Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: Your Robot Dog Will Die
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: https://www.aringreenwood.com/
CITY: St. Petersburg
STATE: FL
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY:
RESEARCHER NOTES:
| LC control no.: | no2001073097 |
|---|---|
| LCCN Permalink: | https://lccn.loc.gov/no2001073097 |
| HEADING: | Greenwood, Arin |
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PERSONAL
Married; husband’s name Ray.
EDUCATION:Oberlin College, B.A., 1995; Columbia Law School, J.D., 2000.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Lawyer, writer, and editor. Huffington Post, animal welfare editor, 2014-16; BarkBox, consultant, 2016; Animal Legal Defense Fund, senior writer, 2018-.
WRITINGS
Contributor of articles to periodicals and journals, including Slate, Washington CityPaper, American Bar Association Journal, Today Show website, Washington Post, Dodo, Creative Loafing, and Asian Geographic.
SIDELIGHTS
Arin Greenwood is a writer and editor specializing in articles about animals and animal care, contributing her work to various outlets, such as Slate, Washington CityPaper, American Bar Association Journal, and Asian Geographic. The popularity of some of her articles have led to animals getting adopted, people making donations to shelters, and increased public awareness of significant legal and policy issues. Greenwood was animal welfare editor at the Huffington Post and is a consultant at BarkBox. After living in the United Kingdom doing odd jobs, she was accepted into Columbia Law School where she earned her J.D. She has been an LSAT tutor and think tank fellow. Greenwood is a life-long animal lover and pit bull advocate. She has written novels and mysteries with animal themes.
Tropical Depression
In 2011, Greenwood published Tropical Depression, based on her own experience spending five years as a lawyer on a small island near Guam. Lawyer Nina Barker is coming apart at the seams after her upscale New York firm has just given her a pink slip and her boyfriend has left her. Leaving behind the chaos of New York, she decides to accept a clerkship at the Supreme Court of the Northern Mariana Islands with the chief justice. Rather than experiencing peace and quiet in the idyllic location on a faraway tropical island in the Pacific Ocean, she instead finds a bevy of corrupt politicians, quirky and often drunk ex-patriots, ghosts, strippers, and even a possible CIA agent trying to work secretly.
In an interview on the Above the Law website, Greenwood told David Lat that she intended to write a novel rather than a memoir: “There were earlier drafts of this book that were much more autobiographical. A lot of the autobiographical stuff had to be cut and changed in order to give the book a ‘plot.’… Luckily, my life isn’t interesting enough to be a memoir! I wanted to be able to make things up.”
Save the Enemy
Greenwood next published the young adult novel, Save the Enemy, in 2013. In the story, high school senior Zoey Trask blames herself for not being with her mother when she was murdered in a random mugging. Zoey’s father has trained her in self-defense and his special variety of martial arts. Things at school and life were going well adjusting to life without mom, when her father is kidnapped. Zoey is now the sole caretaker of her younger brother, Ben, who is on the autism spectrum, hates to be touched, writes in his Dream Diary, and says that their dead mother talks to him. As she yearns for a normal social life, Zoey is getting constant attention from a clingy, but very cute, schoolmate Pete. Nevertheless, Zoey feels alone and must learn what happened to her father, who has been harming her family, and how to care for Ben.
With the author throwing into the plot an ex-best friend, house parties, talk of levitation, and a meteorite killing some alpacas, a Kirkus Reviews contributor mused that young readers “will wish an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink plot didn’t distract from genuine teen dialogue and Zoey’s frank inner discourse. Sometimes less really is more.” According to Kimberly Castle-Alberts in School Library Journal, the book requires too much suspension of disbelief, and “The pacing is decent and the story has potential but overall it is just too convoluted.” Allison Hunter Hill commented in Voice of Youth Advocates that Zooey provides much of the book’s narrative after the events that are unfolding and presents memories, beliefs, and direct quotes, which “slows down a narrative that is already somewhat bizarre and at times feels frazzled.” Hill added that the book is good for fans of thrillers with a twist.
Online at Bustle, critic Caitlin White took note of the book’s breakneck pace due to Zoey’s narration and of numerous moments of pure silliness, explaining that “Where Greenwood’s novel is best is when it devolves into the absurd.” However the end of the novel slows down too much, and “Greenwood does leave some elements unresolved, including some questions on character motivations, but they are not entirely important. And it’s possible it just adds to the feeling of the story that some things are brought up but not attended to fully,” said White.
Your Robot Dog Will Die
Greenwood next wrote Your Robot Dog Will Die, a young adult novel. In the near future, a genetic experiment went disastrously wrong affecting canines around the world, causing them to stop wagging their tails and to attack humans. Since then, all dogs have had to be euthanized. Seventeen-year-old Nano Miller lives on Dog Island off the coast of Florida and has a job with the Mechanical Tail Company testing robot dogs and providing feedback for future models. She is heartbroken when every year her dog is replaced with a new model. When she finds one of the rare few real organic dogs left, a puppy who wags its tail, she adopts it and refuses to let anyone take it, even when the puppy is discovered and Nano and her friends are taken off the island and put on a farm. Meanwhile, her older brother, Billy, has vanished without a trace. Nano is on a quest to learn the true purpose of the Mechanical Tail Company and Dog Island.
With commentary on how humanity is increasingly damaging the natural world, the book provides “plot twists, puns, and a sometimes-disconcerting blend of serious and silly, the novel explores the gap between human intention and impact,” according to a Kirkus Reviews writer. Greenwood presents “ethical dilemmas around life, suffering and what it means to take care of the world around us,” however, the book is too short to fully explain the issues it raises, said RT Book Reviews website reviewer Raven Nary. Writing in Booklist, Carolyn Kelly stated: “Quirky details and imaginative tech characterize the simultaneously futuristic and off-the-grid environment of Dog Island,” and while the story is thought-provoking, the characters could benefit from more imagination and the plot was too neatly resolved.
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, May 1, 2018, Carolyn Kelly, review of Your Robot Dog Will Die, p. 78.
Kirkus Reviews, September 15, 2013, review of Save; March 15, 2018, review of Your Robot Dog Will Die.
School Library Journal, November 2013, Kimberly Castle-Alberts, review of Save the Enemy, p. 114.
Voice of Youth Advocates, December 2013, Allison Hunter Hill, review of Save the Enemy, p. 59.
ONLINE
Above the Law, https://abovethelaw.com/ (March 22, 2011), David Lat, author interview.
Bustle, https://www.bustle.com/ (November 20, 2013), Caitlin White, review of Save the Enemy.
RT Book Reviews, https://www.rtbookreviews.com/ (April 17, 2018), Raven Nary, review of Your Robot Dog Will Die.
I am the former animal welfare editor for The Huffington Post. Now I write about animals for a variety of publications, including The Today Show's website, The Washington Post, The Dodo, The American Bar Association Journal, Creative Loafing, and others.
My aim is to tell stories that help make this a better world for animals.
