Lara Tupper talks about her novel A Thousand and One Nights, literature, pop culture and her obsession with Barry Manilow – By Melinda Carroll

Lara Tupper is the author of A Thousand and One Nights, a graduate of the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College, is a teacher of fiction writing at Rutgers University and a proud member of the Barry Manilow International Fan Club. Sure she has traveled the world as one half of a lounge-singing duo. She artfully infused her debut novel with lounge singing experiences, duo misadventures and tales of exotic locales. And seriously, she’s not afraid to admit her Manilow love!




Photo by: Robert Mitchell

In A Thousand and One Nights, Tupper takes the reader on an adventure with Karla a 20-something girl trying to figure out her life while faking the glamorous lifestyle of a lounge singer, which turns out not to be so glamorous. Karla soon finds herself in a relationship and lounge-singing duo with Jack and together they travel to foreign locations. I’ve been on a couple cruises myself, and the behind the scenes look at shipboard life had me clawing for a Kleenex from snorting with laughter.



Tupper’s literary ability is to use humor and sadness to tell a poignant tale of a doomed relationship while still remembering to wow you with little details along the way.

You don’t have to be a lounge singer or even an entertainer to relate to the characters in A Thousand and One Nights. I found little pieces of myself effortlessly written between the lines. If you’ve ever worn a fake smile, or been in a relationship where you depend most on the person you’re growing apart from, you too might find yourself entrenched in Tupper’s book.

Recently, I had a chance to talk to Lara Tupper about her novel, pop culture, travels and her obsession with Barry Manilow…



Here’s the interview:

Noveltown: Your story A Thousand And One Nights is about a lounge singer on a cruise ship and in exotic locations. I understand you used to be a lounge singer yourself. How much of the book is influenced by your own lounge singing experiences?

Lara: Yes—I was one half of a musical act. Just like that sad duo in Lost in Translation, singing to no one in a posh Tokyo hotel. It’s a job that sounds glamorous, but isn’t!

I used my observations of place in the book. When I worked in Abu Dhabi and Dubai and Shanghai I took notes, and these sensory details were useful when I began to draft the novel. (I like to start with setting, a vivid sense of place.) But the day-to-day life of a lounge act, particularly in a five-star hotel, just isn’t very interesting. So I ‘fictionalized.’ I plotted. I had to jazz up the lives of Karla and Jack to provide some kind of narrative arc.

Noveltown: A Thousand And One Nights appears to be packaged as chick-lit. I found it to be more literary in scope. How would you classify A Thousand And One Nights? And how do you feel about ‘labels’ in the publishing world?

Lara: I’m very glad to answer this question! And I’m glad you see this book as literary. If anything, I suppose I’d classify ATAON simply as a novel about travel and coupledom and music—a book with pointed pop culture references.

I think the chick-lit label is problematic because it implies that a book is meant to be read by a certain demographic. And I find the term itself a little confusing-- not at all subversive (as in “we are chicks, hear us roar”). It’s become synonymous with ‘light’ subject matter and I’m not sure why that is. Because it’s written by women about women? A book such as Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity (a book I adore) is also a novel about pop songs and relationships. It’s narrated from a male point of view and yet it’s certainly not a book meant only for men. So I think the label chick lit points to a misconception or a double standard based on gender: Women write books for women while men write books for all.

That said, I think there’s nothing wrong with ‘light’—and I think it’s entirely possible for novels to be both ‘entertaining’ and substantive. In A Thousand and One Nights, I try to use pop lyrics in service of humor and to place the reader quite firmly in the mid to late 1990’s. But I also try to say something about disillusionment.

As for labels in publishing in general, I think it’s easier, from a marketing perspective, for a work to be summarized succinctly. We depend on the sound byte-- we like to have things spelled out for us quickly. But it’s irritating to go into a bookstore or a music store and be unable to find something because I don’t know what shelf it’s on. If chick-lit ends up on a specific shelf and a reader isn’t in the habit of going there, I think that’s bad for authors and publishers alike.

It’s interesting that the book seems chick-lit packaged. I love the cover—a simple blue ship in an art deco design with a brightly colored title. (In fact, I have a very nice Myspace comment from Noveltown about this: “That boat on your book cover is icy blue... and coming right at your readers.”) I wanted to include a CD too—all pop covers performed by the fictional duo. But maybe that would be a deterrent!

Noveltown: Karla and Jack in the story portray how one can be in a relationship and still feel very alone and isolated. The foreignness of the locations further demonstrates the feeling of isolation and hopelessness of Karla’s situation. Would you care to comment on the dysfunctional relationship of the central characters and whether isolation was an intentional theme?



