Hello, Bunny!

Mona Awad has a new book out today and you need “Rouge” in your life. And a swell drink.

Today is Tuesday, and in publishing that means New Releases. I’ve never gotten a straight answer on why books (and Records, when Records meant vinyl, and DVDs, and games) are released on Tuesday. The explanation, “It’s always been that way!” isn’t actually an explanation, but that’s all I’ve ever gotten. The important thing is, Tuesday means new books and today that means “Rouge,” from Mona Awad, is available for you to purchase. So go do that, buy the book, and I’ll make you a drink in celebration.

Have I mentioned that’s what I do? When I like a book, I often create a cocktail for it. The most time consuming part of the endeavor is the reading — I read, hoping to encounter ingredients within the pages of the book that I can turn into a good drink.

I’m on the lookout for mentions of alcohol, obviously, and specific drinks (if the author is nice enough to mention particular tipples). Not so obviously, I’m scanning for flavors and aromas — that apple someone is tempted by can easily turn into Apple Brandy for me. Someone strikes up a Lucky? Maybe I’ll add a peaty scotch to echo the cigarette’s smoke.

When I finish reading, I collect my “ingredients” and start to think about what kind of drink would complement the book. Does it take place in the sexy 70s? Maybe I’d consider gathering kindling for a special disco inferno. Is it decadent? Is it sparse? What kind of drink fits the narrative?

That’s half the fun.

Anyway! I just wanted to give you a glimpse into my process. And the process this week is all for Mona Awad.

Mona is many things: a writer, a professor, a former bookseller (!) and a splendid literary citizen. Good literary citizens are constantly working — creating new works, like “Rouge,” or actively listening to those writers who have come before, or providing a shoulder to those writers coming after. And they’re always always always concerned with keeping words accessible to all of us. 

But, damn, for Mona it’s the writing first. Her books are funny. Gothic. Scary and twisty. “Rouge” is a fairy tale for our times. Mona holds a mirror up to our cracked culture and we see beauty and ugliness there — we see our friends and neighbors and ourselves in her looking glass and oh my god you’re going to love it.

“Rouge” is breathtaking. And creepy. It has strained relationships — between friends, between women, between daughters and mothers. The world you’ll enter is bright and sunny. California at its best. But then you’ll notice something not quite right, something off kilter, eerie, as the novel veers into darkness. There are mysterious falls from gorgeous La Jolla cliffs, sexy and sinister mansions — and skin care. Have I mentioned the skin care?

Trust me, this book will get under your skin in the best possible way, and it’ll teach you the proper way to exfoliate.

For Mona’s drink, it was hard to focus on anything besides champagne — there’s so much champagne! I mean, there are an awful lot of violets, too, and smoking. There’s slivovitz! Tea and apple cider, passion fruit and beer — but trust me. So. Much. Champagne.

In one scene, Belle — you’ll be following Belle throughout, it’s her story — inexplicably discovers a drink has been placed in her hand:

“Where did that come from? It looks like champagne, except red….cold bright bubbles go singing down my throat. Like drinking stars.”

Sometimes I spend too much time trying to figure out a drink, and it turns into something like a short story that’s been workshopped too many times and any life it might have had is gone, the victim of too much review. So, seriously, if a writer gives you the image of drinking stars? Just do it.

For “Rouge,” then, we’ll keep it simple. Red champagne? We can do that. Mona’s given us so many roses in the novel we can use them to color her drink by using a lovely rose liqueur made by a French distiller, Combier, and that’s perfect, too, because there’s also a lot of French in the book — French people, words, ideas. So, et voilà.

Rouge:

1 part Combier Rose Liqueur

4 parts champagne

Simple? Sure. Simple, easy and good.

Oh, is there a martini glass with two red roses mentioned in the book? But of course!