My stories attract a lot of reader engagement - an editor once told me that a piece I'd written had gotten more clicks and shares than Beyonce's baby announcement, if you can believe it. (Believe it; I don't lie about things like this.)
And not to get all resume-ish here, but these pieces have a measurable positive impact, too. My stories lead to animals getting adopted, folks donating to shelters and rescues, shelters implementing creative new programs and practices, and increased public awareness of important legal and policy issues.
Arin Greenwood
author
Consultant at BarkBox. Former animal welfare editor for HuffPost. Author of Save The Enemy and Tropical Depression. Big fan of dogs, cats who run for public office.
Biography
Arin Greenwood
Arin Greenwood is a writer and former lawyer living just outside Washington, D.C., with her husband, Ray, their dog, Murray, and their cat, Derrick. Arin is an editor for The Huffington Post, covering things both nerdy and weird, like Virginia cats running for U.S. Senate, in and around the nation's capital. Her stories have appeared in Slate, the Washington City Paper, the American Bar Association Journal, and dozens of other publications. Her first novel—Tropical Depression, published in 2011—was loosely based on the five-odd, sometimes very odd, years Arin spent lawyering on a small island near Guam. Save the Enemy is her first young adult novel. Read some of Arin's stories and get in touch at www.aringreenwood.com.
Arin Greenwood
Books by Arin Greenwood
Your Robot Dog Will Die
by Arin Greenwood - Animals , Audiobook, Coming of Age, Futuristic, Loss, Pets, Science, Science Fiction, Superhero , Young Adult 12+, Youth Fiction
Seventeen-year-old Nano Miller was born and raised on Dog Island: home to Mechanical Tail, the company behind lifelike replacements for “man’s best friend.” The island is also home to the last living dogs, all but extinct. Nano’s life has become a cycle of annual heartbreak. Every spring, Mechanical Tail gives her the latest robot dog model to test, only to tear it from her arms a year later. This year is complicated by another heartbreak: the loss of her brother, Billy, who recently vanished without a trace. But nothing can prepare her for a discovery that upends everything she’s taken for granted: it’s a living puppy that miraculously wags its tail. There is no way she’s letting this dog go.
Save the Enemy
by Arin Greenwood - Mystery
Relying on the skills she never wanted to learn --- Dad might have had his reasons after all --- Zoey is plunged into a lethal battle to rescue her father, protect her brother, and determine the identity of her family’s true enemy.
Arin Greenwood
Arin Greenwood is an animal writer based in St. Petersburg, Florida. Previously, she was animal welfare editor at The Huffington Post. Arin is a former lawyer (J.D. from Columbia Law School, member of the New York Bar), life long animal lover, pit bull advocate, and devoted fan of cats and dogs who run for public office.
Her first novel, Tropical Depression -- based on her five-odd, sometimes very odd, years living on a small island near Guam -- was published by teeny indie publisher Back Porch Books in 2011. Her second book, a comic young adult mystery called Save The Enemy, was published by Soho Teen in November 2013. Hello From Dog Island!, Arin's third book, will be published by Soho Teen in 2018.
Arin Greenwood
Arin Greenwood is a writer (and, alas, lawyer) living in Alexandria, Virginia. Arin's stories have appeared in Slate, the Washington CityPaper, the American Bar Association Journal, Asian Geographic, and and many other places. Arin also does private LSAT tutoring, think tank fellowing, and has an unpublished novel - Tropical Depression - that she'd love to tell you about, so don't be shy about getting in touch at aringreenwood@hotmail.com.
Arin Greenwood
3rd degree connection3rd
Senior Writer at Animal Legal Defense Fund
Tampa/St. Petersburg, Florida Area
Animal Legal Defense Fund
Columbia University School of Law Columbia University School of Law
See contact info
See contact info
See connections (500+)
500+ connections
Journalist, novelist, and former lawyer based in St. Petersburg, Florida. I primarily write about animals.
Previously animal welfare editor for The Huffington Post. Author of Your Robot Dog Will Die, a young adult novel published by Soho Teen: https://sohopress.com/books/your-robot-dog-will-die/
Get in touch at aringreenwood at gmail.com
Experience
Animal Legal Defense Fund
Senior Writer
Company Name Animal Legal Defense Fund
Dates Employed Jun 2018 – Present Employment Duration 2 mos
self-employed
Animal Writer
Company Name self-employed
Dates Employed Aug 2016 – Present Employment Duration 2 yrs
Location Tampa/St. Petersburg, Florida Area
I write about animals for The Dodo, The Today Show, The Washington Post, Creative Loafing, the American Bar Association Journal, and other publications.
Please feel free to reach out at aringreenwood@gmail.com
Bark & Co.
consultant
Company Name Bark & Co.
Dates Employed Jan 2016 – Aug 2016 Employment Duration 8 mos
I was brought into this dog-focused startup as a contractor to help launch a fundraising platform for animal rescue groups, and to be a reporter for BarkPost.
I had a great experience at BarkBox -- but BarkPost ceased publishing as a daily journalism outlet in late July, which was the end of this consulting contract.
You can see my work at BarkPost here: http://barkpost.com/author/arin-greenwood/
The Huffington Post
Animal Welfare Editor
Company Name The Huffington Post
Dates Employed Jul 2014 – Jan 2016 Employment Duration 1 yr 7 mos
I get to write about dogs for a living! Seriously, this is a real job.
More specifically, I write stories aimed at making the world a kinder, more compassionate, more humane place for animals.
My true loves are pit bulls and cats - the two types of animals most likely to face euthanasia in US animal shelters. Pigs, chickens, and cows also have a special place in my heart; it's hard to think of an animal that doesn't, now that I think of it.
Please feel free to reach out at arin.greenwood@huffingtonpost.com or aringreenwood@gmail.com to talk some more.
And here's where you can find my work:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arin-greenwood/
The Huffington Post
Editor, HuffPost DC
Company Name The Huffington Post
Dates Employed Apr 2013 – Jul 2014 Employment Duration 1 yr 4 mos
Location Washington, DC
I started off writing a mix of quirky and nerdy stories about life in and around the nation's capital.
That transitioned, before too long - but also before my job title was changed to Animal Welfare Editor - into writing nearly entirely about animals.
