Clifford Thompson’s Book Notes music playlist for his novel Let Us Go Then, You and I

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, Hanif Abdurraqib, Andrew Sean Greer, Roxane Gay, and many others. Clifford Thompson’s novel Let Us Go Then, You and I is a remarkable fiction debut. Kirkus wrote of the book: “A midlife-crisis novel that searches for the meaning of life with sympathy and compassion.” In his own words, here is Clifford Thompson’s Book Notes music playlist for his debut novel Let Us Go Then, You and I: The novel begins in 2002 with Theo Brown, who has lived in his grandfather’s house in Washington, DC, for all of his 37 years, lamenting the recent death of Charles Maddox, his best friend since fourth grade and a successful journalist in New York City. Charles died of a drug overdose, but there are questions about why. The song here is “It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye…