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"The Means" by Amy Fusselman
Amy Fusselman, creative writing professor at New York University and author of “The Means.” BEOWOLF SHEEHAN
The word “rich” may have many meanings. Whether it means having exorbitant amounts of money, receiving love from those around you or owning a house in the Hamptons. Shelly Means, the protagonist of “The Means,” by Amy Fusselman, seems to want it all.
As a wealthy stay-at-home mother of two, Shelly has a dream of owning a beach house in the Hamptons, and when the family’s lake house gets broken into by a raccoon, Shelly’s dream is about to come true, but not without its ups and downs.
Shelly and her husband, George, decide to buy a plot of land in East Hampton and hire an architect to draw up plans for their future house. They hit a bit of turbulence when they face financial difficulties and the plan for their shipping container home is denied by the Home Aesthetics Committee of their new neighborhood.
When Shelly’s chances of getting her beach house seemed bleak, she persisted, and with each item that was taken off her vision board, she was one step closer. Shelly only had one condition: The house was required to have a Japanese toilet.
“The Means” is a work of fiction, but there are certain similarities between the main character and Fusselman herself. Fusselman also owns a shipping container home in East Hampton; however, she hasn’t received the same reaction from her neighbors as Shelly did in the novel.
“I have to say that our experience of building a shipping container home was people were generally lovely and have been kind,” Fusselman said. “I was interested in exploring the Hamptons as a place where people take risks like that [and] where people want to go on vacation, they want to be at the beach, and that’s a driver for a lot of people wanting to build.”
Fusselman, a creative writing professor at New York University, has written four nonfiction books, but this is her first work of fiction. The novel is chock full of witticisms, and they are her favorite part of “The Means.”
“I really just enjoyed the process of making myself laugh, and when I would be cracking up, that was always a good sign,” Fusselman said. “So I tried to follow my own impulses there in terms of really enjoying it and really trying to share things with readers that I thought that they would also find funny.”
The book, along with the lives of the characters, centers on money and the means people have to fulfill their desires. Fusselman used that theme as a way to contribute to the comedic value but also to include a socioeconomic commentary.
“I kind of quickly landed on the idea that I wanted to write about money because it was something I’ve never broached in writing before,” Fusselman said. “Also because it felt for humor, that it’s a really juicy subject. It’s something that most people have a lot of anxiety about, a lot of history [with] and a lot of it is ripe for examination.”
To find out whether Shelly’s dreams came true, “The Means” will become available for purchase on Tuesday, September 6, and is published by Mariner Books.
“I hope that it’s actually a real pleasure to read, not only because it’s funny, but because it tries to unpack some serious topics that go after some major questions,” Fusselman said.