Education
Columbia University School of Law
Columbia University School of Law
Degree Name JD
Field Of Study law
Dates attended or expected graduation 1997 – 2000
Activities and Societies: Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar
Oberlin College
Oberlin College
Degree Name BA
Field Of Study Philosophy, English
Dates attended or expected graduation 1995
Skills & Endorsements
Editing
See 81 endorsements for Editing 81
Endorsed by Bruce Edward Walker and 2 others who are highly skilled at this
Endorsed by 2 of Arin’s colleagues at CNMI Office of the Attorney General
Storytelling
See 76 endorsements for Storytelling 76
Endorsed by Chris Shott, who is highly skilled at this
Endorsed by 3 of Arin’s colleagues at CNMI Office of the Attorney General
Magazines
See 49 endorsements for Magazines 49
Endorsed by Steven Knipp, who is highly skilled at this
Endorsed by 2 of Arin’s colleagues at CNMI Office of the Attorney General
Industry Knowledge
Writing
See 46 endorsements for Writing 46
Blogging
See 43 endorsements for Blogging 43
Journalism
See 31 endorsements for Journalism 31
Research
See 29 endorsements for Research 29
Legal Research
See 27 endorsements for Legal Research 27
Publications
See 24 endorsements for Publications 24
Publishing
See 21 endorsements for Publishing 21
Media Relations
See 19 endorsements for Media Relations 19
Legal Writing
See 17 endorsements for Legal Writing 17
Public Policy
See 17 endorsements for Public Policy 17
Policy Analysis
See 15 endorsements for Policy Analysis 15
Web Content
See 14 endorsements for Web Content 14
Strategic Communications
See 13 endorsements for Strategic Communications 13
Government
See 12 endorsements for Government 12
Web Content Writing
See 7 endorsements for Web Content Writing 7
Immigration Law
See 6 endorsements for Immigration Law 6
Interpersonal Skills
Public Speaking
See 22 endorsements for Public Speaking 22
Other Skills
Books
See 30 endorsements for Books 30
Feature Articles
See 16 endorsements for Feature Articles 16
Recommendations
Received (4)
Given (2)
Eli Lehrer
Eli Lehrer
President at R Street Institute
September 21, 2014, Eli managed Arin directly
Arin worked for me on a permanent contractor basis two times while I was with conservative think tanks. While she's super-smart understands free markets--and just about everything else--really well, her politics are well to the port side of mine and even more so to left of the organizations we were both working for. Whether she was writing about Disney World, editing an online magazine, or doing wonky insurance stuff, Arin was always enthusiastic and fantastic to work with. Her stuff for the Huffington Post is fantastic and she's one of the best and most insightful writers I know. I strongly, strongly recommend her.
Sharon Press
Sharon Press
Attorney Assistance
July 26, 2014, Sharon and Arin were students together
Arin is one of the funniest writers I've ever met/read.
If you want to laugh, read Tropical Depression, or any of her articles (never dull, as articles tend to be).
ALAN J. BARAK
ALAN J. BARAK
Assistant General Counsel at DC Dept of Energy & Environment
May 2, 2013, ALAN J. worked with Arin in different groups
Bright, critical thinker, thinks on many levels, excellent writer.
James Vasile
James Vasile
Open source strategy and execution; speaker and consultant
September 28, 2010, James and Arin were students together
Arin's mind is unique. It's creative output will surprise and enrich you. She is tenacious with ideas and goals and she has the patience to teach and the flexibility to learn. I can't imagine a project in any discipline that wouldn't benefit from her input.
Interests
Oberlin College
Oberlin College
27,124 followers
Animal Legal Defense Fund
Animal Legal Defense Fund
4,595 followers
HuffPost
HuffPost
482,953 followers
Dechert LLP Alumni Group
Dechert LLP Alumni Group
1,096 members
Columbia Law School
Columbia Law School
34,332 followers
BARK
BARK
7,840 followers
https://www.linkedin.com/in/arin-greenwood-017a577/
Greenwood, Arin: YOUR ROBOT DOG WILL DIE
Kirkus Reviews.
(Mar. 15, 2018): From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2018 Kirkus Media LLC http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Greenwood, Arin YOUR ROBOT DOG WILL DIE Soho Teen (Young Adult Fiction) $18.99 4, 17 ISBN: 978-1-61695-839-8
In a near-future world of drought and rising seas, a young dog lover learns to question what it means to be humane.
Genetic experiments on man's best friend have gone awry, with disastrous results for their temperaments requiring mass canine euthanasia. While the Mechanical Tail Company is perfecting increasingly lifelike robot replacements, Dog Island, off Florida's coast, offers a Ruffuge for a handful of remaining Organics (natural dogs). Nano Miller, one of three teens living in this quirky community, tests new robot dogs, offering feedback on upgrades and trying not to mind when her robotic pets are replaced annually with newer models. Meanwhile, Nano must grapple with the mysterious disappearance of her older brother, Billy, and the intense emotions accompanying first love with Wolf--her lifelong friend and fellow resident. When Nano discovers a live puppy that wags its tail--a trait bred out of dogs during the scientific tinkering-- she impulsively decides to hide rather than euthanize it. Plunging into an unexpectedly dangerous world of intrigue, Nano questions the dogma and motivations of those around her, including trusted adults like their sanctuary's humanitarian founder. Full of plot twists, puns, and a sometimes-disconcerting blend of serious and silly, the novel explores the gap between human intention and impact. A white default is assumed.
A provocative reflection on humanity's increasingly damaging effects on the natural world. (Dystopian. 14-18)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Greenwood, Arin: YOUR ROBOT DOG WILL DIE." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Mar. 2018. Book
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Greenwood, Arin. Save the Enemy
Allison Hunter Hill
Voice of Youth Advocates.
36.5 (Dec. 2013): p59. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2013 E L Kurdyla Publishing LLC http://www.voya.com
Full Text:
3Q * 3P * S
Greenwood, Arin. Save the Enemy. Soho Teen, 2013.288p. $17.99.978-1-61695-259-4.
Zooey Trask wonders if things might have been different had she been with her mother on the night she was killed in a random mugging. After all, her paranoid father had trained her throughout all of her childhood how to defend herself---with swords, survival skills, and even his own personal brand of martial arts. Now it is just Zooey, her dad, and her brilliant, autistic little brother, Ben--until her Dad is kidnapped, and then it is just Zooey and Ben; Ben, who only thinks in probabilities; Ben, who will not let anyone touch him; Ben, who matter-of-factly claims to be receiving vital information about their missing father from their deceased mother in his dreams. Zooey must learn to rely on her skills, communicate with her brother, and maybe even accept help from cute, stubborn classmate Pete if she ever plans to get her father back and protect her family.
Greenwood weaves an intricate tale of confusion and loss as Zooey attempts to peel away the mysteries surrounding her family and her unusual upbringing. Her own identity awareness serves as the crux of the novel, and as she works to find her family, she also works to find herself. Zooey supplies much of the narrative retroactively by sharing memories, beliefs, and direct quotes from her family members. This slows down a narrative that is already somewhat bizarre and at times feels frazzled. This is good for ravenous fans of thrillers with a twist. --Allison Hunter Hill.
Hill, Allison Hunter
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Hill, Allison Hunter. "Greenwood, Arin. Save the Enemy." Voice of Youth Advocates, Dec. 2013,
p. 59. Book Review Index Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A353516761 /GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS&xid=c99361ab. Accessed 11 July 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A353516761
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Greenwood, Arin: SAVE THE ENEMY
Kirkus Reviews.
