After Delia Ephron's editor read her new novel, "The Lion is In," (Blue Rider Press, $25), he summed it up in movie industry parlance. "[He] said to me...this is "Thelma and Louise" crossed with "Born Free," said Ephron, who is in town Wednesday to read and sign her latest work.
Ephron's story of three women on the run does bring to mind the fem road flick from the '90s, and by the time the characters encounter a caged lion in a sleepy Southern town, the reference to "Born Free" is pretty clear as well.
Ephron said her idea for the novel came from an anxiety dream.
"I went to sleep and had the most powerful dream about two women. I woke up and knew it was my next book," she said.
As the story and the dream go, 20-something pals Lana and Tracee are on the run. Lana is a recovering alcoholic. Tracee is a runaway bride and a kleptomaniac. They meet up with Rita, a 50-something preacher's wife on the run from a life she hates, but car troubles force them to crash for the night at a North Carolina nightclub. In the morning, they wake up to discover they've spent the night with a caged lion named Marcel.
"I didn't know what they wanted, but I knew they didn't want the lives they were leading and I knew the lion would change their lives," Ephron said.
She started writing in a "white heat," thinking she'd be done within a week. It actually took a few years, and by the time she finished, she had a novel that touched on several themes in her own life: sisterhood, addiction and the therapeutic power of animals.
"I have three sisters. Nora and I collaborate and I have such great girlfriends," Ephron said about her screenwriter and director sister Nora Ephron. When she first floated the title of the book and heard Nora's laughter, Ephron said she knew she had gotten it right.
"Lana has issues with addiction and both of my parents had problems with alcohol," Ephron said.
Tracee desperately wants to be loved and Rita feels trapped in an unhappy marriage -- both are scenarios that Ephron said she has experienced in the past. Her life changed when she got a dog.
"I got a dog when I was a stepmother and it really changed my life that someone in the house really loved me a lot," Ephron said. "I completely believe in the power of animals to change our lives."
In this case, Marcel the lion is in and available for therapy. Though Ephron had no particular knowledge about the ways of lions, a lion expert at San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park confirmed that Ephron's depiction of Marcel as a social creature capable of bonding with the women was absolutely real.
The women end up working as waitresses at the club where Marcel is kept, but eventually each woman's past catches up with her and forces her to make a decision about her future.
At those moments in life, we could all use a bit of magic and Ephron said she hopes her readers will take away a bit of that from the story.
"I think we all possess the imagination to change our lives," she said. "There are times in our lives when we need to find that, whether we are lucky enough to have Marcel the lion help us or whether we are on our own."
Event Preview -- Book Signing
"The Lion is In," by Delia Ephron (Blue Rider Press, $25). 7 p.m., Wednesday, $10. Atlanta History Center McElreath Hall Woodruff Auditorium, 130 West Paces Ferry Road. 404-814-4000. www.atlantahistorycenter.com.
About the Author
