Soufflés and Sonatas: An Interview with Jandy Nelson

Jandy Nelson’s new novel When the World Tips Over is the October ParnassusNext pick. I read it many months ago, and I’m still thinking about the Fall siblings and everyone in their orbit. I’m so excited that it’s in the hands and on the shelves of our ParnassusNext subscribers. The book has a beautiful cover, but it’s just a complement to what’s inside. Thank you to Jandy Nelson for taking the time to talk with me!

— Rae Ann Parker, Director of Books for Young Readers

Jandy Nelson | Photo by Sonya Sones

Rae Ann Parker: When the World Tips Over is the story of the Fall family. It’s the story of a rainbow-haired girl who may or may not be an angel. It’s the story of a family curse that filters down through the years. It’s amazing and enchanting! Which of these storylines came to you first? Or did they happen all at once?

Jandy Nelson: Thank you so much! The Fall siblings came first, but strangely, they came to me because of an old, abandoned house. For years, I’d travel north from San Francisco through wine-country, and I’d pass this big white house tucked away in the redwoods by a creek. It seemed perpetually light-struck and enchanted, and every time I’d drive by, I was compelled to stop, tromp around, peek in the windows, and soon I began imagining the Fall kids there. The front door would blow open, and I’d see nineteen-year-old human-minefield Wynton Fall, violin in hand. Or I’d catch a glimpse of seventeen-year-old Miles Fall in an upstairs window, harboring secrets. Or I’d spot through the kitchen window twelve-year-old Dizzy Fall—a wild commotion of a girl who sees spirits—pulling a soufflé out of the oven.

I began falling for these characters but still had no story. Then one day, the rainbow-haired girl showed up in my mind. I knew who she was and that’s when I knew I had a novel and began to write. I dropped the big white house into dreamy, half-magical Paradise Springs—a fictional Northern California wine town, where the sun floods out of the sky and The Devil Winds blow your reason away. And, soon after this, the previous generations of Falls who lived in the house began revealing themselves to me too, and almost a decade of writing later here we are!

But the strangest part of this origin story is that I drove north recently after finishing the novel and the old house is gone! Vanished. I’m so glad I took pictures because I might’ve thought I imagined it. I guess it left real world now that it lives on in this fictional one!

The house that inspired the Fall siblings

RAP: The Fall siblings are all named after musicians. Is music a big part of your life, and how did music influence this novel?

JN: I love music but have no musical ability whatsoever so maybe I live vicariously and aspirationally through my musician characters! I think in the story, music is an invisible thread that binds certain characters. Wynton remembers being a child in the vineyard with his father playing the trumpet, and long after his father disappears, he continues to hear this ghost-music and follows it wherever it leads him. Additionally, Wynton, a virtuoso, cries when he plays violin and has to wear sunglasses to cover it up. In my mind, the weeping is because the one person he most needs to hear his music (his father) never will. Making music for him is breath, prayer, hope, as I think creativity is for all the characters in the novel, whether it’s making music or stories or soufflés. Actually, I hadn’t thought about this before, but I think Creativity functions as this novel’s religion.

RAP: The Fall siblings’ mother is a professional chef. When we met at Children’s Institute, you mentioned you created recipes of food featured in the book. What type of food research did you do for the book?

Jandy presents her soufflé!

JN: First, I want to say it was it was so nice meeting you! Okay, I’m a research junkie, and this was the most fun research I’ve ever done! I’m quite obsessed with food and cooking (and eating!) anyway so being able to indulge in this passion while in Bernadette’s POV was a joy. I took a lot of cooking classes, three on soufflé making because soufflés—aphrodisiacal ones!—feature so prominently in the book. I also read many, many cookbooks and food memoirs and had a great time creating certain menus that are featured in the novel. Additionally, I did a deep-dive into wine-making, went on vineyard tours (such a hard life!), and read several books on enology. I do actually think I went a little overboard on this particular kind of research out of the sheer pleasure of it and could now probably open a restaurant or start a winery. It’s one of the great delights of writing fiction for me, indulging in the passions of my characters. There are method actors, I think I’m kind of a method writer.

RAP: Do you have a favorite character in the book? If you could have dinner with them, what food would be on the menu and what music would be playing?

JN: Oh my God that’s like asking me to pick a favorite child! I can’t choose! Each main character—Dizzy, Miles, Wynton, Cassidy, Bernadette, Alonso—in the novel has been my favorite at one time or another so I would really like to eat with all of them—have an epic feast out in the vineyard in the moonlight with Wynton playing violin—maybe Eugene Ysaye’s Sonata #3 like he did at his show. I think Bernadette would create the menu and Felix would be her sous chef. I’m pretty sure Bernadette would make the last meal featured in the book, which in my mind she spent ages creating: Amuse Bouche: Oysters with Sea Urchin, Lemon Pearls, and Black Pepper; Starter: A Tower of Scallops, Cucumbers, Nectarines, topped with a Cardamom and Horseradish Sauce; Main: Tender Roast Chicken Smothered in Elderberry Juice, Olives, and Capers: Dessert: Dizzy’s Pansy Petal Crêpes with Lavender Cream (of course!). Bon appétit to us!

RAP: And finally, we ask everyone… What is your favorite thing about indie bookstores?

JN: So many favorite things! I love them. I love that they are full of kindred souls who are all in on the greatest secret, the greatest magic: that reading allows you to squeeze many lives into your measly one. I love staff favorite shelves and shelf-talkers and booksellers who’ve read everything and lead you to books you’ve never heard of. I love that each indie has its own personality, its own voice. I love that anywhere in the world you go, walking into an indie bookstore feels like home. Ezra Pound said, “The book should be a ball of light in the hand.” I believe it is and that indie bookstores then are the blazing lighthouses in our communities, illuminating everything, helping us all find our way. This couldn’t be truer than in this time of terrible book bannings. I am so grateful to indie booksellers (the light-keepers, then) who do so much to get the right book into the right hands, especially young hands. It changes lives, saves lives even.

When the World Tips Over is on our shelves now! Grab your copy, then click here to learn more about our young adult subscription box, ParnassusNext.