(Sept. 15, 2013): From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2013 Kirkus Media LLC http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Greenwood, Arin SAVE THE ENEMY Soho Teen (Children's Fiction) $17.99 11, 12 ISBN: 978-1-61695-259-4
Reminiscent of A Wrinkle in Time, Greenwood's debut for teens twists and turns with mysterious men, real bullets and numerous candidates for worst parent ever-. Senior year is already off to a tough start for social misfit Zoey; now Dad's been kidnapped, the computer file that could save him is missing, autistic brother Ben is getting night visits from Mom's ghost, and cute high school classmate Pete is hanging around. Despite these complications, Zoey gives developing a social life her best shot, stopping at a party before taking the next investigative step and sometimes worrying more about what to wear than her missing dad. With a side trip down Memory Lane to patch things up with ex-best friend Molly, a meteorite killing a few alpacas, and Pete sharing initials (and more?) with a team of assassins, readers may empathize when Zoey notes that plans change "every fifteen minutes or thereabouts for reasons that don't seem entirely, sometimes even at all, obvious." Teens with a philosophical bent may find references to Kant, Nietzsche and Ayn Rand entertaining; those who appreciate adventure over plot will also be entertained, but others will wish an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink plot didn't distract from genuine teen dialogue and Zoey's frank inner discourse. Sometimes less really is more--or maybe it's just less confusing. (Thriller. 14 & up)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Greenwood, Arin: SAVE THE ENEMY." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Sept. 2013. Book Review Index
Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A342657900/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS& xid=0e46b6d2. Accessed 11 July 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A342657900
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Libertarianism for Tweens
Lucia Graves
Nationaljournal.com.
(Nov. 12, 2013): From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2013 Atlantic Media, Ltd. http://www.nationaljournal.com
Full Text:
Byline: Lucia Graves
Arin Greenwood's terrific new book, Save the Enemy, is labeled young-adult, but her explorations of libertarian philosophy are not typical of the genre. The story's protagonist, Zoey Trask, is torn between her parents' competing worldviews: her dad's libertarianism and her mom's spirituality. (Believing in spirits, Zoey's dad notes, is worse than stupid--it's irrational). While the novel is billed as a thriller, Greenwood's funny, psychologically astute characters make the fantastical story line seem just outside the bounds of normal. An excerpt:
Your dad probably read you books like The Giving Tree when you were a kid. My dad did read me The Giving Tree once, calling it "evil" in that it "promotes the immoral destruction of the self." (I was four.) He preferred Atlas Shrugged, which is basically about how rich people shouldn't pay taxes. He has explained to me a lot over the course of my seventeen years that taxes are "slavery." People are only "free when they act as they want to act." Perfect for toddlers--is my sarcasm coming through?--Atlas Shrugged is also the novelized explanation of the writer Ayn Rand's "objectivist" philosophy, of "rational self-interest," in other words: extreme selfishness.
Try to get your mind around that a minute. Try to imagine your father preaching the virtues of extreme selfishness. Now imagine being four, the most selfish age in the world. Imagine trying to understand objectivism. Imagine trying to understand anything other than wanting to play and eat ice cream. (So I guess I was a good objectivist even without knowing it.) Over the years Dad tried to explain objectivism in less abstract terms. He said that people should be able to buy what they want and act how they want without the government or other people getting in their way. Interestingly, for all this, I still wasn't allowed to set my own bedtime.
I've known Greenwood, and even worked with her briefly at The Huffington Post. A journalist by day, she adores animals and lives with her husband, Ray, in Old Town Alexandria, Va., where Save the Enemy is set. I interviewed her Monday about her new novel, which was published today by SoHo press. Below is an abbreviated version of our conversation.
It seems like your protagonist is pulled between, on the one hand, supernaturalism and, on the other hand, this hyper-rational libertarian philosophy. Can you talk about that tension?
She loves her dad, who's instilled in her this hyper-rationalism (sort of--he also has his
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nonrational idiosyncrasies). But on the other hand, she's also drawn to mystical things. I think she's coming to realize that she has to make choices in life. She's not especially inclined to do that on her own, and she's seeing that her parents' choices didn't really turn out in ideal ways. But she has to start choosing, all the same.
Why so much libertarianism?
There's a couple of reasons for the libertarianism. One is that I've gotten to know the libertarian world in the last five or so years. I spent some time doing work for a couple of libertarian think tanks, and got to know some people and some ideas that I found really interesting. And I'm married to a libertarian. Another is that I loved what it did for the dad character. I loved his rants. I loved his lessons.
Did you ever worry about a plot twist offending your husband or where the narrative logic might lead?
He was actually very helpful. There were times I'd wonder what Ben (the brother in the story) or what the dad would say or do in a particular situation and I'd ask my husband. He would give me his reaction, which would oftentimes turn out to be exactly the right reaction for the plot. I do think that some libertarians might not be happy with the ending.
Why's that?
Because it turns out that the dad's libertarian beliefs had him justifying private militias, which--by his logic--led to the mother becoming an assassin. But I don't think all libertarians think that moms should be assassins. Of course.
So what's it like inhabiting the mind of a 17-year-old girl?
Oh, boy--stressful. I remember 17 as being a very tough time, so trying to get back into that mindset wasn't also the most fun thing in the world.
I have a theory that if you know someone at 16, you know the real them. It's when people are old enough to start knowing what they like but they haven't yet figured out how to mask their true selves.
Honestly, I think the truest you ever get to someone is how they are in 5th grade. They are old enough to have an inkling of what they like but not old enough to be self-conscious, which they learn at 13.
Maybe we should revise this downwards. So then, the humiliation at 16 or 17 is that they know what they like, don't know how to mask it, and are socially aware enough to be embarrassed by themselves.
Precisely. Moving on! You work full time as a journalist. How did you ever find the time to write this? And how long did it take?
It took about a year altogether. This is my second book so I went into it with some idea about the
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process what it would be like and I know what works for me. Mostly, I need to get up a little earlier than usual, do some work before starting my full time job in the morning, or write at night when I get home, even when i don't want to. Then on the weekends, depending on how much I needed to get done, I'd either write one or both days.
Your first book, Tropical Depression, more closely resembled your own experience. How different was it writing this book?
Tropical Depression had more personal details in it. It was more of a roman Ea clef, I think is the pretentious way of putting it. It took about five years to write. this second book was not a book about my life, which was a relief!
Lucia Graves
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Graves, Lucia. "Libertarianism for Tweens." Nationaljournal.com, 12 Nov. 2013. Book Review
Index Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A348878899/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS& xid=ff3ed6ff. Accessed 11 July 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A348878899
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Save the Enemy
Gail Bush
Booklist.
110.7 (Dec. 1, 2013): p61. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2013 American Library Association http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
Save the Enemy. By Arin Greenwood. 2013. 288p. Soho/Teen, $17.99 (9781616952594). Gr. 9-12.
