Mikki Brammer’s debut novel The Collected Regrets of Clover is a tender novel of turning grief into a wonderful tool. The titular Clover becomes a death doula, but she decides she needs a cross-country road trip when she realizes she is so focused on death instead of living. Brammer explores what it means to be live life to the fullest in a clever and heartwarming way.
In addition to her novel, she has also written for Architectural Digest, Dwell, ELLE Decor, Luxe Interiors + Design, Metropolis, and Surface.
Debutiful asked the author to answer our recurring “A Life of Books” questionnaire so writers can get to know her better.
Is there a book or series that, when you think back, helped define your childhood?
I loved Roald Dahl’s stories because they were both dark and whimsical and
appealed to my twisted sense of humor and vivid imagination.
Would you want any children in your life (yours or relatives’) to read those too? Or what’s your philosophy on what children read?
I know that, like many authors of his time, Roald Dahl is now considered to be quite problematic, but I would hope that we teach our children to still read things with a critical eye so that they can understand why something is problematic and learn how society has evolved since they were written. I think children should read whatever they are drawn to and that we as adults should be open to discussing those things, even if we don’t agree with them or approve of them.
Moving to your school years: what book did you read in high school and hated (or skipped reading at all) that you learned you loved later in life?
I always found Jane Austen books very boring to read from a language
perspective but I’ve since learned to appreciate what a great storyteller and
shrewd observer of people she was.
What about the opposite way? One you loved in your teens, but realized you didn’t love it so much later on?
I loved The Great Gatsby as a teen, but totally missed the point of it! I thought it was a fun story about glamorous people living a wonderfully glamorous life, but now that I’ve read it again as an adult, I realize just how unhappy everyone was and what a melancholy story it actually is. I still appreciate it, but for different reasons.
Are there any books that you read while writing your debut that helped shape the direction you took your own book?
I’ve always loved A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood, both for the way it
captures the experience of grief so beautifully while also conveying what it feels like to be on the outside looking in, existing out of habit rather than engaging with the world. Both of those things were very applicable to my debut novel, The Collected Regrets of Clover.
What is a book you’ve read that you thought, Damn, I wish that was mine?
I always think we write the books we’re meant to, so there’s nothing that I wish was mine but plenty that I admire! Most recently, I’ve been in awe of Intimacies by Katie Kitamura, Vladimir by Julia May Jonas, and Nightcrawling by Leila
Mottley because they are all so original and atmospheric.
What have you been reading/do you plan to read during your debut book tour?
I’m midway through Big Swiss by Jen Beagin (and loving it) and plan to read The Skin and Its Girl by Sarah Cypher next!
And, finally, I have to ask… I’m sorry. What’s next? But wait! Only use three words.
Much less death!