Photo by Ash Barhamand

The Assistants (LJ 4/1/16), Camille Perri’s lighthearted first novel, speaks directly—and with a pointed dose of cheek—to the increasing student debt burden on millennials. Here Perri, a millennial herself, discusses her writing process and her thoughts on the current economic and political climate. Would you call that initial pivotal moment for protagonist Tina—when she decides to steal money from her boss—an escapist fantasy or a call to action? CP: I think it is a little bit of both. Escapist fantasy as this is a novel that’s not meant to be a blueprint for assistants on how to steal from their bosses. I did want it to be fun and for there to be that escapist-like, revenge-fantasy element. But beneath the entertainment value, I did want it to address these really important issues that my generation and this country are facing in terms of student loan debt. Many characters in the book pour forth their stories about student loan debt. Did you do any research to make those experiences accessible? Well, I was working as an assistant while I wrote this [novel]. I still have student loan debt, so a lot of this [story] did come from personal experience. It’s not so easy to learn about people’s debt. We’re taught that it’s not polite to talk about money. Even though student debt is an honorable form of debt, it can still make you feel like it’s not something you want to talk about in mixed company. In terms of research, I thought about the things that I was going through and the frustrations that I was coming up against, and trying to think about all the ways in which my experience was universal, in a way. This is a hopeful novel in the sense that change can come from the bottom up. Especially in this election year, we’ve seen that separation between the haves and have-nots. Do you think that such a massive disconnect can allow for real transformation? I’m so happy to hear that you think there is hope in the novel, because I was hoping that would be the case. Yes, I think that the disconnect that you’re talking about is really the main difference between the very rich and the middle class, and the middle class to the working class and the working poor, and down to the very poor. You almost become tone-deaf to others’ experiences. The main thing with Tina and Robert is that Robert is this billionaire, and one-percenters aren’t necessarily evil, they’re just out of touch with how regular people live. In the same way that if we enjoy a certain amount of comfort as a middle-class person, we can be just as guilty of being less attuned to what those who have less struggle with, and even the privileges we as Americans take for granted globally.

I do think that there’s hope for change—look at our elections right now. You know, I am hopeful for the future because I think we’ve come to a breaking point. It’s reaching the consciousness of the everyday person, and we all recognize that we’re living in a time of unprecedented income inequality since maybe the Gilded Age or maybe post-Depression.

It makes a lot of sense that women are the focus of this novel; the pay gap means that women are carrying more debt and for longer periods, and it’s far worse for women of color. How did you manage to keep a balanced sense of humor with such a weighty topic? I definitely have my editors to thank for that. They kept me on the right track because I surely could spin out at times. My first draft was a lot more wonky. I had to pull back the politics a bit. It was way more militant, in a way, the voice was a little more aggressive, and there was a moment where I came upon this line and thought “this is kind of funny.” It made me laugh a little and all of a sudden, something in me went, “Oh! This has to be funny!” I realized that I wanted this to be a book version of a modern-day Nine to Five. There was a very conscious moment where I realized I had to go back and lighten it up and change up the voice. I wanted to write a socially conscious novel, but the last thing you want to do is come off as if you’re writing a socially conscious novel. You started as a reference librarian and have worked as a book editor at Cosmopolitan. What lures you in for pleasure reading? Well, up until very recently I’ve been working with books so much that I’ve hardly had time to read for pleasure. A lot of times I have to be careful about the fiction that I read because if it has a strong voice I find that I’ll start mimicking it when I sit down to write. Right now I’m reading Megan Abbot’s You Will Know Me and Laura Lippmann’s Wilde Lake. I have a book here that I haven’t started, Matthew Desmond’s Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City. That’s the kind of thing I like to read for pleasure. I like to feel like I’m learning.—Julie Kane, Washington & Lee Lib., Lexington, VA