On Friday, Feb. 28, EMU’s Language and Literature Department hosted a Writer’s Read in Martin Chapel. Rachel Yoder headlined the event with her novel “Nightbitch,” a magical-realism story about a stay at home mother who occasionally turns into a dog. Hulu recently adapted the novel into a film starring Amy Adams.
To start the evening, Yoder expressed her gratitude for being invited and made a joke about being a “bad Mennonite” before beginning her reading. Yoder provided a bit of background to get people interested in the book, detailing the strange things that may be happening in real life, or at least inside the mother’s head, as she transforms into a dog throughout her experience of stay at home motherhood. She read excerpts from the novel detailing the mother’s transformation, along with a letter the mother wrote saying she never thought this would be her life, expressing frustrations with her lack of time, energy, and inspiration after becoming a parent.
After the reading, Yoder was joined on stage by EMU’s Kirsten Beachy, an Associate Professor of English, for a talkback. They talked about the novel’s cult following, and the feelings that were captured as a trend among mothers who have read the book, including Amy Adams and her explanation of the exhaustion and frustration really resonating with her. At Beachy’s request, Yoder read another excerpt where the mother is asked by a friend how she’s doing with being a stay at home mom. Instead of explaining how she feels like she is turning into a dog, and her constant anger, the mother chooses to say she’s fine.
After more discussion, including Yoder talking about how she handles and views anger and how the book evolved during her writing, the conversation was opened to audience questions.
One audience member asked “One of my favorite things about that book was the namelessness of the characters, and I wondered if they ever had names as you were working on it?” Yoder responded, “I started out without names, and then at one point I remember thinking well, for this to be a respectable novel, they do need to be specific people and have names. And I think I thought that for maybe one minute, because the thought of making them that specific, it felt too close.” She continued, explaining she wanted it to be more like a folk tale, given that the mother does turn into a dog, which earned some laughter from the crowd.
When asked if the movie met her expectations, Yoder said “…I think my greatest hope when I finished the book was that a handful of women read this book and are inspired to return to the thing that makes them them. So when Marielle came and said ‘Well I want to make a movie,’ I was like, you can make whatever movie you want. I’m going to love it because that is what this book is about.”
The event concluded with a book signing, and copies of “Nightbitch” were available for purchase.
