Author Rachel Carey Talks About Her Novel, DEBT

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Author Rachel Carey Talks About Her Debut Novel, Debt

The original inspiration for Debt was my rediscovery, as an adult, of the works of Charles Dickens. I’d always liked Dickens, but I really fell in love with his writing when I was old enough and cynical enough to appreciate how smart he was about human weakness. But as I was reading Bleak House and Little Dorrit, I was also tracking the news about the financial meltdown of 2008, and I began to wonder what Dickens would have made of a figure like Bernie Madoff. What would he have had to say about students who owed a hundred thousand dollars in student loan debt, or bankers who received a government bailout and immediately paid themselves million dollar bonuses with taxpayer money?

I think Dickens would have understood those people very well, because people like that appear in all his novels: people who take out debt because they convince themselves it’s necessary, poor people who struggle against a system they don’t understand, rich people who justify any amount of self-indulgence by claiming that they are “important.” But if there was a modern American writer tackling our debt-ridden society with Dickensian scope, I wasn’t sure who it was. So I decided to take on a challenge: writing the book I thought Dickens would have written, if he’d been alive to witness our current social ills.

Of course, the book didn’t turn out at all like a Dickens novel, because my own voice and perspective quickly took over the project. But many elements of Debt are stolen straight from Dickens: the picaresque characters from all walks of society, the dense plot filled with fantastic coincidences and illegitimate children, even a little lame boy who says, essentially, “God bless us, every one.” I also created a protagonist — an orphan, of course — who shared some superficial elements with my own life, not out of narcissism but because Dickens frequently did so. One of my favorite qualities in Dickens is the democratic quality of his plots, the way he weaves together the lives of the rich and poor, so I tried to keep that essential truth in my plotting of Debt: social classes are more interconnected than they appear, and sometimes the pauper has the power to bring down the king.

This book was my tribute to my favorite social satirist. I hope it brings some of the pleasure to my readers that his work has brought to me.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Rachel Carey is a writer and filmmaker. She received an MFA in Film Directing from NYU, a M.Ed. from Harvard, and a BA in English from Yale. She currently teaches college film classes — and lives with her husband and daughter in New Jersey. Rachel is still paying back her student loans — and has dedicated her novel to the Sallie Mae Corporation.

ANNOUNCEMENT: For her outstanding and original writing, Silver Birch Press is nominating Rachel Carey for a 2013 Pushcart Prize. 

NOTE: A FREE Kindle version of the Silver Birch Press release Debt, a novel by Rachel Carey is available through Monday, Nov. 18, 2013. You can download the Kindle version— which retails for $6.99 – for free at Amazon.com.

PHOTOS: Author photo and cover photo by Jeff McCrum.

Free Today: Kindle Version of Debt, a novel by Rachel Carey

The Silver Birch Press release DEBT, a novel by Rachel Carey is available for free at Amazon.com on Friday, July 26, 2013. You can download the Kindle — which retails for $6.99 — at Amazon.com.

So remain debt-free today (at least when it comes to this novel) and download your Kindle version of DEBT for free!

Kudos for Debt, a novel by Rachel Carey

In February 2013, Silver Birch Press published DEBT by Rachel Carey, one of the best novels we’ve ever come across (as a reader or publisher) — with everything you’d want in a great read: fascinating characters, humor, wit, a page-turning story, and terrific writing. We recently updated the cover of DEBT (see above) to better impart the novel’s central idea — how student loan debt bleeds into every aspect of someone’s life.

But the book with the original cover (shown at left) has recently garnered an impressive piece of press coverage — a video review and recommendation for summer reading at the trendy site mommalogues, where reviewer Jenni Chiu called it “a satirical, witty read.” 

Congratulations, Rachel on the stellar shout out! We are proud you’re a Silver Birch Press author and we’ve played even a small part in what we are sure is the start of an amazing literary career. You are a writer par excellence. Let the buzz begin!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: RACHEL CAREY is a writer and filmmaker. She received an MFA in Film Directing from NYU, an M.Ed. from Harvard, and a BA in English from Yale. She currently lives with her family in New Jersey and teaches college film classes. Debt is her first novel.

DEBT, a novel by Rachel Carey is available in paperback and Kindle at Amazon.com.

Now Available: Kindle Version of Debt, a Novel by Rachel Carey

Last week, Silver Birch Press released DEBT by Rachel Carey — one of the best novels we’ve read in many years. Read our original post here. 

We’re happy to report that a Kindle version of the book is now available at this link. The Amazon.com page also includes the “look inside” feature where you can enjoy a passage from this debut novel by Rachel Carey.

A review on the Amazon.com site captures much of what I love about this novel — characterizing the author as a 21st Century Jane Austen (here, here!) — so I’m including it below.

5.0 out of 5 stars Money is the root of all humor February 8, 2013

By katherine tomlinson

In Rachel Carey’s debut novel, Debt, money (or lack thereof) and class hold roughly the same importance they do in a 19th century novel of manners. She has taken the conventions of chic lit (all the fancy restaurants and mindless consumption you see in books like Bergdorf Blondes) and mixed them with a subtly snarky style that evokes a 21st century Jane Austen.

