Mutual Interest
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4.0 • 2 Ratings
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- $19.99
Publisher Description
An enthralling, dishy novel about ambition, sexuality, and the rise of a capitalist empire in post-Gilded Age New York.
"Hernan Diaz's Trust but make it gay? Narrated in the sly-eyed style of Plain Bad Heroines? I am absolutely buying what this book is selling, an epic and intimate tale of three secretly queer aspiring business titans who band together-and in the case of two of them, marry-to build an empire." -Electric Literature, Most Anticipated Queer Books for Spring 2025
At the turn of the 20th century, Vivian Lesperance is determined to flee her hometown of Utica, New York, and live a life worthy of the society pages she writes for. When she meets Oscar Schmidt, a queer middle manager at a soap company, Vivian finds a partner she can guide to build the life she wants--not least because Oscar will leave Vivian to tend to her own romances with women.
But Vivian's plans require capital, so they approach Oscar's old-money rival, Squire Clancey. Together they found Clancey & Schmidt, a preeminent manufacturer of soap, perfume, and candles. When Oscar and Squire fall in love, the trio form a new kind of partnership.
Vivian reaches the pinnacle of her power building Clancey & Schmidt into an empire of personal care products while operating behind the image of both men. But exposure threatens, and all three partners are made aware of how much they have to lose.
For people who loved The Gilded Age and fans of Succession "who wished the show was both kinder and gayer" (Jessie Wright, Copper Dog Books), Mutual Interest is a brilliant, beguiling story of desire and power.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
A woman’s quest for autonomy in the early 20th century is at the heart of this engrossing drama. Ambitious Vivian Lesperance, born to a poor and strict family in Utica, NY, escapes to Manhattan to seek her freedom and fortune. But she finds her options are limited—Vivian does not aspire to be a factory worker or secretary—so she manipulates her way into a fortuitous marriage with an amiable but unfulfilled company man who’s gay like her and maneuvers him and his lover into building a successful empire producing soap and personal care items (they’re Depression proof!). Author Olivia Wolfgang-Smith writes with careful, polished prose that illustrates Vivian’s emotional collapse when she gets what she wants but still doesn’t have what she needs. Not to mention the pressure involved in keeping her unconventional family safe from prying eyes and the law. Mutual Interest is a fascinating, transportive read that we didn’t want to put down.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Wolfgang-Smith (Glassworks) explores tensions in the private lives of three queer misfits turned business titans in her stunning latest. In 1899, 18-year-old Vivian Lesperance leaves her unloving parents in Utica, N.Y., for New York City. There, she lives by her wits and has her first sexual encounters with women, including society reporter Electra Blake, with whom she forges a "real... but... useful" friendship. The sexual dalliance is short-lived, but it yields a meeting with wealthy Italian chanteuse Sofia Bianchi, with whom Vivian embarks on an affair. That relationship is ending by the time Vivian meets Oscar Schmidt, a timid executive at a soap company. Schmidt's business is collapsing thanks to Squire Clancey, a blue-blooded oddball obsessed with candle making, who's been buying up the lion's share of tallow and essential oils from Schmidt's suppliers. Vivian, correctly sensing Oscar is secretly gay, offers to marry him to conceal their sexualities. He agrees, and after they marry, Vivian introduces Oscar to Squire and engineers a merger of their companies. Oscar and Squire fall in love and the trio style themselves as a married couple with an eccentric live-in friend. Thanks to Vivian's vision, Clancey & Schmidt grows into a thriving commercial empire, but the men's tender bond underscores her loneliness, as she racks up loveless encounters with other women. Wolfgang-Smith's sharp, sardonic narration brilliantly brings to life both the Gilded Age and her unforgettable protagonists. It's a virtuosic performance.
