The Most

Chloe Norman in conversation with Jessica Anthony on her new novel.

Jessica Anthony’s newest novel The Most follows Kathleen Lovelace, a disenchanted housewife whose spontaneous decision to spend the day at the pool one morning sparks a profound journey of self-discovery and marital introspection. 

Set over the course of eight hours against the backdrop of Sputnik 2’s orbit, the novel delves into themes of personal autonomy, self-exploration, and marital discontent. Anthony’s novel skillfully straddles the line between literary read and perfect beach book, with shades of Mad Men, John Cheever and Grace Metalious’ Peyton Place—all from the canon of midcentury suburban ennui. 

Set in the 1950s, The Most captures the era’s growing fascination with suburban family ideals. Across the country, popular culture became inundated with the suburban lifestyle aesthetic, with the beautiful, doting housewife touted as its main focal point. While the 1950s housewife archetype has blessedly faded, modern literary works reflect new forms of social pressure interwoven throughout women’s personal relationships—the new marriage and (non-)monogamy plot putting fresh demands on personal fulfillment, whether of the Fates and Furies (Lauren Groff) or All Fours (Miranda July) variety. 

A few days ago, I had the opportunity to have a written Q&A with Anthony, where we delved into the writing process and conceptualization behind her newest novel. —Chloe Norman & Daisy Alioto

Chloe Norman: Was there a specific moment that you knew that this was the next book that you needed to write?

Jessica Anthony: Stories are always a slow simmer for me. I had been thinking of writing a short novel about a 50s housewife for several years, as I’m interested in the fiction, plays and poetry written by American women in the 50s. Many women back then wrote about the condition of the married woman, and I thought attempting to write a book which felt like a discovered lost novel from the 50s would be a curious thing to do. I typically wait until I have a large amount of free time to start a novel, so the first draft can be written quickly. For The Most, this happened to be the summer of 2017.

CN: Could you elaborate on the significance of the title and its connection to the novel’s broader themes?

JA: I don’t believe in themes in fiction, but the title is deliberately cunning: readers learn that the word “most” in Czech and Slovak means “bridge.”

CN: How did you approach character development while writing your novel, specifically with Kathleen and Virgil?

JA: Characters, like us, have a past, present and future. My wonderful former writing instructor, Alan Cheuse, once advised us to know the story of our characters’ grandparents, so that we can know how they came to be who they are. It was pure pleasure to imagine how Kathleen and Virgil’s parents might have met, how their very different upbringings created an inexorable meeting one afternoon in the audio room of a college library.

CN: One of my favorite quotes from the book is when you write, “But Kathleen was not ready to get out of the pool. Once she got out, everything would go back to normal, and normal was no longer acceptable.” What did you intend for the pool to symbolize in Kathleen’s life and in the broader context of the story?

JA: I only know that when Kathleen got up and decided to go for a swim, she didn’t know what would happen to her that day because I didn’t know. Her decision to stay in the pool was not premeditated—we don’t always know the reasons why we desire what we desire. When she begins to understand her desire to stay in the pool, it becomes very evident that leaving the pool is not an option. She has subconsciously committed herself to a moment in her marriage when the truth can, at long last, come out…

CN: I loved how the book was set over the course of eight hours and paced as a single-sitting read. Was this pacing intentional from the start, and, if so, how did you achieve it?

JA: Thank you! What conflict is possible to develop, and indeed how it develops, has much to do with time. I knew from the beginning that the present conflict of the story would happen over the course of one day. You learn quickly how much time you can spend in scene or in narrative when writing in such a specific container.

CN: On the other hand, because the story was set over a short period of time, how did you ensure that the depth of the characters and their relationships were fully explored?

JA: I was writing as much about who Kathleen and Virgil were as who they are. The novel is short, and it readily fits the terms of a novella. The novella is a widely misunderstood genre of fiction, in that it is not a length, but it is a form that typically meets a certain length. That’s an important distinction. The novella tradition goes back to Boccaccio’s Decameron, and usually aligns itself, in a sensory way, with the oral tradition. One should feel, reading a novella, as though they are settling in to listen to a long tale.

CN: On a more personal note, were there any specific authors or literary works that have influenced your writing style and shaped your approach to storytelling? 

JA: For The Most, I enjoyed reading fiction that occurred over the course of a day, or in some cases just a few hours, such as Seize the Day, by Saul Bellow, or The Mezzanine, by Nicholson Baker.

CN: How did your story evolve throughout the editing process? Were there any major changes from your initial draft?

JA: I was incredibly fortunate to work with the brilliant editor Jean Garnett, who also edited my previous novel, Enter the Aardvark. The structure of the novel was intact from the first draft, but I loved the experience of rethinking the character of a specific moment or detail, or meditating on diction.

CN: Given that the story acted as a microcosm of domestic life in 1957, how does the story address gender roles and expectations of the 1950s?

JA: The problems which currently exist in marriage were the same in the 50s as they are now, except women could not buy their own home, open their own bank account. There was no birth control pill, and job opportunities were very few, and the pay was abysmal.

Less than 10% of American women went to college. It’s very difficult for us to imagine this, but many women simply accepted the fishbowl they were forced to live in. Kathleen is, in her way, a radical—but she is not rebelling against the patriarchal structure, or her time of life as an American, she is rebelling against herself, or the person she’s been for the past nine years. A character always comes alive through the terms of their singularity. 🏊🏻