In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book.
Marcia Butler’s novel Dear Virginia, Wait for Me is a compassionately told and evocative coming-of-age story.
Booklist wrote of the book:
“As her fairy-tale-like name would suggest, Peppa is a winsome and beguiling heroine, and Butler (Oslo, Maine, 2021) treats her experiences of self-doubt and powerlessness with perceptive empathy.”
In her own words, here is Marcia Butler’s Book Notes music playlist for her novel Dear Virginia, Wait for Me:
For as long as she can remember, Peppa Ryan has been guided by a benevolent voice in her head who she believes is Virginia Woolf. Set at the turn of the millennium, Peppa is caught between her father’s wishes for her to run the family business and her mother’s mental illness. Despite these pressures, she bravely ventures out on her own and begins a job on Wall Street. My novel follows the challenges and breakthroughs Peppa experiences until she is stopped in her tracks due to a betrayal.
What a Wonderful World: Eva Cassidy
Bob Thiele (as “George Douglas”) and George David Weiss
“I see friends shaking hands
Saying how do you do
But they’re really saying
I love you”
To observe what seems fairly mundane and then discern the emotional truth. What a wonderful notion. My protagonist, Peppa Ryan, spends the bulk of my book discovering how to do just this. She comes from a cloistered and traditional Irish background, living with her parents in Queens, New York City. They want her to abandon any ambition and work for the family construction business for the rest of her life. But when she wins a coveted job on Wall Street, the world, though at first bewildering, eventually becomes brighter and more hopeful. This song was made famous by Louis Armstrong. But the luminous Eva Cassidy renders it in such a way that for just a few minutes the miracle of love is very present.
Optimistic Voices: The Munchkins in The Wizard of Oz
Music by Harold Arlen, lyrics by E.Y. Harburg
“Hold onto your breath
Hold onto your heart
Hold onto your hope
March up to the gate and bid it open”
Dear Virginia, Wait For Me has turned out to be quite a different book from my previous two novels. In those I was interested in exploring characters who are capable of doing not so nice things to the people they love. This particular difficulty of the human condition can contribute to a compelling narrative. But as I went through the process of figuring out the plot and developing the characters who surround Peppa Ryan, it ultimately came to pass that no one means her harm. Granted, she faces challenges that at times bring her to her knees, and readers will surely hold their breath along the way. But this novel carves out an optimistic path, and with Virginia Woolf’s help Peppa can pass through that gate with an open heart.
APT: ROSÉ and Bruno Mars
Music and lyrics by ROSÉ and Bruno Mars
“Kissy face, kissy face sent to your phone, but
I’m trying to kiss your lips for real (uh-huh, uh-huh)”
When I was working on final proofs, I happened upon a reel on YouTube that took me hostage and I found myself clicking on it more times than I dare to disclose. ROSÉ, the pop singer with billions of clicks on social media, and the uptown funk master Bruno Mars, released an addictive dance tune called APT. The opening lyrics remind me of the scene in my book when Peppa reluctantly goes on a date with a plumber to appease her parents in their last ditch effort to keep her close to home. She means to dismiss him in less than an hour. But things evolve and they end up at his place having an extended kissy-face session. Peppa has never even touched a man before and finds kissy face…well…peculiar. The sound of their teeth clicking against each other, the idea that their saliva is comingling, and the strong taste of bacon erupting from the plumber’s stomach—all of it seems kind of…creepy. But eventually, the pleasures of kissy face override the peculiar and the creepy.
All In Love Is Fair: Dionne Warwick
Music and lyrics by Stevie Wonder
“But all in war is so cold
You either win or you lose
And when the game is played
The winner must be paid”
Speaking of YouTube, have you ever noticed that no one ever complains about it? I mean, Twitter, now known as X, is the devil. Facebook, now known as Meta, promises an algorithm consisting mostly of ads. And Instagram? Well, it’s not too terrible. Though, to get any traction at all you have to hashtag every post like crazy. But YouTube is the holy grail of literally everything under the sun. Sometimes I play a game and type a random word into the search bar. One day that word was milk, which led to a slew of videos about milk spitting contests! Another day I typed in the words losing the war, and a 1975 performance by the brilliant Dionne Warwick latched onto my YouTube feed. And as fate would have it, this happened on the very day I had begun writing a pivotal scene where Peppa learns of a terrible betrayal. I couldn’t stop listening to Dionne spin these particular lyrics, about the coldness of war, and that it’s all a game, and somebody ends up getting paid.
I Saved The World Today: Eurhythmics
Music and lyrics by Annie Lennox and David A. Stewart
“Hey, hey I saved the world today
Everybody’s happy now
The bad thing’s gone away
And everybody’s happy now
The good thing’s here to stay
Please let it stay”
I love this song so much. It was written in 1999, just a year before Peppa’s story comes to life. Her boss is a philanthropic investor who sees her potential and together they fund emerging companies whose goals are to improve the lives of struggling communities. Peppa truly believes that their work will save the world. In the last chapter of my book, as things finally seem to be coming together for Peppa, this feeling of unlimited potential pushes her even further toward embracing another aspect of her future. She allows for the possibility that the good things really are here to stay, because in this one rare and beautiful moment, everybody’s happy.
Lux Aeterna: Voces8
Music by Edward Elgar, words are from the Roman missal used in Catholic funerary rites.
“May light eternal shine upon them, O Lord, with Thy saints forever,
for Thou art kind.
Eternal rest give to them, O Lord,
and let perpetual light shine upon them.”
Finally, while writing the last two pages of my book, the Nimrod movement from Edward Elgar’s Enigma Variations entered my mind. The music reflects the hope that Peppa dares to believe in. Which is why the Eternal Rest text that Voces8 has placed onto Elgar’s orchestral music seems fitting. Yet, this is not precisely soothing music. Rather, to me, it unfolds in a way that evokes discomfort. And then, a foreboding. Perhaps about what we as humans beings are actually doing on this precious earth—to ourselves and to each other. And when will love and peace finally win?
also at Largehearted Boy:
Marcia Butler’s playlist for her novel Oslo, Maine
MARCIA BUTLER is a former professional oboist, interior designer, documentary filmmaker, and acclaimed author of the novels Oslo, Maine (2021), and Pickle’s Progress (2017), plus a memoir, The Skin Above My Knee (2017). Her upcoming novel was inspired by the notion that all of us seem to have imagined conversations going on in our heads. In Dear Virginia, Wait for Me (May 6, 2025), Butler explores how a benevolent inner voice guides a vulnerable young woman as she attempts to break from the bonds of her limited upbringing. Visit her website at www.marciabutler.com.
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