Zoey not only sees herself as the new girl at Shenandoah High, she feels like a secret "Tragic Figure." After losing her mother to a random mugging and murder, Zoey moves from Rhode Island to Old Town Alexandria, Virginia, along with her ever-philosophizing dad and younger brother, Ben, who is a savant on the autistic spectrum. Her affluent, lacrosse-playing, and bookish-cool classmates are unaware of Zoey's tragic-figure circumstances. And in the midst of her family chaos, Pete, a good-looking, guitar-playing guardian angel, appears. Pete attaches himself to the family like a barnacle and even believes that Ben is receiving coded messages in his dreams from his recently departed mother's ghost. Clearly, Greenwood asks a lot from her readers. But they will be pulled by Zoey's strong inner compass and martial-arts prowess, both of which help to reinforce any suspension of belief as the plot moves along its gnarly yet buoyant way. Readers of detective, spy, and crime novels, as well as Ayn Rand fans, will find tidbits to enjoy as Zoey and family prevail against the odds.--Gall Bush
Bush, Gail
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Bush, Gail. "Save the Enemy." Booklist, 1 Dec. 2013, p. 61. Book Review Index Plus,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A353751889/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS& xid=bb31ad2a. Accessed 11 July 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A353751889
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Greenwood, Arin. Save the Enemy
Kimberly Castle-Alberts
School Library Journal.
59.11 (Nov. 2013): p114. From Book Review Index Plus.
COPYRIGHT 2013 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/
Full Text:
GREENWOOD, Arin. Save the Enemy. 288p. SohoTeen. Nov. 2013. Tr $17.99. ISBN 9781616952594; ebk. $17.99. ISBN 9781616952600.
Gr 9 Up--Part mystery-thriller, part coming-of-age tale, and part romance with a pinch of the paranormal, this debut novel doesn't seem to quite know what it wants to be. When Zoey Trask's father is kidnapped, the 17-year-old must find something called a "J-File" and hand it over to whomever has her father in custody. Her autistic younger brother, Ben, claims that their murdered mother is speaking to him in his dreams. He begins writing down a code of names and addresses that may be the key to finding their father. Then there's the mysterious love interest. Even though they barely know each other, Pete refuses to leave Zoey's side throughout the book. Unfortunately, while she periodically comments on his odd behavior, her hormones overshadow her suspicions. Zoey is a self-deprecating and reasonably likable character, but she doesn't quite come off sounding like a real teen. Too many SAT-type words feel randomly sprinkled in and may turn off some more reluctant readers. While most teen thrillers require some suspension of disbelief, there are just too many convenient plot elements here to make this one a true success. The pacing is decent and the story has potential but overall it is just too convoluted.--Kimberly Castle-Alberts, Hudson Library (5 Historical Society, OH
Castle-Alberts, Kimberly
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Castle-Alberts, Kimberly. "Greenwood, Arin. Save the Enemy." School Library Journal, Nov.
2013, p. 114. Book Review Index Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A351434201 /GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS&xid=ba799496. Accessed 11 July 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A351434201
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Greenwood, Arin: Save the Enemy
Jessica Tackett MacDonald
The Horn Book Guide.
25.2 (Fall 2014): p110. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2014 The Horn Book, Inc. http://www.hornbookguide.com
Full Text:
Greenwood, Arin Save the Enemy
248 pp. Soho Teen ISBN 978-1-61695-259-4 $17.99 EBOOK ISBN 978-1-61695-260-0
(3) Published fall 2013. Only months after her mother's suspicious, seemingly random murder, Zoey's father goes missing. With the help of her eccentric younger brother and an amiable classmate, Zoey attempts to locate and appease her father's kidnappers and understand their motivations. This evenly paced mystery is engaging, witty, and ambiguously supernatural. Zoey stands out as a refreshingly guileless and idiosyncratic teen detective.
MacDonald, Jessica Tackett
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
MacDonald, Jessica Tackett. "Greenwood, Arin: Save the Enemy." The Horn Book Guide, Fall
2014, p. 110. Book Review Index Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A385996288 /GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS&xid=64fc5433. Accessed 11 July 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A385996288
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Booklist, May 1, 2018, Carolyn Kelly, review of Robot, p. 78.
By: Kelly, Carolyn. Booklist. 5/1/2018, Vol. 114 Issue 17, p78-78. 1/6p.
Y our Robot Dog W ill Die. By A rin G re en w o o d . 2 0 1 8 . 208p. Soho Teen, $ 1 8 .9 9 (9 7 8 1 6 1 6 9 5 8 3 9 8 ). Gr. 7 -1 0 . Nano Miller has never kept a pet for longer than a year. In a future where dogs have reverted to a feral species hostile to humans, Nano’s family serves as a focus group for a new model of robot dog each year. They belong to a community of animal enthusiasts called Dog Island, where six wild dogs live in a sanctuary. When Nano finds a newborn puppy with a miraculously playful spirit, she must decide whether to risk everything for a chance at a real pet. With her friend Jack and her boyfriend, Wolf, Nano will uncover the truth about Dog Island’s mission that caused her older brother, Billy, to desert. While navigating her first romance, family loyalties, and dangerous “dogma,” Nano faces difficult questions about how to give animals happy, cruelty-free lives. Quirky details and imaginative tech characterize the simultaneously futuristic and off-the-grid environment of Dog Island, where abundant canine puns may charm or madden readers. Greenwood’s characters could benefit from more of the same imagination. A thought-provoking story line, if rather too neatly resolved. — Carolyn Kelly
Books, Career Alternatives, Clerkships, Facebook, Media and Journalism, Saira Rao
Tropical Depression: The Latest in ‘Clerkship Lit’
Move over, chick lit. Make way for “clerk lit”! Over the past few years, we’ve seen a number of novels focused on the clerkship, a professional rite of passage for many a prestige-obsessed young lawyer. In these books, plucky law-clerk protagonists have tried to do justice while also holding on to their jobs (and their […]
By David Lat
Mar 22, 2011 at 1:47 PM
Move over, chick lit. Make way for “clerk lit”!
Over the past few years, we’ve seen a number of novels focused on the clerkship, a professional rite of passage for many a prestige-obsessed young lawyer. In these books, plucky law-clerk protagonists have tried to do justice while also holding on to their jobs (and their sanity, and even their lives).
One of the first was The Tenth Justice (1998), a thriller by Brad Meltzer that went on to become a bestseller. More recent examples of “clerk lit” include The Law Clerk (2007), by Scott Douglas Gerber, and Chambermaid (2007), by Saira Rao. (Rao’s buzz-generating book, which generated controversy because it was seen as based heavily on her clerkship for the notoriously difficult Judge Dolores Sloviter (3d Cir.), was discussed extensively in Above the Law’s pages.)
Today we bring you news of a new novel featuring a law clerk protagonist: Tropical Depression, by Arin Greenwood. It tells the story of Nina Barker, a neurotic young lawyer toiling away at a large New York law firm, who decides — after losing her job and her boyfriend — to leave it all behind, by accepting a clerkship with the chief justice of a faraway tropical island.
Let’s learn more about Tropical Depression and its author, Arin Greenwood — who, like her protagonist, graduated from a top law school and worked at a leading law firm, before accepting a clerkship on a remote Pacific island….
