Ling Ma is the author of "Severance," described as an apocalyptic satire. (Photo by Anjali Pinto)
Have you ever felt that another day at your job would be the end of the world? It’s that realization that slowly creeps up on Candace Chen, the main character of “Severance,” the first novel from author Ling Ma. As she attempts to go about her daily routine, the city around her descends into chaos and decay.
“It's about very ordinary circumstances, except that it's happening in the middle of the world ending,” Ma explains during an interview from her Chicago home, “but there’s a lot of mundanity in that, too.” Fortunately, readers and critics have found Ma’s writing neither routine nor mundane. The book won the Kirkus Prize last year and was listed as one of the notable books of 2018 by The New York Times. Ma, a Chinese immigrant who grew up in Utah, Kansas and Nebraska, will receive the Cabell First Novelist Award from Virginia Commonwealth University on Nov. 12. Here, the writer talks about her influences, her next book and the end of her novel.
Richmond magazine: You’ve mentioned that the TV series “Mad Men” and “The Walking Dead” were influences when you were writing the book.
Ling Ma: They were some starting points, for sure.
RM: Have there been any overtures from TV or the movies to make another version of this?
Ma: There’s been some interest from television for, like, a TV show or something. It's Hollywood. I don't really know how it — you never know how it works. You know, there's a lot of forms, a lot of hoops that people have to jump through. So, I guess the more people you get involved, the slower things can be sometimes. That’s why I like writing. If you have an idea, you can just do it yourself. Also you have more control, too.
RM: The ending of the “Severance” leaves some things unresolved. Why did you choose to stop right there?
Ma: Yes, it was true to the nature of the book. But I know a lot of people have questions about the ending. So yeah, maybe one day there'll be a sequel [laughs]. That would be a long time away, though. I mean, I enjoyed being in Candace’s world for a while, but for the years that I was in it, it was a lot of commitment to stay there and, honestly, it was kind of depressing, too.
RM: So, what's the next book about?
Ma: I really don’t know how to label it yet. I’m sort of trying to figure out. I’m trying to figure out what it is, because it’s still kind of developing. I imagine it would be like if you had kids, you don’t want to pigeonhole them too early in life. You want to let them figure it out. I’m spending a lot of time with the work and letting it figure itself out.
RM: Is there anything else you want to talk about?
Ma: I don’t know, it's strange because the book has been out of my mind for so long. Sometimes when I talk about it, it's like traveling back in time and trying to get back to the mindset that I had when I was writing it, but unless people ask me questions about it, I don't really think about it, to be honest. But it definitely felt when I was writing it that there was something to get off my chest. Like it was something that was like sitting on me and weighing on me. And I just really needed to write it. And now I don't have that thing. I'm glad it's out in the world. And I'm also glad, too, that it, you know, received this award at VCU. Because it’s a really different and interesting award, and the whole community is involved in deciding [the winner]. … I just think that's really cool.
Ling Ma reads from “Severance,” followed by a public reception, book sale and signing at the James Branch Cabell Library at 6:45 p.m. on Nov. 12. The event is free, but registration is suggested. For details, see firstnovelist.vcu.edu/event/.
