Ana Kinsella’s Book Notes music playlist for her novel Frida Slattery As Herself

In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book. Previous contributors include Jesmyn Ward, Lauren Groff, Bret Easton Ellis, Celeste Ng, T.C. Boyle, Dana Spiotta, Amy Bloom, Aimee Bender, Roxane Gay, and many others. Ana Kinsella’s novel Frida Slattery As Herself is a spellbinding debut delivering poignant themes of art, power, and achievement. Elif Batuman wrote of the book: “Frida Slattery As Herself is a deft, profound, and seemingly effortless portrayal of how a series of artworks—as well as the personal and professional lives of the artists—takes shape over fifteen years, spanning the 2008 financial crisis, Me Too, and COVID. Ana Kinsella manages to deliver all the pleasures of a comic-romantic novel while thinking through a satisfying number of big themes: gender politics and financial precarity, the mysteries of artistic collaboration, and the relentless tug-of-war between freedom and security.…