Arin Greenwood
If Arin Greenwood’s name sounds familiar to some of you, it should. She is no stranger to ATL’s pages. She writes for magazines and newspapers, and we’ve discussed some of her prior pieces here (on doing document review) and here (on a scam that ensnared a number of attorneys).
Since I am generally not a fan of the phone, I interviewed Greenwood over Gchat. Here is the (lightly edited) transcript of our conversation:
LAT: Congratulations on the book, Arin! As a former clerk myself, I really enjoyed reading it.
GREENWOOD: Thank you!
LAT: So let’s start where we often start when interviewing lawyer-writers. Can you tell us a bit about your career path?
GREENWOOD: Sure – mine’s not the straightest path.
LAT: Those are the most interesting kind! (The non-straight paths, that is.)
GREENWOOD: I lived in the UK and a couple of other places after college doing odd jobs, like waitressing and working as a housekeeper for the former Princess of Luxembourg’s parents in Munich. Then miraculously I got into Columbia Law School, and kept thinking I’d drop out to write a book.
But three years passed, and next thing I knew, I found myself with a job at a firm in New York.
LAT: Did you go straight to the firm from CLS?
GREENWOOD: I did. I was a summer associate, then came on as a litigation associate. I have no complaints about the firm – there were really good people there, the work was interesting. My roommate at the time and I both worked there, so that was fun, too.
LAT: Which firm (if you’d be okay revealing)?
GREENWOOD: Sure – Dechert.
LAT: Oh cool. In New York, right?
GREENWOOD: Yeah, 30 Rock. The SNL elevators were near ours.
LAT: Oh neat! Any celeb sightings?
GREENWOOD: Gwyneth Paltrow is the one I remember. For some reason I remember that she was wearing nice jeans.
LAT: I am not surprised! She’s a stylish lady.
Okay, sorry, didn’t mean to interrupt – so you’re at Dechert, billing away…..
GREENWOOD: Ha – yes. Not billing enough, though.
So even though Dechert was a very nice place to be, I was restless, and was looking for a job overseas. I knew a woman in law school who’d gotten a clerkship in American Samoa, so I had it in my head that you could find a job on a tropical island and still work as a lawyer (which was good, given the crippling loans I came out law school with). Eventually, I found a job at the Supreme Court of the Northern Mariana Islands, working for the Chief Justice.
LAT: So you left Dechert for the clerkship then?
GREENWOOD: I did – in February 2002. I was laid off but had one of the situations where I could stay for a while, until I found a new job.
LAT: And where is SCOTNMI – on Saipan? (I don’t know if they have a SCOTUS-like acronym.)
GREENWOOD: It is indeed – in a building right across from a gorgeous beach. They don’t have a SCOTUS-like acronym but they should really get one.
LAT: How long was the clerkship?
GREENWOOD: The clerkship was originally for one year – I didn’t know at the time that clerks often stay on longer, and I ended up staying a little over two years at the Supreme Court there.
After that I moved over to their local Attorney General’s Office (AGO), where I got to do by far my favorite law-related job: I got to help start a refugee protection program for the NMI, and be an administrative judge for it. I really loved that.
LAT: So you were a judge, how many years out of law school? That’s pretty awesome.
GREENWOOD: Five years out, I think? Four?
LAT: That’s great…. And how long were you at the AGO? Was that your last post before you returned to the mainland?
GREENWOOD: I was there for two years. After two years I decided to strike out and freelance full time while I worked on my book.
LAT: And you were still living in Saipan?
GREENWOOD: Yes – I was there another year and some. About 5.5 years altogether.
LAT: Cool. So I guess that leads to my next question – why did you decide to write the book?
GREENWOOD: A combination of things – one was really just to see if I could do it. I’d wanted to be a writer for a long time, and even though I’d been doing article writing for a few years, I hadn’t written a book, and wasn’t sure if I could.
But I’m not sure I really have a good answer for why! Now that I think about it. I mean, yeah – why?
LAT: HA!
GREENWOOD: Ego? I finally had enough to write about?
LAT: Ah, that leads to my next query quite well. There are some similarities between you and the protagonist, Nina Barker. Like Nina, you’re a Columbia law grad, who worked at a big firm, who moved to a Pacific island – Saipan in your case, and “Miramar” in hers. So: how much of the book is based on your own experiences?
GREENWOOD: That is a good question. There were earlier drafts of this book that were much more autobiographical. A lot of the autobiographical stuff had to be cut and changed in order to give the book a “plot.”
LAT: Did you think at some point about writing it as a memoir?
GREENWOOD: Luckily, my life isn’t interesting enough to be a memoir! I wanted to be able to make things up.
LAT: HA! You’re too modest. But fair enough – making stuff up is part of the fun of fiction. So it seems then that maybe the basic premise might have come from your own life, but with a lot of changes after that?
GREENWOOD: Yes, definitely. Well put! There are details in common – and I don’t think many people who know me read the book and think, “Where did she think up THAT?” But the stuff that happens, the particular characters – even the island itself. Made up.
LAT: At first when I got it, I wondered to myself, “Is Miramar real, and am I just a geographical ignoramus?” It’s a very realistically drawn portrait.
GREENWOOD: You know, that would be a good blog name. Geographical Ignoramus. Then you could just write about interesting places, some that are made up
LAT: Totally – that would be fun!
So can you tell me a bit more about the process of writing the book – how long did it take you, for example?
GREENWOOD: Oh, goodness – a long time. I’m very slow.
LAT: Many lawyers out there dream of writing books, but balancing it with day jobs is tough….
GREENWOOD: I had a really completely reasonable set of jobs while I was working on it and I still found it tough. I’d say altogether it took about five years to write. One year that I spent really focusing on it. The year I left the AGO.
LAT: Oh yes, you did mention that. Apologies if this is too snoopy, but you were able to make it all work financially during your 5.5 years on Saipan? Because lots of associates dream of fleeing their firms for the tropics — we wrote about a guy who left Skadden for Nepal (not the tropics, but similar concept) —
GREENWOOD: Nepal!
LAT: But people wonder, “How will I feed myself? Or pay my loans?”
Yup, Nepal – his wife is there on a fellowship with an NGO, and he went there to hang with her.
GREENWOOD: Fantastic. So, no problem with the snoopiness…. The clerkship’s pay wasn’t fantastic – I think it was $40k, plus another $500 (I think?) a month for housing allowance. I just paid my loans out of that – it wasn’t a big deal. They were about $1000 a month at the time.
The AGO was better – I think by the time I left I was getting $60k per year plus a housing allowance. I was also making about $10k per year writing magazine articles. So that helped a lot, obviously!
But I managed to squander all the $, anyway, going traveling all the time.
LAT: I’m guessing the cost of living there was decent?
GREENWOOD: The cost of living is higher in some ways and lower in others.
LAT: Ah, so it’s like Hawaii maybe? The island thing does raise some prices.
GREENWOOD: The guy I was living with there and I shared a fantastic house in the jungle, overlooking the lagoon, for $1200 per month (I think that’s what it was). Food could be more expensive since it was largely imported.
