Certain concepts and themes seem to recur regardless of age. Sometimes I'll revisit certain passages, or I’ll see a page or quote someone has posted online, and I’ll think, “God, I still feel the exact same way,” or “Wow, I still experience that sensation,” so I don’t know. I started writing the book when I was twenty-two and I finished it when I was twenty-five. I never thought about it a coming-of-age novel until I saw that’s how Google has been categorizing it. Knowing that you wrote a lot of Happy Hour during your own early twenties, I’m curious about how you feel about female coming-of-age stories now? In previous interviews, you’ve spoken about the ways that cultural portraits of young women’s relationships to glamour, fashion, and other forms of pleasure are often prejudged or characterized.

A lot of people have said the book has been a nice, bright spot for them during the pandemic, and that is so touching for me. I appreciate that people are thinking about the characters as friends or living vicariously through them. Isa and Gala exist very actively in the world they’re always going to bars, parties, and visiting friends! Have you heard about any readers living vicariously through the book, or maybe even experiencing jealousy of the characters’ freedoms?

A person should never take on a city with an empty stomach, and I am always hungry.” Granados presently resides in Toronto recently, we spoke via Zoom about releasing a debut during a global pandemic and about complex, modern protagonists who can have their cake and laugh about it, too. Before landing at JFK, I had three Bloody Marys and an extra piece of cake that fell apart in my mouth. Happy Hour begins with the auspicious: “My mother always told me that to be a girl one must be especially clever. The young women do experience challenges-and in the second half of the book, the reader learns more about hardships from Isa’s past-but, as Granados has commented in previous conversations, Happy Hour is unique for portraying young women having fun without looming threats of moral or mortal punishment. Whereas cultural portraits of young people cavorting and occasionally being humbled by life in the Big Apple have tended to the focus on characters with inherited wealth- Gossip Girl, Whit Stillman’s Metropolitanand The Last Days of Disco, and even Catcher in the Ryecome to mind-Isa and Gala get by on a delicious admixture of luck, pluck, and social intuition.

They party with celebrities and artists, start bar fights, endear strangers, and receive invitations to the Hamptons. Propelled by curiosity, social savvy, and a wicked sense of humor, Isa, who narrates in the first person, and her best friend Gala dabble in ad-hoc gigs as market vintage sellers, models, and audience members for a pre-taped television show.

Marlowe granados age