As we get farther from the global pandemic, I’ve wondered how art may look back at that moment. In an unexpected way, Robyn Ryle’s novel Sex of the Midwest, today’s featured guest on a new episode of Book Stuff, wrestles with the pandemic and its aftershock. Told in a group of loosely connected—often hilarious and heartbreaking—short stories, the novel takes place in the immediate post-lockdown years in the small, fictional midwestern town of Lanier, Indiana.
The story opens with Lanier’s population of 12, 234 waking up to a sex survey in their email inboxes. This sets off a confetti of gossip, intrigue, indifference, and unsettledness for the residents. We’re invited into the worlds of the bar tenders, old coaches, teens, retirees, lost twenty-somethings, determined city employees, hot dog vendors. Everyday folks.
I felt a tenderness trotting from chapter to chapter. As someone who has lived in small towns, I recognized people who exist in these pages and all across America. Robyn brings Lanier to life. Almost all of the characters struggle to square their feelings around being connected: feelings of love and friendship; feelings of self and place.
One character, a twenty-something James, recently moves to Lanier from San Francisco after Googling, “What’s the opposite of San Francisco?” He seeks freedom from roommates and leaving behind the “digital life.” Once he pulls into Lanier, he hits reality and needs to mow lawns to pay rent. After a job, a snarky and quick-witted neighbor kid who wishes to leave Lanier for Bermuda, pokes fun of James. The kid points out pieces of the lawn that still need mowed, and soon after a moment of pause, tells James, “Everyone said things would get better after the pandemic ended, but they lied.”
This statement gut punches James. It gut punched me. This is one reason I wanted to talk to Robyn on the podcast. In our conversation, Robyn shared more truths like how it’s very hard to not feel lonely in our culture, small towns are diverse in weirdness, and we should maybe expand the definition of sex.
All the reason you should check out her book and see how her characters deal with the post-pandemic loneliness, and how they might find connection with one another. There’s a lot people everywhere can learn from Lanier, Indiana and Robyn herself.
Listen to our conversation on Apple or Spotify.
