Laura McPhee-Browne on ‘Little Plum’
Little Plum (Text, February) is Laura McPhee-Browne’s second novel after her 2020 debut Cherry Beach. Reviewer Danielle Bagnato describes Little Plum as a sincere character study of 29-year-old protagaonist Coral, who we follow throughout her pregancy. Bagnato spoke with McPhee-Browne about her ‘open and honest’ new work.
Your first book, Cherry Beach, is an award-winning novel that enamoured readers. How did you feel writing a second novel? What did you learn from the process?
Writing the second novel is certainly different from writing the first. When I started writing Little Plum, I knew more—about what publication is like, what the industry is like, what it is like to have your writing praised and criticised. This knowledge was mostly unhelpful, because it had nothing to do with the act of writing: of connecting to the creative instinct.
I had Little Plum in me when Cherry Beach was published, and the story and characters wanted to come out, so the process of writing the book felt quite uncomplicated. It wasn’t as straightforward as writing Cherry was, though. I wrote Cherry for myself, and I will never get that innocence back!
In Little Plum, you explore themes of motherhood and identity. Do you think it’s important for mothers and mothers-to-be to garner a strong sense of their own self?
I am not sure that it is helpful for anyone to decide what is important for a mother. Identity is elusive for all of us and, if anything, it might be healthy to be searching.
Little Plum’s protagonist, Coral, struggles with OCD and intrusive thoughts. She’s on medication and aware of the negative effects that it has on her life. Why do you think it’s important to write and talk openly about mental health, especially in relation to motherhood?
Talking about our experiences and our realities helps us all in a number of ways. We show others that we are similar and we are different, and this breeds acceptance. To speak is to communicate, and to communicate is to try to be seen and heard. To be seen and heard is to be connected and free. Isolation and shame keeps us from our freedom.
The perinatal period is a particularly vulnerable time for parents with trauma histories, lower socioeconomic status, and those with existing mental health conditions, treated or untreated, diagnosed or not. It is also a vulnerable time for parents who have never been unwell; luck of the draw, you could say.
I wrote Little Plum to remind us all that worth and strength don’t come into it.
A huge pleasure of reading Little Plum comes from the incredible details of Coral’s inner world and day-to-day life, from intrusive thoughts and tapping and checking behaviours to tram rides through Melbourne and facts about precious stones. Where do the details in your book come from?
I am so glad to hear that these details were pleasurable! Thank you. Through my work as a social worker and perinatal counsellor, and in my life as a daughter and partner and sister and friend and human, I have witnessed and experienced all of Coral’s symptoms, coping mechanisms, and ways of making sense and surviving.
If I reflect on it, it might be that I notice and write the little details in life because the bigger details can scare me. Little things can be comforting, and I believe there is magic in everything (especially thoughts and stones!).
Spending so much time in your own head can be very rewarding, but it can also be very lonely. What do you hope your readers will get from reading Little Plum, and from spending so much time in Coral’s head?
I hope that reading Little Plum will be an immersive experience, so that Coral’s mind will be seen and heard, and her reality respected.
What was the last book you read and loved, and why?
I have been reading a lot of Gail Godwin lately. Her books deliver the edginess of vintage Atwood, the wry social observations of Drabble and Murdoch, and the intricate character studies of the Alices (Munro and Adams) in a distinctive way that I adore. She has been writing novels since 1970, and is still going at age 85! I am in awe.
I can’t choose one, so three Godwin novels I have loved recently are: A Mother and Two Daughters, The Odd Woman and Old Lovegood Girls.
Read Danielle Bagnato’s review of Little Plum here.
