Roxana Robinson's "Cost"

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Roxana Robinson is the author of Cost, three earlier novels, and three short-story collections, as well as a biography of Georgia O’Keeffe. Four of these were named Notable Books of the Year by the New York Times. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Harper’s Magazine, the New York Times, Best American Short Stories, and Vogue, among other publications. She has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the MacDowell Colony.

Here she shares her preferences for casting the main roles in Cost...and reminds us of the importance of location scouts and production designers:

If Cost were to be made into a movie, for the parents, Julia and Wendell, I think Meryl Streep and Sam Waterston would be excellent. They'd be able to enter into those characters beautifully. For the two sons, Steven and Jack, I'd see maybe Emile Hirsch and Jamie Bell.

This is all after the fact, though, as I don't write with actors in mind, and in fact I don't write with real physical people in mind.

Just as important as the actors would be the house. This is an old shabby white clapboard farmhouse on the coast of Maine. Beyond it is a meadow, sloping down to the water. Beside the house is an old barn, on the other side, an orchard. This would all have to be exactly right: I do write with a very clear sense of setting and structures.

Read an excerpt from Cost, and learn more about the book and author at Roxana Robinson’s website.

The Page 69 Test: Roxana Robinson's Cost.

--Marshal Zeringue