Podcast Episode Summary

Podcast: New Books Network (Burned by Books)
Host: Chris Holmes
Guest: Marcy Dermansky, author of Hot Air (Knopf, 2025)
Date: October 31, 2025

Episode Overview

This episode features an engaging conversation between host Chris Holmes and novelist Marcy Dermansky about her new book, Hot Air. The novel, characterized by its comedic style and sharp social critique, launches readers into a world where outlandish events—like a hot air balloon crashing into a pool—spark explorations of desire, wealth, motherhood, and the sometimes absurd negotiations of modern life. Holmes and Dermansky discuss the novel’s genesis, its thematic focus, character construction, and place within Dermansky’s broader oeuvre.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Origins of the Novel’s Concept

• Hot Air opens with a hot air balloon crashing into a pool during a first date between two divorced parents, Joanie and Johnny.
• This dramatic inciting event originated from a writing prompt by Emily Hopkins Sanders.
  • “It literally had a prompt saying write a short story where a hot air balloon falls into a swimming pool.” (Marcy, 04:37)
• After initial hesitation and a rejected short story submission to The New Yorker, Dermansky’s agent encouraged her to expand it into a novel:
  • “He said, Marcy, I really loved this, so turn it into a novel. And I'm like, no, this is too silly. Too silly even for me.” (Marcy, 05:11)
• She found creative freedom in approaching the project with low expectations and minimal pressure.

2. Narrative Perspective and Character Construction

• The novel features four main narrators—all with “J” names: Joanie, Johnny, Jonathan, and Julia:
  • “There are four narrators. There are four different main points of views and their names all start with J... when people ask me like, why did I do that?…it pleased me when I was writing.” (Marcy, 06:33)
• Dermansky enjoys playing with voice and advocating for character empathy, even when characters are so-called ‘unlikable.’
  • “I never feel that way because I always just feel when I'm going into somebody... it feels like a really close, close first. Third person. Like I'm in their head.” (Marcy, 08:21)
• The democratization of viewpoint—granting both central and peripheral characters interiority—serves to humanize even those readers may find “less than savory.”

3. Mother-Daughter Relationships

• The dynamic between Joanie and her daughter Lucy remains central, grounding the novel’s absurdities in emotional reality.
  • “Joanie is a single mother kind of just coming out of the pandemic and she's really kind of always just like trying to not fail her daughter constantly.” (Marcy, 11:15)
• Lucy, at age 8, is granted two chapters from her own perspective, offering astute observations about her mother.
  • “She always wants to get her mother to something cool. And I really like doing that... I was really pleased with how that voice came out.” (Marcy, 12:54)

4. Exploring Desire—Sexual, Social, and Material

• Holmes notes that in Dermansky’s work, “Women's desires are so often the linchpin of drama and tension.” (Chris, 13:20)
• Hot Air explores multiple forms of desire: sexual longing, freedom from obligation, and the allure (and burden) of wealth.
  • “I think when we're taught about, like what to write a novel, like they teach you, the first thing you have to do is have characters want things... But everybody in this novel, I think wants something slightly different. And it's all about desire.” (Marcy, 14:12)
• Notably, Julia, the billionaire’s wife, ultimately just wants alone time with her cats, subverting typical narratives of ambition:
  • “In the end we find out that Julia…she really just wants her cats.” (Marcy, 15:03)

5. Wealth, Power, and Social Critique

• The novel lampoons the social distance and moral indifference of the ultra-wealthy:
  • “Jonathan and Julia…they basically take on Joanie and Lucy as if they're like projects. They're like, oh, this is an adorable mother and daughter. Maybe we want them…But the minute they become problematic, they just switch off.” (Marcy, 23:46)
• Holmes observes the corrosive influence of privilege, particularly through experiences like VIP treatment at Harry Potter World.
• The character Julia exhibits a lack of self-awareness about her own privilege:
  • “She says to herself that she knows her limitations... what the day's events have taught us is that she has no limits or...really ethical. And she'll break any rule, cut any line, and feel unscathed by it.” (Chris, 25:08)
  • “So I think what that really says is that she doesn't actually know herself at all.” (Marcy, 25:39)

6. Crafting Comedy and Minimalist Style

• Dermansky is praised for her “minimalist, almost stripped down style that manages amazing emotional and comic work…” (Chris, 29:00)
• She attributes comic effect to rhythm, repetition, and brevity, rather than overt joke-writing:
  • “If I actually tried, tried to be funny, I wouldn't be. But sometimes I write something and then I realize it is funny...I'm always writing short sentences…And sometimes I think when I repeat something that already is ridiculous, if I say it again, that makes it funny.” (Marcy, 29:30)
• Major stylistic influences include minimalist writers Mary Robison and Frederick Barthelme (Marcy, 30:20)

7. Setting and Research

• The novel’s setting is a blend of Montclair, New Jersey, and an unspecified (everywhere) upper-middle-class suburb.
• Much of the Harry Potter World experience was researched online and by interviewing children rather than personal visits:
  • “The only thing that I really had to imagine which was interesting for me was I had to imagine Hogwarts because I have them go to the Harry Potter theme park...I literally interviewed one of my daughter's friends and she didn't even know it.” (Marcy, 20:03)

Notable Quotes & Moments

• On character empathy:
  “People think things all the time that they're not supposed to say. And that's what I do in writing. And people are just always having these horrible thoughts, and I'm putting them onto the page and then they're. Therefore, people think that they're horrible characters, but I don't know, I think that's just like, sort of more honest and true.” (Marcy, 08:41)

• On writing Lucy’s perspective:
  “I've never written from the point of view of a kid before and what she thinks about her mother. And I made her so astute...she knew just what her mother was doing and what her mother was up to.” (Marcy, 12:54)

• On the corrupting power of wealth:
  “The minute they become problematic, they just switch off, and they just, like, they don't even greet them when they return home. And that's just a horrible way to treat people.” (Marcy, 24:05)

• On writing comedy:
  “I think to some extent it is a magic trick because I think if I actually tried, tried to be funny, I wouldn't be...I'm always writing short sentences...I love to repeat things and I love the rhythms of things...if I say it again, that makes it funny.” (Marcy, 29:30)

Book Recommendations

By Marcy Dermansky:

• Seduction Theory by Emily Adrian (funny campus novel) (31:07)
• An Education by Susan Choi (31:16)
• Fonseca by Jessica Francis Kane (“so feminist and it's a historical novel…funny in a way you wouldn't suspect”) (31:54)

Key Timestamps

• [04:35] — Genesis of the hot air balloon plot and novel’s origins
• [06:30] — “J”-named narrators and narrative structure
• [08:21] — Empathy for "unlikeable" characters
• [11:04] — Mother-daughter relationships
• [14:03] — Desire as a central theme
• [19:06] — The importance of domestic, claustrophobic scenes
• [20:03] — Researching Harry Potter World and setting choices
• [23:06] — Critique of wealth and privilege
• [29:30] — Approach to comedy and style
• [30:53] — Book recommendations

Conclusion

This episode offers deep insight into Marcy Dermansky’s creative process, thematic concerns, and stylistic approach with Hot Air. Through relatable anecdotes and sharp observations, the conversation reveals how Dermansky blends comic absurdity with nuanced critique of relationships, desire, and the moral pitfalls of wealth—all within a concise and propulsive narrative. If you’re curious about contemporary fiction that’s as funny as it is thoughtful, Hot Air and this conversation are not to be missed.