58 pages • 1 hour read
Lily KingWriters and Lovers
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2020A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Dreams Come True with Perseverance
Writers & Lovers is a novel an author writing a novel. Its themes aren’t necessarily self-conscious, but it is self-aware. There’s a metacognitive theme behind Lily King writing and publishing this book, relating to the love, blood, sweat, and tears a writer puts into their work. A major theme is therefore that dreams can come true with perseverance, as is demonstrated by Casey’s relentless commitment to her lifestyle. Even though her life is stressful and harder than the lives of her peers who chose more stable careers, that Casey can’t help but to live for her writing shows that her dream of expressing herself and being published is more than a goal—it’s a way of being. Casey rejects opportunities that could provide her with more security because those opportunities would take away from her writing time. Casey is non-negotiable about being a writer, often at the cost of her wellbeing. That Casey is ultimately successful in finishing and selling her novel shows the reader that the writer’s life is worth the struggle and the risk. Casey is talented and works hard, but it is her perseverance and unwillingness to give up on herself that drives her to success. King encourages her readers to appreciate the unique challenges of being a writer, specifically targeting those who may also be writers just like Casey. King wants her reader to walk away from the novel knowing that if you’re true to yourself and your art, your potential is limitless.
The People you Surround Yourself with Have a Deep Influence on your Life
As solitary as Casey’s life can sometimes be, the influences of her social life are crucial to her understanding of herself and her world. The novel includes “lovers” in the title, foreshadowing the importance of love on a writer’s ability to perceive, imagine, and create. Casey relishes her free life, but she also needs positive social interactions. Her friend Muriel is an excellent example of how important a social support system is. There are many accomplishments Casey would not have reached if Muriel had not facilitated opportunities and offered her genuine help. Casey is not Muriel’s charity case; rather they are good friends who understand one another and respect each other. This mutual care feeds much of Casey’s life.
Furthermore, Casey is constantly searching for love and looking for emotional connections with men. The first relationship King explores is Casey’s passionate fling with Luke, setting up the reader to judge Casey’s immersive love for men she feels attracted and connected to. But as the book continues and Casey dates both Oscar and Silas, the reader begins to understand why Casey is so interested in these types of relationships even though they continue to fail her. Once the reader understands that most of Casey’s friends have moved on to different lives without her, that she is estranged from her father, and that her mother’s death has left her reeling, the topic of love as an important priority for Casey is a logical progression of her characterization
Oscar influences Casey’s life because she realizes how much she wants children, and Silas influences Casey’s life because he’s the first who shows her the appreciation and empathy she extends to others. Casey’s lack of a relationship with her father influences her to distrust men, and her grief over the loss of her relationship with her mother informs most of her feelings for the majority of the novel. King also characterizes Iris with the unique personalities of people who work there, implying that Casey’s job is to observe how people are. As much as Casey might need to be single or alone to write, she truly needs and wants people. King uses Casey’s desire for human connection to promote the idea that social relationships are important and that they influence the way individuals view their lives and themselves.
The Importance of Living One’s Own Truth
At stake in this novel are the many dreams and ways of living available to people. Casey represents the theme of the importance of living your own truth because it is easy for her peers to judge the instability of her lifestyle. Although Casey struggles, she relishes her independence from her father and the time she earns to devote to her writing. King often uses Casey as a foil to other characters who seem to have their lives more together in order to highlight the reality that the characters who try to live inside society’s boxes are not necessarily happier nor better. Compared to secondary or marginal characters such as Adam or Tara, Casey is more honest, genuine, and empathetic, even though Adam and Tara view her as immature. The more readers learn about Casey’s upbringing, the more they value Casey’s decision to liberate herself from her father’s expectations, even though fulfilling those desires would have made her life arguably more financially secure.
Even in juxtaposition with Oscar, who has made a secure life out of an insecure artistic calling, Casey’s commitment to herself is highlighted as more admirable because she doesn’t use and abuse others to make herself and her life seem better. Only Muriel and Silas provide examples of characters who also live their lives without the constructed illusion of happiness; they are both committed to their artistic work but realistic about how to navigate adult responsibilities. As she discovers with the help of her therapist, Casey’s life is worthy of the struggles she puts herself through because it is wholly hers.
