Kim Martin asked Bonnie Garmus:

I was thinking about your use of humor and how to classify it- it seems to have some qualities of absurdism but it doesn’t feel quite like satire. How would you classify it? The novel had an almost Vonnegut- feel, like it’s the novel he’d write if he was a woman living through sexism today. I was floored to listen to your interview and learn that you share a copywriting background.

Bonnie Garmus I have no idea how I'd classify it so your guess is as good as mine! But Vonnegut--that's a very generous comparison--thank you. Copywriters get a lot of practice writing, and it does seem like a lot of novelists got their start there--Patterson, Heller, Burroughs, Fitzgerald, Helen Gurley Brown, etc. I think copywriting is so much like novel writing in one critical way: the rewrite. Every copywriter I know rewrites constantly. It's not unusual for me to return to the same sentence over and over until it feels right, then find myself deleting it a week later because I realize it does nothing for the story. So annoying.

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