Matt Norman has a way of capturing the sweet, slow burn of romantic connection – those tentative first sparks of attraction, the uncertainty and self-consciousness that follow, and the complications that defer the first kiss. His new novel, Grace and Henry’s Holiday Movie Marathon, follows the tradition established with his earlier books, but delves into new territory as well. His central characters are widow and widower, navigating the challenges of mid-life in the wake of terrible grief, not actively looking for love at all, just trying to find a way to keep going. Luckily for them – and for us – they find each other. And while loss is a central theme, the overarching message is one of hope and resilience – and there is plenty of humor to balance the sadness.
With an engaging plot and the smart, funny dialogue that we have come to expect from Norman, Grace and Henry’s Holiday Movie Marathon gives us a cast of relatable, complex, and idiosyncratic characters. Norman places them in scenes that are so vividly wrought, readers will feel like they are right there on the sofa watching movies and eating M&Ms with them. What a pleasure to spend time with Henry who “looks like the first guy you go out with in your midtwenties after you decide once and for all to stop dating complete assholes” and Grace who owns a bar called “Edgar Allan’s” and extols the virtues of Costco sweatpants. The novel is filled with local color for us Baltimoreans, capturing the quirky vibes of our great city.
We chatted with Matt Norman and learned a bit more about Henry and Grace.
Baltimore Fishbowl: This is your sixth novel. How do you think your work has changed over time? What do you think has remained consistent?
Matt Norman: When I happen to glance back at my earlier books—particularly my first two—I see a writer who was trying very hard to get noticed and break through. I like those books, and I stand by them all these years later, but I’m more at ease in my own skin now, and I think that shows on a sentence-to-sentence level. That said, esthetically and thematically my books all sit nicely together on a bookshelf. I still have soft spot for villainless stories, broad comedy, and adult characters who are maybe not 100% prepared for adulthood.
BFB: The main characters in this novel are both dealing with the loss of their spouses. What inspired you to write a romance that has grief at its center?
MN: I loved the idea of writing a story that weaves back and forth between comedy and despair and romance and grief. It created some tonal challenges, for sure, but mixing disparate emotions felt very realistic to me—the equivalent of a sneaky laugh at a funeral or a guy telling a dad joke on his deathbed. Joy, fear, horror, heartbreak. I’ve been around long enough to know that just about any emotion I can imagine is right around the corner at any given moment.
BFB: Grace’s children are such terrific characters, and they are integral to the development of Grace and Henry’s relationship. Many of your previous books have had kids and young adults play significant roles as well. Why do you think that is? How do you go about writing child characters?
MN: Kids are great literary devices; they’re often very funny, and they’re experts at revealing unfiltered truths. Since I tend to write about adults in their thirties and forties, I’m very often writing about people who have children. If I’m able to write young characters well, all credit goes to my kids, whom I’ve been stealing from since they were toddlers. Listening to them talk for five minutes is like taking a master’s-level writing class. The other day, I was giving my older daughter a driving lesson. When I got annoyed with her for ignoring a stop sign, she looked over and said, “Bro, chill, I basically stopped.” What an absolutely perfect line of dialogue!
BFB: I don’t want to give away too much, but can you share a bit about where you got the idea for the mice?
MN: Right after college, a friend and I rented an old house in Omaha, where I’m originally from. Our first winter there, some mice showed up and started acting like they owned the place. They were a nuisance, obviously, but I couldn’t get over how cute they were. After scouring the late-90s Internet, I stumbled across these things called “humane traps.” A week or so later, as I shuffled through my frozen neighborhood trying to figure out how to safely reintroduce my captured mice into the wild, I thought, “This feels like a metaphor for something.” It only took twenty-five years to figure out how to use that experience in a book.
BFB: What is your writing routine like? Has it changed over time?
MN: I’ve gotten more organized over the years, which means I’m better now about outlining and thinking things through than I was earlier in my career. I don’t know if that’s made the books any better, but it’s allowed me to write them faster and with fewer emotional breakdowns. My philosophy has stayed the same, though. I clock in every weekday while my kids are at school, chip away slowly, and vow to do the same thing tomorrow. A little bit every day adds up surprisingly fast.
BFB: Several of your books take place in Baltimore, including this one. Why do you choose to set the stories here? What do you think makes Baltimore special?
MN: I could go with a lazy answer here. I believe novels should be set in specific locations, and since I live in Baltimore I might as well just look out my window, right? It’s so much more than that, though.
Baltimore, in my opinion, is an ideal place to set a book. It has its own distinct personality, accent, and cuisine. (Crabs, hon?) And its unique size offers all the culture and diversity of a big city while simultaneously maintaining a quaint, neighborhood-like vibe. It’s just a terrific place.
BFB: Romantic comedy seems to be dominated by female authors. What draws you to this genre?
MN: You’re right, and, honestly, I don’t know. For better or worse, writers write the books that we’re meant to write. These are just the stories that come to me, and they’re the ones that excite and inspire me enough to get me to the keyboard every day. I sometimes wonder if I’d be able to write a thriller or a war story or a horror novel. Maybe, but I bet readers would be able to tell that my heart wasn’t in it.
BFB: What’s your opinion on holiday movies? Do you like them as much as I’m assuming you do?
MN: Sigh, yeah, I do. Some of the classics feature moments that haven’t aged well, and I think it’s fair to call those moments out, which Grace does a few times in the book. But there’s just something about holiday movies that keeps me coming back year after year. I don’t know. Maybe the fact that I’m usually drinking for 30 days straight has something to do with it.
Launch Event
October 14 at 6 pm at The Ivy Bookshop, in conversation with Leslie Gray Streeter
