Author Talk and Book Launch: Courtney Maum, Alan Opts Out

Please join us to celebrate the June 2nd release of Courtney Maum’s latest novel Alan Opts Out. Courtney will speak about the book in conversation with WAMC Producer Sarah LaDuke. In this timely and comedic take on ambition, consumerism, and the sticker price of privilege, an ad exec who bombs the biggest pitch of his career decides to forgo capitalism and live off the land of his suburban Connecticut home. 

Fifty-something Alan Anderson toils ceaselessly on his firm’s pitch for a pro-milk campaign, hoping to garner his 10th industry excellence award and quell his nagging fear that “something dark” is approaching. He also plans to reinvigorate his stagnant marriage to Vivian, his wife of almost 20 years, by giving her the backyard swimming pool she longs for at their opulent home in Greenwich, Conn. Meanwhile, Vivian treads water raising their two daughters, 15 and 12, and obsesses over becoming one of their seaside neighborhood’s Queen Annes, an elite group of wives chosen by chic Whitby, their “bully, princess, icon.” After Alan’s bid for the milk campaign curdles, he retreats to his daughters’ backyard playhouse, where he finds himself in a “poetic mood.” He decides to drop out of the rat race and live there, unplugged from the family’s smarthome, leaving Vivian unmoored and slipping deeper into Whitby’s orbit. Packed with Maum’s gimlet-eyed observations on the “futile” and “absurd” nature of Alan’s work and Vivian’s indefatigable social aspirations, the novel offers a fierce and funny portrait of late-stage capitalism and its limited supply of happiness. It’s a gem. [Publisher’s Weekly]

A resident of Norfolk, Courtney Maum is the author of five previous books, including the romantic comedy Touch (New York Times Editors’ Choice) about a tech worker’s efforts to reclaim her humanity; the memoir The Year of the Horses chosen by the Today show as one of the best reads for mental health awareness; and the groundbreaking publishing guidebook Before and After the Book Deal. Maum is an educator and writing coach helping people hold on to the joy of art making in a culture obsessed with turning artists into brands. In addition to her creative writing, teaching, and advocacy work for writers at the Authors Guild, Maum worked internationally as a brand strategist and corporate namer in the advertising world for twenty years. Learn more at CourtneyMaum.com.

Please register below for this event. Books will be available for purchase and signing.