2:18
Like Nora in the book, Baker remembers feeling overwhelmed by the mental load of work and life as a new mom.
“There’s a lot of things I couldn’t have written if I wasn’t a working mom at a law firm pregnant with my first child and then my second child and just experiencing the challenges of that,” said Baker, who noted that at one point in her career she considered requesting a reduction in pay because she felt like she was failing both at work and at home.
\"I wanted to do anything I could to sort of reduce that guilt,\" she said.
Baker also touched on the added narratives aimed at women of “having it all,” which contribute to the load women carry each day.
“I think that we, especially in the age of social media, are living in an era where there are so many narratives that are specifically marketed toward women. There’s the wellness narrative, the beauty narrative, even interior design … There’s the Pinterest mom narrative, and now we’ve got the girl boss narrative as well,” said Baker. “We're expected to add a full-blown career success to that. And I think a lot of women feel that they’re being told that in order to feel fulfilled, they have to do all of these areas and succeed at all of them.\"
After speaking with her friends who are also moms and going through the same challenges, Baker had the idea to flip the gender script of \"Stepford Wives\" as the genesis for \"The Husbands\" to explore modern-day marriage, dual-income families and new realities that a lot of couples face.
Baker, who is now working on the screenplay for \"The Husbands\" film starring Kristen Wiig, said she hopes her book allows couples to understand each other and how to best work together at home with kids as a team.
“I hope it also gives people the vocabulary to talk with their spouses and to talk at home to understand some of the more varied inequities that are happening and why they are making you feel a certain way at home so that you can better confront them,” she added.
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“The Husbands” is available now wherever books are sold. Get your copy here and read an excerpt here.
See more of our conversation below for some of Baker’s book recommendations:
The last book I read was “Fierce Little Thing” by Miranda Beverly-Whittemore. It’s about cults during the summer and old friends and who would you hide a dead body for, that kind of thing.
I started as a YA writer and Lauren Oliver’s “Before I Fall” was really formative for me. I really loved that I hadn’t seen a character that was not necessarily likeable, but yet so relatable to how I felt in high school. So I just love that one. And then before I wrote adult books, I love Liane Moriarty. I loved “What Alice Forgot,” and then “Big Little Lies.” After that, “The Husband’s Secret.” And I thought that those all really encouraged me to try my hand at writing adult books.
I am really excited about “Razorblade Tears” by S.A. Cosby. I’m very excited about that. I’m very excited about the new Liane Moriarty book, “Apples Never Fall” … And then I’m very excited about Kimberly McCraight’s new book, “Friends Like These.” I have read all of her books and I just can’t wait for a new one.
Kevin Wilson. I’ve been going back and reading some of his older books. He wrote “The Family Fang” and “Nothing to See Here,” and I think “Nothing to See Here” is just one of the most brilliant books I’ve ever read. And a lot of people have read it, but I still don’t understand why people aren’t like shouting it from the rooftops as one of the most amazing books ever.
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