Animators (Whitaker)

The Animators 
Kayla Rae Whitaker, 2017
Random House
384 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780812989281


Summary
She was the first person to see me as I had always wanted to be seen. It was enough to indebt me to her forever.

In the male-dominated field of animation, Mel Vaught and Sharon Kisses are a dynamic duo, the friction of their differences driving them: Sharon, quietly ambitious but self-doubting; Mel, brash and unapologetic, always the life of the party.

Best friends and artistic partners since the first week of college, where they bonded over their working-class roots and obvious talent, they spent their twenties ensconced in a gritty Brooklyn studio. Working, drinking, laughing. Drawing: Mel, to understand her tumultuous past, and Sharon, to lose herself altogether.

Now, after a decade of striving, the two are finally celebrating the release of their first full-length feature, which transforms Mel’s difficult childhood into a provocative and visually daring work of art. The toast of the indie film scene, they stand at the cusp of making it big.

But with their success come doubt and destruction, cracks in their relationship threatening the delicate balance of their partnership.

Sharon begins to feel expendable, suspecting that the ever-more raucous Mel is the real artist. During a trip to Sharon’s home state of Kentucky, the only other partner she has ever truly known—her troubled, charismatic childhood best friend, Teddy—reenters her life, and long-buried resentments rise to the surface, hastening a reckoning no one sees coming.

A funny, heartbreaking novel of friendship, art, and trauma, The Animators is about the secrets we keep and the burdens we shed on the road to adulthood. (From the publisher.)

Author Bio
• Birth—ca. 1983-84
• Where—Mt. Sterling, Kentucky, USA
• Education—B.A., University of Kentucky; M.F.A., New York University
• Currently—lives in Louisville, Kentucky


Kayla Rae Whitaker’s work has appeared in Buzzfeed, Literary Hub, Split Lip Magazine, Bodega, Joyland, Five Quarterly, American Microreviews and Interviews, and others.

She has a BA from the University of Kentucky and an MFA from New York University. After many years of living in Brooklyn, she returned to Kentucky, her home state, in 2016 with her husband and their geriatric tomcat, Breece D’J Pancake. (From the publisher.)

Book Reviews
Unusual and appealing.… The Animators covers familiar debut-novel territory: the search for identity, the desire for success, the bewildering experiences of small-town misfits leaving home for the bright lights of New York City. But Whitaker turns these motifs on their heads simply by changing the direction of the road and populating it with women.
Glynnis MacNicol - New York Times Book Review


Well-wrought and evocative.… [Mel and Sharon’s] partnership, which is at once fervent and wonderfully unsentimental, gives The Animators its soul.
Washington Post


Memorable, sure-handed, and absorbing.
Boston Globe


This novel is the holy grail; it’s the rare novel that explores and examines the deep friendship and professional lives of two women [and] keeps that focus.
Baltimore Sun


Difficult to forget long after finishing the last few pages.… [This breakout novel] fills a literary gap, which has been waiting for a tale of millennial female friendship and love without tacky genre borders or stereotypes.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette


The Animators is inspiring in its freshness and its authenticity, one of the most original and raw books I’ve read in a long time. I look forward to more Whitaker novels to add to my library.
Dallas Morning News


Abiding friendships…are rarely portrayed with such nuance and humor as in this first novel, a nimble comedic turn edged with shadow.
Oprah Magazine


Suffused with humor, tragedy and deep insights about art and friendship.
People


[A] stunning debut.
Variety


A compulsively readable portrait of women as incandescent artists and intimate collaborators.
Elle


Whitaker’s vivid debut traces the lives of friends who bond over their rural Southern upbringings, then become an avant-garde animation duo with a cult following and uncomfortable fame.
Entertainment Weekly


(Starred review.) [O]utstanding.… Whitaker skillfully charts the creative process, its lulls and sudden rushes of perfect inspiration.… [S]he has created something wonderful and exceptional: a rich, deep, and emotionally true connection that will certainly steal the hearts of readers.
Publishers Weekly


In this fine first novel, Whitaker captures the human frailties that beset everyone—jealousy, anger, insecurity, trauma, the search for love—and weaves them into a compelling story of friendship, self-destruction, and salvation. —Joanna Burkhardt, Univ. of Rhode Island Libs., Providence
Library Journal


Visceral…utterly compelling…with the nonstop tension of a soap opera.
Booklist


(Starred review.) Unexpected and nuanced and pulsing with life, Whitakers debut cuts straight to the heart …with such precision and sharpness that its hard to let [her characters] go. Empathetic but never sentimental; a book that creeps up on you and then swallows you whole.
Kirkus Reviews

Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use our LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion for The Animators...then take off on your own:

1. In what way do Mel and Sharon feel like outsiders at Ballister? What role does their sense of being different play in bringing the two together? How has each of their lives left them unprepared to face the environment at Ballister?

2. Sharon says of Mel in the very first chapter: "She was the first person to see me as I had always wanted to be seen. It was enough to indebt me to her forever."

1. What does Mel see in Sharon?
2. Does "what" Mel see in Sharon remain the same during the course of the novel—or change?
3. What does Sharon see in Mel?
4. Have you ever had a friend who truly saw into the center of you?

3. Describe Sharon's and Mel's personalities. How do they differ from one another, and how do their differences play out during the novel?

4. How do each of them conceptualize or understand art? Do they view art in the same way?

5. Author Kayla Rae Whitaker says that in her own life she was obsessed with cartoons—like her characters in The Animators. In an interview, she told The Guardian, "I am drawn to stories where children make dark discoveries about human nature." Shen went on to say,

My book is about the process of witnessing that darkness before you have the words to describe what you see and what you feel. Where do people pick up their shadows? And I think cartoons so often can tread on those shadows, without ever falling on top of them.

How do you see that role for cartoons—revealing to children the darker parts of humanity without causing trauma—play out in Whitaker's novel? Is the role beneficial? By the way, that concept was proposed in 1976 for children's fairy tales in Bruno Bettelheim's now classic, The Uses of Enchantment.

6. Talk about Teddy's role in Sharon's childhood and, now, her adult life. Why is he featured so prominently on her list (and why does Sharon keep the list from Mel)? Why is Teddy distressed about his role in Sharon's film?

7. What are the cracks that begin to widen in Sharon and Mel's relationship?

8. What propels Mel's downward trajectory?

(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)

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