Welcome to Between the Covers Summer Series, where we put the spotlight on our South Florida authors.

Hi, I'm Anne Bok, and joining me is award-winning author, writer, and former literary agent, Laney Catz Becker.

Her new book is set in 1960s suburban America.

It explores themes of friendship, reproductive rights, and personal awakening.

Laney, thank you so much for joining me.

Oh, thank you for having m.. to like this book.

It went way above liking.

I loved this book.

Now, what I did not expect was how timely and how relevant it was going to be since it was set in mid 1960s.

Give us a snapshot if you would of America 1965.

Wow.

Um, women didn't, it was before the women's movement, so women really didn't have rights.

They could not get a credit card in their own name.

They couldn't get a lease or a mortgage without a man co-signing.

Divorce was really difficult to get.

Um, this was before no fault divorce.

And um you couldn't even get a prescription for birth control unless you were married.

And abortion was dangerous and very illegal.

I think this book would be very eyeopening to younger women when they when they read this to see how far women have come from 1960s to today.

This book takes place in Ohio in the suburbs as we said 1965.

There is a neighborhood of very close women friends.

Some are pregnant, some want to be pregnant, some don't want the pregnancies that they have.

We talked just for a second about reproductive freedom and financial autonomy.

This stuff is just on the brink, not quite there.

And yet they're reading Betty Fredane's book.

Do you want to give that a little perspective?

Yes.

Well, Betty Friedan's book, The Feminine Mystique, came out in 1963.

So, I thought it makes sense as we as we move into 1965 that women in the suburbs in Akran, Ohio would be discovering the book and maybe starting to think about their lives and what they do every day, what the expectations are, but mostly what the limitations are.

And um the book is narrated by three different female voices.

Uh one is a woman who married right after high school and did not go to college.

And the another is a woman who did go to college and works as a school teacher, second grade, and she loves her job.

Um and when the novel opens, she's been married a little over a year and marriage isn't what she expected.

So right there you have very different experiences and perspectives.

The marriage being not what she expected is is the understatement.

And I I I'll leave it at that.

Yeah.

In the book, Lily Berg takes in Betsy, who is a pregnant teenage girl.

I think she's 15.

Yes.

Takes her in from a home for unwed mothers to live in her home pretty much until she is almost ready to deliver.

this concept is really central to this story.

If you would talk a little bit about their relationship and about those homes, these homes were all over the country at at that time.

They were the homes for unwed mothers.

Um, interestingly, when I was a little girl, my parents took in a girl from one of the homes that was overflowing with girls who were in trouble.

I was so young and don't remember details other than we were Jewish and the girl was not.

Um but you know that's the joy of fiction.

You can just make it up.

Um but yes, girls who were pregnant and not married were sent away by their parents because they were an embarrassment.

They were to go to these homes and have their babies.

People were told, "Oh, she's helping good aunt Tilly who broke her hip," or they they made some excuse for why the girl was was away, and she would have her baby, and then the theory was she would come back and act like nothing ever happened.

She'd come back, she'd finish high school, and these these babies were adopted by by other families.

Interesting that your family was was part of this.

That's fascinating to me.

Yes.

Um, it's completely fascinating because it was it was unusual, but that's how I knew that I could I could put it in the novel.

There are a lot of interesting elements in in this novel.

The Tuesday canasty games.

What a great backdrop for the interactions.

I I loved that.

You know, I knew I needed to get these women together once a week and um cards seemed like a great, but bridge is too confusing and I don't know how to play bridge.

And so, who needed to do all that research?

I was busy researching the 1960s and ma jang seemed something that was was very focused on either Jewish women or Asian women.

And I wanted something that could be sort of universal.

And canast is making such a comeback these days.

And I thought, "Oh, that that would work cuz it was popular then and it's becoming more popular now."

Laney, what I also love is that each chapter, the heading for each chapter is the name of the woman in whose voice she is speaking, but you use her married name.

For instance, Mrs.

David Berg and in parentheses in much smaller type, Lily.

This is very purposeful crafting.

Yes, it is.

And I'm so glad you noticed not only that she was in parentheses, but that she was smaller because isn't that how women were then?

Yeah.

I I thought, did you always know that you would do that?

That just stood out to me.

I knew that they were going to be named in their husband's name as if they were an appendage.

I did not know and I and I put her in parentheses, but my editor actually contacted me and said, "We're talking about a layout for the book.

How do you want that to appear?

Do you want it to be Mrs.

David Berg, parenthesis Lily, or do you want it Mrs.

David Berg and underneath Lily?"

And I said, "Under."

Nailed it.

Yeah.

There's some very sensitive .. in this story.

And this story is a great story.

There is abortion, miscarriage, do domestic violence for you.

What was the hardest part to write?

I don't know that anything was particularly hard.

Um, for me it was more about exploring things from a way that would resonate with women today and having it be believable that it could happen then that it could happen now and the different attitudes of society then and now and and that was really I think more research maybe than difficulty in terms of writing.

Did anything about the research surprise you?

Oh, a lot a lot surprised me.

Um, just reading about what women could and couldn't do.

The notion that that women couldn't even get birth control unless they were married, yet there was this huge punishment if you got pregnant when you weren't married.

I mean, things like that that just they didn't make sense.

And um yeah, there was a lot the fact that domestic violence was just like swept under the rug that you really were if you were married the appendage and a man could sort of do what he wanted because you were his wife.

And I'm sure all marriages were not that way.

Grounds for divorce.

You had to have grounds.

Yes, you had to have groun.. you imagine somebody who's in an abusive relationship having to then go into court and talk about the abuse, show pictures, go into detail?

You don't think that that's going to enrage that man even more and put you in more danger?

I mean, some of these things, like I said, just just did not make sense.

You're both an award-winning author and a former literary agent, and I find that dual perspective really fascinating.

What's one thing you would tell or suggest to an aspiring author?

I think write what you're passionate about.

That's in terms of the assignment.

And then don't give up.

As a literary agent, I know I know some gems, you know, slip past me.

And who knows why?

But don't give up.

Just because someone says no, try again and try again and try again.

I mean, we've all heard stories about famous authors who were rejected countless times.

Um, as an agent, I know that was my motto.

I remember once submitting a a manuscript over 30 times before I found someone who took it.

And that and that book wound up on the New York Times bestsellers list.

So, you know, go.

Yeah.

Perseverance.

That's right.

The book is in the family way.

La.. Cats Becker.

I have really enjoyed this.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I'm Anne Bok.

Please join me on the next Between the Covers.