Charlotte, the star of HELLO WIFE, is friendly, quirky, and a little bit reckless. Her story grows from a desire — a desperation — to have a partner. Someone to love who will love her back. As she drives herself toward that goal, her emotional hunger is exposed, over and over again. HELLO WIFE was written with Ravel’s Boléro playing in my headphones. Like Charlotte, the Boléro features a repetitive melody that repeats over and over. And like Charlotte, it gains intensity and depth as it rumbles, inevitably, toward its end. I like the idea that the pacing and rhythm of the music mirrors Charlotte’s journey. Plus, it’s a great piece of music.
The rest of my list is made up of tunes that make me feel strong. That bolsters my own confidence as a writer and serves as an example of what real art can do to, and for, a person.
Come To My Window, Melissa Etheridge
This song puts me in the mood to write about love. “You don’t know how much I’d give, or how much I can take” might be the language of my character Celia, who loves her sister desperately. The refrain, “I’ll be home soon,” evokes a wishful dream, and the melancholy of the melody became a meditation for me. This is what love feels like, even when it’s (perhaps) doomed.
The Dating Game theme song
I listened to this lighthearted, silly theme song as a reminder of how life was for the sisters when they were young. It captures a moment in time, before anything went wrong for Charlotte. It’s upbeat, optimistic. A time when everything was possible.
Delilah, Tom Jones
This song conjures the agony that Charlotte endures when crushed by a cheating lover. “Why, why, why?” I could hear this verse in Charlotte’s head. The lyrics of deceit and the unbearable callousness of betrayal beats heavy in Charlotte’s heart and is reflected in the throbbing big-band instrumental rhythm.
Everybody Hurts, R.E.M
Writing about a lonely person can wear you out so I listened to this beautiful song which inspired me to keep going, to share more of my love for Charlotte. This could be my mantra to Charlotte: “When your day is night alone/If you feel like letting go/Hold on. Hold on.”
Creeque Alley, The Mamas & the Papas
In my mind, Charlotte is a wanna-be hippy, and this music sounds like her dreams. I picture her “Standin' on the turnpike, thumb out to hitchhike/” wearing a floppy hat and too many beads. Songs about people who succeed, despite physical issues, “no one’s getting fat except Mama Cass” would have charmed her.
Single, unfulfilled and well into middle age, long-troubled Charlotte Lansing desperately reaches for love and acceptance. When she announces her engagement to an unemployed morphine addict, her family falls into a tailspin. Her mother is determined to prevent disaster, her father seeks to mend the growing chasm, and her sister stubbornly hopes that their sibling bonds can keep Charlotte safe. But Charlotte resists all this because she thinks she is finally happy. Ultimately, all her loved ones can do is watch as Charlotte disappears, slowly and inevitably, into her new husband’s illness. In this bittersweet novel of determination, love, and familial bonds, Lisa Friedman takes readers into the insidious world of prescription drug abuse, showing the havoc opioids can wreak in our lives, and revealing the grace and care given to us at our lowest moments.
Women's Fiction | Fantasy Urban [Santa Fe Writer's Project, On Sale: September 30, 2025, Trade Paperback / e-Book, ISBN: 9781951631536 / eISBN: 9781951631543]
Lisa K Friedman is a writer and essayist living in Washington, D.C. Her essays appear in The New York Times, Huffington Post and other publications.
No comments posted.
© 2003-2026