Debbie disappears after the narrator and her share some mystery pills. MADIEVSKY: So her sister, Debbie, leads her on a lot of very cursed expeditions that end terribly - you know, often with them hooking up with all the wrong people, doing all the wrong drugs in all the wrong places. Can you say a little bit about that decision? But instead of going to look for Debbie, your narrator decides not to go look for her - to kind of brush it off. So that's part of the key and why our narrator isn't willing to cut her toxic sister loose - is this kind of idea that, you know, for people who have survived Soviet terror and the Holocaust, we don't just abandon family members, even if they kind of suck.įLORIDO: Well, as I said, Debbie goes missing. And so I was thinking a lot about Soviet terror and the Holocaust and how that might manifest in, you know, first-, second-, third-generation immigrants who did not experience that historical trauma themselves, but who were raised by parents and grandparents who had been through that, and how having survived these horrors might make you a little bit more hesitant to become estranged from a family member, even if you know they're toxic and that your life would probably be better off without them. MADIEVSKY: You know, I was interested especially in how historical traumas affect people who are several generations removed. Why did you want to explore a toxic relationship between two sisters? Her blood was that close to the surface.įLORIDO: You really get a sense that these two sisters are a study in contrasts. I could hear her heart beating from another room. You could fall asleep spooning her and wake up with a screwdriver pressed to your throat. She was only 5'2", but that made her more powerful. People said we looked alike, but no one ever mistook one of us for the other. (Reading) Debbie had big, blue eyes and a pout that made men do stupid things. I really like the way your narrator describes her sister, and I wonder if you could just read us another one of those descriptions from one of your book's opening passages? It kind of feels like it's none of my business.įLORIDO: Hmm. I don't even know what her name is, honestly. And her arc involves the question of - will she get some agency, and will she figure out who she is? So it felt too hard to pin her down with any particular name. So she's kind of a blank slate for a lot of the book. She describes her relationship with her sister, Debbie, as Debbie being the artist and the narrator being canvas. MADIEVSKY: So the narrator is kind of a cipher, right? Like, she is consumed with unease over how to be a person. And when I spoke with Madievsky about it, I asked her why. This younger sister never gets a name in the book. And her younger sister, who has always wanted to break free from Debbie's toxic influence, decides not to go looking for her. It's called "All Night Pharmacy." The story gets its thrust when, one day, Debbie goes missing. I wanted to live for more than fleeting hits of chaos.įLORIDO: That is author Ruth Madievsky reading from her debut novel. I didn't want to rely on precarious jobs or on men to stay afloat. RUTH MADIEVSKY: (Reading) I didn't want to be like Debbie. But Debbie is volatile and addicted to prescription drugs, and her relationship with her sister, the novel's narrator, is an unhealthy, conflicted one. In a new novel set in Los Angeles, a young woman loves her older sister, Debbie, deeply.
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