Lara: I wanted to highlight the confusion twenty-something’s tend to feel, particularly after college, the aimlessness of not knowing exactly what to do with your life. And by extension, the myth that an American can ‘find’ herself though travel, that in tourism exists an answer. I think the dissolution of the relationship is a way to think about loose ends in general. The book is also about false fronts, faking it—how this can distort your sense of reality if done for too long. In performing, the ability to be ‘false’ is a tremendous strength; in love, not so much.

Noveltown: Also in A Thousand And One Nights, Karla dreams of leaving her lounge-singing duo and possibly becoming a photographer. How did you make the transition from lounge singer to: graduate of the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College, a novelist, and a teacher of fiction writing at Rutgers University?

Lara: I hope I was slightly cheerier about the whole process than Karla! I found the transition from singing to teaching to be a positive one—probably because teaching is a lot like performing. Practice helps, experience helps. A sense of humor certainly helps. What’s lovely about teaching is my students’ participation—it’s not all on me. I teach workshops and discussion classes where students speak a lot, argue a lot about their own fiction and the class texts. They’re a noisy bunch. It’s a cliché, but they make me smarter and noisier. They force me to follow my own advice about writing.

Noveltown: As a lounge singer you’ve traveled the Mediterranean and Caribbean, Thailand, Japan, China and the United Arab Emirates. What was your favorite country or location and why?

Lara: Shanghai was a wonderful place to be. Unlike Karla, I actually saw a lot while I was there--the food, for one! The Old City is known for it’s dim sum and I sampled freely. There was just so much to eat and smell and do. I like New York City for the same reason: I step outside into drama and chaos, daily—it’s never dull. Exhausting sometimes, but never boring.

Noveltown: Karla’s tedium with pop songs and stage wardrobe is humorous. Is there a song that you’ve sang a million times that now makes you flinch when you hear it? Can you describe for us your best or worst stage outfit?

Lara: Thank you for asking this! I have a whole closet filled with dresses I don’t have the opportunity to wear anymore. My favorite is a very short copper-sequined number that I’ve never actually been brave enough to wear. The worst were just outfits in very bad shape--clothes that desperately needed to be dry-cleaned or refitted and I just couldn’t be bothered. I think some of my hairdos, too, were quite embarrassing. Frizzy, big hair—just very bad hair days. Big hair was hip when I was in college and it took me ages to get over this.

As in the book, the Titanic theme song was HUGE in China. My range isn’t so high and I’m certainly not Celine Dion. So that one was always a challenge for me and a tremendous disappointment for the audience, I’m sure.

Noveltown: I noticed on your website that you are a member of the Barry Manilow International Fan Club. Was that for professional reasons or are you a true Manilow fan? By the way, rumor has it that one of the Noveltown team is a Fanilow, and another member once owned the 45 of “Copacabana”, although he won’t admit it.


Is Lara Tupper a Manilow stalker?
Photo by: Jill Kaplan Tupper

Lara: We Fanilows need to stick together! I’m absolutely serious about my BMIFC membership--there’s a long, sad tale that follows. I’ll try to make it short: My Nana bought my first Barry album when I was five. As a ‘tween I had a Barry poster (white jumpsuit, feathered hair, medallion) and actually kissed it every night. I had a bumper sticker (BARRY M. LOVES LARA T.) and somehow convinced myself that he’d sent it personally (again--my Nana). And then, in 1993, I worked at Interlochen Arts Camp in Michigan and SANG with him! He needed a back up choir for a concert there, the very last verse of “I Write the Songs” at the end of the show. So I sang the song and that was it--I never even met him backstage. I’ve since been to Vegas to see him with my mom and to Madison Square Garden to see him here in NYC. He’s my Myspace friend, which is nice, but I’m still dying to meet him. I’ve even thought about enlisting Oprah—she has a page on her site called Do You Want To Meet A Hot Celebrity?. (If you apply and have a convincing enough case, she’ll help out.) I think Barry would enjoy the book—he was a lounger himself in the early days.

Aren’t you glad you asked??


Tupper and Manilow a match made in Heaven!
Photo by: Jill Kaplan Tupper

Noveltown: What’s on the horizon for Lara Tupper?

Lara: I think I’ll keep writing Fanilow-lit! I’m actually at work on a novel about the life of Paul Gauguin from the perspective of his wife, Mette Gad, who stayed at home with their five kids while Paul ‘painted’ young Tahitian girls. They had an intense correspondence and I’m fascinated by her. Why did she put up with it, exactly?

(“Copacabana” could apply to this setting too, I think.)

Noveltown: Thanks for hanging out with Noveltown and discussing your novel.

Lara: Thank YOU. To music and passion!

This entry was posted by Matildakay, on Friday, May 04, 2007. You can leave your response.