun Magazine. The name of the story is “What Miss Lena Prays For.” My editor at HarperCollins suggested I turn that story into a novel. The question was how?! (Isn’t that always the question?) Everything that happens in the department store is true. I worked at I. Magnin and it was as nutsy and weird (in the best ways) as it is in the book. All the salespeople and all the customers are, essentially, nonfiction. Miss Lena really did go into the fitting rooms, close the three-way mirrors, get down on her knees, and pray for customers.
I really did make paper dolls out of hold tags and play paper dolls with Miss Lena whenever it was slow. The other salesladies were mean to me (I was enthusiastic and young; an over-zealous idiot who was dressed in thrift store clothes spruced up to look like I. Magnin clothes) and the cosmetics ladies gave me lots of advice (all of it reported in the book). So, the store stuff is true. Oh, the day on/day off diet where you only eat every other day is true. I had a roommate who was gorgeous and did a little modeling. She only ate every other day. I tried it, but I lasted one day, and then only until three o’clock when I broke into a box of Triscuits and devoured them like a dog.
BFB: How did the idea for this novel come into focus for you? At what point did Zippy’s character and path become clear.
JAB: I never know what I’m doing when I set out to write a book. I know my character, I know the setting, and I know where I’m starting. But I don’t know what happens until I get there. The first draft of this came pretty quickly and easily. It was during the revision that Zippy’s path became clear. With each draft it was more apparent to me what she really wanted, where she was headed, and whether she’d get there or not.
BFB: Do you have a favorite shopgirl (besides Zippy, of course!)? If so, why?
JAB: I loved Miss Lena. She was all good: kind, supportive, gentle.
BFB: You’ve written quite a few novels with young women as your protagonists. What draws you to their stories?
JAB: I’m constantly stealing from my life. I was a young woman once. I’m currently pretending to still be a young woman. It’s a hard game! I’ve started a novel with a male protagonist. Knowing and understanding male characters doesn’t feel any more difficult than knowing or understanding female characters. We all want the same things: to love and be loved, to feel safe, to feel useful and accomplished. When you throw a bunch of hormones at it, the ways you approach it or think about it can change.
BFB: Shopgirls takes place in the 1980s. Why did you choose this time period?
JAB: I was at I. Magnin in the very late 80s (I left for Canada in November 89), but I placed the book earlier because I wanted AIDS to loom in the background. In the early and mid-eighties there was no cure, people were terrified, and there was all sorts of hysteria around the virus. People thought you could get it from handrails on an escalator or from a server at a restaurant. They continued to think things like that even when science proved otherwise.
BFB: How do you think Zippy’s experience would be different today? I’m thinking both of her career trajectory and her personal life.
JAB: Career-wise it might be the same. Wait! It might not. Nice department stores like that barely exist now, though there are a few in New York City where I live. I wonder if they still have buyer training programs? Personally, things would be very different for Zippy. It’s hard to be naive these days with everything you wish to know on the internet. I’m fairly certain there’s a YouTube video to explain anything from how to kiss to how to make scuffed, old shoes look new.
BFB: This is your sixth novel. What drives you to keep writing? What is the most challenging part of the process? What is your favorite part?
JAB: The most challenging part is the post-publication insecurity and fear. The wanting the book to do well, etc. I don’t read reviews, and I don’t look at Amazon or Goodreads numbers in general (I might check Amazon after something happens, a TV or radio thing, etc.). The best part is revising with the editor’s edits or the copyeditor’s edits. It’s fun and it’s interesting. It’s like doing a puzzle. My editor will pose questions and I’ll have to figure out how to solve the problem she’s just thrown at me.
I like seeing the metrics that the copyeditors produce, their style and content guide that shows terms, words, character lists, place lists, an exact timeline, and unique terms and checked spelling. The alphabetical index of checked terms & spellings is my favorite. The V section of Shopgirls has only three words: VD (which, for those who don’t know, is Venereal Disease), Velveeta and Venus de Milo. Where else might you find those three things clumped together?
BFB: When did you leave Baltimore? What do you miss most about it?
JAB: No one ever leaves Baltimore. Once you’ve lived here, it’s in your blood, your soul. Did Frank Zappa ever really leave?! No! Lucile Clifton? No! Poe? No, no, no, no! Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald?! NAH! Philip Glass? NEVER! I miss the people of Baltimore, most of all. There’s a wonderful coziness in Baltimore—you never feel left out or like an outsider. Weird is celebrated (as it should be!). Maybe that should be the city motto: Baltimore: Even the Weirdos are Popular. I did move to New York City five years ago, but my heart remains in Baltimore.
Baltimore Launch:
June 6, 6pm at The Ivy Bookshop. In conversation with Liz Hazen and Scott Price, author of The American Game; music by Steve Martel.