LAT: Okay, so housing seems cheap, and food expensive.
GREENWOOD: But not preposterously expensive. Some things are more expensive, but there are a lot of poor people living out there, and they have to eat, too. There is cheap food available.
LAT: Well, there’s that great scene in the book involving the super-fresh mangoes….
GREENWOOD: Thanks! I am so glad you liked the book.
LAT: How did people react when you told them of your plan to move to Saipan, btw?
GREENWOOD: Oh, my plan! Some people were like, “Oh, Arin. Really?” But I don’t think too many people were surprised.
LAT: And I guess you had done some interesting eclectic things before law school, too.
GREENWOOD: I think people who know me were more surprised when I got a job at a firm in New York than when I ran off to the tropics.
LAT: HA! Nice.
So, back to the book – did you finish the manuscript while you were still there? Tell us a bit about the path to publication.
GREENWOOD: I did. I’d finished a draft a couple of years earlier, and was looking for an agent. There was one agent who liked the drafts but kept telling me they needed work. So I started writing new drafts and sending them to her, and then right before I left Saipan she said she thought the book was ready. She signed me then and started sending it out.
That was in 2007, I think?
LAT: That you got your agent and she started submitting?
GREENWOOD: Yeah. And that’s when all this other stuff was happening (see the first article of mine that you linked to).
LAT: Yes, that’s right! That was a great piece.
GREENWOOD: Anyway, the book didn’t sell. It broke my heart. I’d had this crazy idea that I would write the book, it would sell, I would go to India for two years and write another book, and that would be it, I’d be a novelist from now on.
(I also imagined that I’d do one or two long-form stories for magazines per year and write some travel pieces, too. You know, I was being very realistic.)
LAT: HA – hey, dream big!
GREENWOOD: Oh, I dreamed huge – but I was crushed when it didn’t work out.
After about 13 rejections, my agent came back to me and said she thought that I should write another book, then after that one sold we could go back and sell this one. But, honestly, I was too heartbroken at the time to think about it. I was completely broke, and was heartbroken about the book not selling.
LAT: Oh wow. Were you still in Saipan at the time or in D.C.?
GREENWOOD: D.C. But I had no real reason to be here. I just didn’t know where else to go at the time – my brother was moving here with his then-fiancee (now wife), I had some other family here, a couple of friends. But no professional purpose – and no money at all.
LAT: What led you to come back to the mainland from tropical paradise?
GREENWOOD: It was just time. I’d been out there 5.5 years, and I thought if I didn’t come back soon I never would. I’m close with my family and wanted to be able to see them more. That was a big thing. I was also just ready for a change – I missed cities.
We used to go to Manila for the weekend and I’d be enthralled with all the filth and chaos – that’s how much I missed cities!
LAT: Oh yes! My father’s family is from there – filth and chaos is right.
GREENWOOD: But it’s a thrilling place, don’t you think?
LAT: Oh yes, definitely.
Sorry, I diverted you – this was after book didn’t sell initially – you’re back in D.C.
GREENWOOD: OK, so back in D.C., the book’s not selling, and I’m like, “Jeez, this means I have to get a job? What fresh hell is this?” So I did some temping, picked up some freelance brief-writing work, started teaching LSAT classes. For a while I had a job working on the Hill, too. I got a terrific gig writing policy papers for a free market think tank (and through that I met the man I’m marrying in a couple of months).
LAT: Oh wow – that’s awesome, mazel tov!
GREENWOOD: Oh, thanks! Yeah, he’s great. He is completely patient with me, too. It’s amazing.
LAT: And you were still doing magazine and newspaper pieces too, it seems? E.g., City Paper?
GREENWOOD: Yes, still writing. Anyway, my fiance was encouraging me to look for a new agent, or try to find a publisher on my own. He felt like the novel was unfinished business.
LAT: Interesting. What year was this btw?
GREENWOOD: And I kept putting him off, saying that I’d driven myself crazy with it once – for years – and just couldn’t put myself through it again. This was last year. My agent at some point during all this stopped even being an agent. So there was really no hope.
Then one day on Facebook of all places a guy I know from Saipan put up something about another guy we knew from Saipan becoming a publisher, and looking for a first book to publish.
LAT: Oh, interesting!
GREENWOOD: So I emailed him and said, “Hey, I’ve got this manuscript that’s just sitting around, you’re welcome to take a look at it.” Yeah, and he decided that he wanted to publish it as his first book. And that was sort of that!
LAT: Wow, that’s awesome – what a great story!
GREENWOOD: Oh, thanks!
LAT: And also nice for all the anti-Facebook people to see.
GREENWOOD: Ha – def. Suck it, anti-Facebookers.
LAT: Agreed! (I feel the anti-Facebook stance has become itself clichéd.)
So when was the book accepted and when did it come out? It seems it all came together very quickly.
GREENWOOD: The book was accepted sometime in the fall – September or October 2010, I think? The print version of it came out in January 2011. It was incredibly fast. Whirlwind.
LAT: Wow, that’s great. So have you had to do promotion?
GREENWOOD: As much as possible! The publisher is new to this, and it’s my first book, so we are still trying to figure out how to do promotion.
LAT: Interesting! How have you been getting the word out?
GREENWOOD: A lot of word of mouth.
LAT: That’s the best kind of promotion, they say.
GREENWOOD: Trying to connect with bloggers and writers who seem like they might enjoy the book. We’ve been doing some of that, too. It’s been really fun, actually – that part of it has been a lot of fun.
LAT: Awesome – glad to hear! So I guess one last question (I have to run along soon and I should let you go too): What’s next for you? Or for Nina? Maybe a sequel? (Okay I guess that’s three questions.)
GREENWOOD: Ha! I am working on a new book now. It’s called Sandwich: A Love Story.
LAT: Intriguing title! Fiction also? Related to Tropical Depression in any way?
GREENWOOD: It takes place in D.C. – it’s about a young-looking woman in her mid-thirties who decides she screwed up 25-35 the first time around, and decides to redo them. Not related to Tropical Depression.
LAT: Oh, neat! Sounds like a great read.
GREENWOOD: Thanks!
LAT: How far along are you on it?
GREENWOOD: Maybe 40 pages? It’s still early going.
LAT: Oh one other question, sorry – what is your writing process? When do you write (in between all your other commitments)?
GREENWOOD: That is an excellent question. When I am very busy with other things I don’t get much writing done. But when I’m not super busy then I try to write first thing in the morning – just make myself sit there till I get a certain amount written. Usually once I get into the routine I really enjoy it, but it’s easy to get out of the routine. Like, erm, now.
Are you working on a book? You must have a hundred book ideas!
LAT: Oh, lots of ideas, but not enough time to act on them! That’s why I’m always curious about writerly routines.
Okay – I should probably run along, need to publish the next post – but thanks for taking the time to chat!
GREENWOOD: Great – well, thanks so much David!
LAT: And congrats again on the book!
