Elizabeth Topp's "City People"

Elizabeth Topp’s debut novel, Perfectly Impossible, was a number one Amazon bestseller in literary fiction. Topp penned her first short story as a second grader at the Dalton School and continued studying creative writing at Harvard College and Columbia’s School of the Arts, where she earned a master of fine arts in nonfiction writing. Topp coauthored her first book, Vaginas: An Owner’s Manual, with her gynecologist mother while she worked as a private assistant, a job she still holds. Topp lives in the same Manhattan apartment where she grew up with her partner, Matthew; daughter, Anna; and their cat, Stripes.

Here Topp dreamcasts an adaptation of her new novel, City People:

I always cast the television show or film of my novel as I’m writing it, which is especially helpful when I am inspired by my lived experience but the book itself is completely fictitious. It’s also great to have a cast of three-dimensional actual humans for reference when you’re working, as I was, in multiple points of view. City People brings us inside the lives of six Manhattan Moms grappling with the unexpected loss of one of their own in the midst of private school admissions season.

In my fantasy network television adaptation, the central character, Vic, would be played by Alicia Silverstone: well-meaning but a little bit ditsy, pretty without trying, alternating between sincere empathy and self-involvement. Mindy Kaling would bring a lighter energy and depth to Bhavna, the intense, ambitious, social climber. Sandra Oh was my pick for Amy, the singularly focused Chinese private equity tycoon, who moved thousands of miles from her country of origin to conceal her own deeply held secret. Chandice, the corporate lawyer turned stay-at-home mom who trains her skeptical eye on the woke posturing of the uber prestigious Kent School while battling cancer, would be played by the regal Rutina Wesley. Anne Hathaway would naturally fit the role of Penelope, a generationally wealthy New York native who can’t seem to escape the society box assigned to her, no matter how hard she tries. And finally, Maggie Gyllenhaal would bring the mild crazy-eye necessary for Kara, the outsider posturing and pretending to fit into the posh Kent crowd, hiding just how much the stress of it all--plus Susan’s untimely, violent death--is unraveling her. The otherwise enviable Susan, who is already dead by suicide at the novel’s open would be played by Kate Upton, reinforcing the idea that the outside of a person tells us nothing about what’s going on inside.

Visit Elizabeth Topp's website.

The Page 69 Test: City People.

--Marshal Zeringue