She is keenly observant, pricking her characters’ pretensions with subtle gibes that are so sharp you almost don’t notice them until they draw blood.

The characters–and there are a lot of them–are all fully realized. There’s the entitled Nadya–it’s her world, you just live in it–and the totally adorable Clyde. Our narrator is would-be novelist Lillian whose work in progress is so downbeat it even depresses her and who is beginning to regret the way her student debt is piling up without her having much to show for it. That would depress anyone.

But this is a comedy, a multi-layered farce that treats money the way Sex and the City treated sex. Carey has a good time tweaking pop culture–there’s a hilarious running gag involving a blog called “shopacovery”–and everything about Lillian’s pretentious writing teachers will resonate with anyone who’s ever taken a writing class.

This book is subversive and sly and extremely entertaining. If you loved books like Confessions of a Shopaholic and The Devil Wears Prada, you will love Debt.

Feb. 2013 Release: Debt, a novel by Rachel Carey

Silver Birch Press is pleased to announce the February 2013 release of DEBT, a debut novel by Rachel Carey. This book has everything we love in a great read — compelling premise, well-drawn characters, humor, wit, and outstanding writing. It’s a literary page turner (yes, there is such a thing!) that will make you eager for this gifted author’s next book.

Set in New York City, Debt — a satirical look at the 2008 financial meltdown — follows a range of characters who owe something to someone in a variety of ways. From main character Lillian Fitzgerald — a recent grad with an Master’s in Creative Writing in one hand and $100,000 bill for her student loans in the other — to Henry Bolt, the mysterious force who owns the bank that financed Lillian’s student loans, and an assortment of other people up and down the debt chain (bill collectors, stock market mavens, the wealthy, the foreclosed, the bankrupt, the desperate, the spoiled, the gamblers, the winners, and the losers), Debt covers a wide universe without leaving the five boroughs.

I see great things ahead for author Rachel Carey and feel honored that Silver Birch Press has published this gifted writer’s first novel.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Rachel Carey is a writer and filmmaker. She received an MFA in Film Directing from NYU, an M.Ed. from Harvard, and a BA in English from Yale. She currently lives with her family in New Jersey and teaches college film classes. Debt is her first novel.

Find Debt, a novel by Rachel Carey at Amazon.com.

Cover photo by Jeff McCrum

Coming Soon: DEBT, a Novel by Rachel Carey

Silver Birch Press is pleased to announce the upcoming publication of DEBT, a novel by Rachel Carey. This book is The Bonfires of the Vanities 20+ years later — and, in this publishers opinion, just as great a read!

BACK COVER BLURB: Lillian Fitzgerald has gone a hundred thousand dollars into student loan debt for a Master’s Degree in Creative Writing. To buy time to salvage her ambitious but depressing thesis novel, she accepts a part-time job doing SAT tutoring for Calvin Bolt, whose father Henry owns Bolt Bank — the company that services her student loans. Lillian soon discovers that dangerous secrets underlie the wealth and power of the Bolt family, secrets that could launch Lillian onto the New York Times bestseller list… if she manages to survive long enough to write about them. In this sharp and fast-paced satire of New York during the 2008 financial meltdown, it turns out that everyone — even all-powerful billionaire Henry Bolt — is in somebody’s debt.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Rachel Carey is a writer and filmmaker. She received an MFA in Film Directing from NYU, a M.Ed. from Harvard, and a BA in English from Yale. She currently teaches college film classes — and lives with her husband and daughter in New Jersey. Rachel is still paying back her student loans — and has dedicated her novel to the Sallie Mae Corporation.

Silver Birch Press will publish Debt by Rachel Carey in November 2012.

Phases, a New Play by Rachel Carey Premieres in New York City

Congratulations to Rachel Carey — whose debut novel DEBT will be available from Silver Birch Press later this month — on the premiere of Phases, a play she wrote and directed that’s featured in the 2012 Thespis Theater Festival in New York City.

The play’s final performance will take place on Saturday, October 13, 2012, at 9 p.m. For more information, visit the Thespis Theater Festival website.

Phases is a comedy about the ways that the memory of past relationships can haunt present relationships — and follows John, a young man who becomes obsessed with running away to Alaska but can’t decide which girl he wants to take with him.

Congratulations to Rachel Carey for an outstanding coast-to-coast October 2012 — premiere of her play Phases in New York and publication of her novel Debt in Los Angeles.

Introducing a Unique New Literary Voice

Silver Birch Press is pleased to announce the upcoming publication of DEBT, a novel by Rachel Carey. Welcome, Rachel!

The tone, style, setting, and subject matter of DEBT  bring to mind  THE BONFIRES OF THE VANITIES, Tom Wolfe’s exploration of the financial masters of the universe. More than twenty years later, it’s a very different financial picture – everybody has gone bust, or is on their way there. The extensive cast of characters – many of a comic bent – calls to mind the crime capers of Donald Westlake or the antics described in books by P.G. Wodehouse.  Bottom Line: Great story, engaging characters, funny, witty, clever, incisive, insightful, and original.