GREENWOOD: Thank you!
Disclosure: Lat received a reviewer’s copy of Tropical Depression.
Tropical Depression [Amazon]
The Tenth Justice [Amazon]
The Law Clerk [Amazon]
Chambermaid [Amazon]
Earlier: If It Sounds Too Good To Be True, It Probably Is
So Just How Much Does It Suck To Be a Temp Attorney?
Topics
Arin Greenwood, Books, Brad Meltzer, Career Alternatives, Career alternatives for attorneys, Chambermaid, Clerks, Clerkships, Columbia Law School, Dechert, Facebook, Law Clerks, Media and Journalism, Northern Mariana Islands, Saipan, Saira Rao, Scott Douglas Gerber, The Law Clerk, The Tenth Justice, Tropical Depression
In Arin Greenwood's 'Save the Enemy', Absurdity Abounds
ByCaitlin White
Nov 20 2013
Huffington Post editor Arin Greenwood's second novel Save the Enemy (Soho Teen) references Ayn Rand, Nietzche and nihilism, Norman Mailer, and Thomas Pynchon — not your standard YA fare. And Save the Enemy isn't your standard YA novel. From the echo of Abraham Lincoln's famous quote in the title to the more than 250 pages of absurdity that follow, Greenwood aims to take YA to another plane.
Zoey, Greenwood's heroine, shares her name with a nuclear reactor, and it's her immensely readable voice that drives the story. For her senior year in high school, Zoey and her family move from Rhode Island to Alexandria, Va., to a rich boarding school, where she and her younger brother Ben are commuters. She has a crush on Peter, who boards at the school, she hates lacrosse, and she always carries a copy of Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises, which has road trip themes that are relevant to Greenwood's story.
"A competitive roller skater would be exactly the sort of person I could really let loose with," Zoey says early in the story, giving readers hints about her personality.
Greenwood paints Zoey's family as realistic, but turned up a few notches. The story begins a year after her mother is murdered on the street, and their dog Roscoe she is walking, goes missing. Her father is an extreme libertarian and her brother is "on the autistic spectrum;" he won't let anyone touch him, except his late mother, and he at 14 reads The Wall Street Journal every morning.
Zoey goes about her days coping with her eccentric family, worrying about getting into college, and how to draw the attention of Pete before the moment she finds a cigarette butt in her toilet. She's certain that nobody in her family smokes. Then she gets a text that her father has been kidnapped, and she, her brother, and Pete embark on a madcap adventure to find him and the mysterious "J-File."
Along the way, through Zoey's retelling, we find out more about her mother and father. She did not get along with her mother, who is characterized as rude, even mean, and certainly strange, which strays from a traditional telling of a teenage girl who has lost her mother. In one instance, her mother makes her take prenatal vitamins after discovering Zoey has had (protected) sex, just in case. Jacob, her father, reads Zoey Ayn Rand — which she calls valuing "extreme selfishness" — as a bedtime story when she is 4, makes her spend her days learning to tie various kinds of knots, and practices "jiu-Dadsu" with her, a his homemade version of jiu-jitsu. Jacob is a man who strongly disapproves of government-funded military, but wears an Army jacket he bought at the Gap.
During these descriptions, readers are left wondering if these skills are just the work of a semi-madman, or if Zoey will actually put them to use.
Where Greenwood's novel is best is when it devolves into the absurd. Along Pete, Ben, and Zoey's trip to find Jacob and the "J-File," the novel gives readers a distinct feeling of a nefarious undercurrent to our everyday lives; running parallel to our day-to-day, that we only see once we become privy to it. This feeling echoes Pynchon's novella The Crying of Lot 49 — about a woman potentially uncovering a longtime feud between two private mail distribution companies, which also delves into the absurd and paranoia — with Greenwood even choosing to have an extended reference to a privately run postal service and a jaunt to a postal museum.
Save the Enemy includes an alpaca farm, a meteorite, many people with the same name, references to levitation — in fact it opens with a levitation image — and other, sometimes laugh-out-loud moments of pure silliness. Greenwood seems to be in on the absurdity. In an intense scene toward the end, two characters, possibly enemies, break into a fit of laughter — which likely mirrors how Greenwood aims for her readers to feel.
"Yes, that's my feeling. I'd like some explanation of. Jesus, P.F. Everything. Why is my dog here? Why are you here? Why am I here? Where is my dog?" says Zoey, before another character silences her. But then they both start to giggle, laughing harder and harder until they are both cracking up. A break of silence, and then they return to the action.
Save the Enemy is the type of novel that's layered in references, making it so that when reading about characters eating eggs three times, you start to wonder, "Why eggs? What do eggs mean?"
Despite moving at a breakneck pace, thanks mostly to Zoey's voice, the end of the novel slows — maybe too much. Greenwood does leave some elements unresolved, including some questions on character motivations, but they are not entirely important. And it's possible it just adds to the feeling of the story that some things are brought up but not attended to fully. It is perhaps open enough for a sequel, a main element in YA today, but Greenwood would be best to leave this unique work alone.
Image: Courtesy of Soho Teen
Young Adult / Science Fiction
Image of Your Robot Dog Will Die
RT Rating:
Genre:
Young Adult, Science Fiction
Published:
April 17 2018
Publisher:
Soho Teen
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RT Review Source
RT Ratings Guide
5 GOLD: Phenomenal. In a class by itself.
4 1/2: TOP PICK. Fantastic. A keeper.
4: Compelling. A page-turner.
3: Enjoyable. A pleasant read.
2: Problematic. May struggle to finish.
1: Severely Flawed. Pass on this one.
YOUR ROBOT DOG WILL DIE
Author(s):
Arin Greenwood
This is a cute novel that tackles a complex issue. Readers will love the dog puns that are sprinkled (self-deprecatingly) throughout. While any dog lover (like this reviewer) hates the idea that dogs might someday no longer be our loving companions, this book definitely creates an interesting philosophical conundrum. Readers will enjoy Greenwood tackling ethical dilemmas around life, suffering and what it means to take care of the world around us. Unfortunately, the novel is a bit too short to really do justice to both the story and the issues it raises.
Nano has lived on Dog Island her whole life, one of only a handful of kids on the world’s last sanctuary for living dogs. Ever since a science experiment went wrong, dogs turned on humans and became dangerous. Now robot dogs are the only canine pets the world knows, and Dog Island focuses their resources on ending the suffering of animals everywhere. But then a miracle occurs and Nano accidentally discovers a puppy. Determined to protect the puppy, Nano and her friends attempt to hide him from the rest of the island. When a visitor to the island discovers the dog, Nano and her friends are whisked off the island to a farm where they learn that Dog Island isn’t what it seemed — and the truth is far darker than Nano ever imagined. When faced with the harsh truth of the island’s purpose, Nano must choose — can she really make a difference in the lives of animals everywhere? Or is it too late to save her beloved home? (SOHO TEEN, Apr., 208 pp., $18.99, 12 & Up)
Reviewed by:
Raven Nary