New Book Spotlight

The West Façade

A mini-interview with Lauren C. Johnson

Tell us about your new book?

I’ve been describing The West Façade as a Gothic fairytale about a statue that comes to life through her yearning. The protagonist is Sainte Geneviève, an actual statue that stands on the outside of the Notre-Dame Cathedral of Paris, and the book takes place as the Bubonic Plague is sweeping through Europe.

At the start of the novel, a grieving woman places an offering in Geneviève’s hands–a piece of citrus fruit. Though Geneviève knows eating is forbidden, according to the rules and norms of these cathedral statues, she can’t resist peeling the skin and taking a bite. Eating sets off this whole chain of events where Geneviève works up the courage to climb down the cathedral wall and experience for herself what it means to live.

Admittedly, The West Façade is a pretty weird book. I’d say it’s a hybrid of literary fantasy and historical fiction, and it’s sort of theatrical in the same way that The Dark Crystal and The Labyrinth are. In fact, if you enjoy those films, as well as del Toro’s Pinocchio, then I’d say The West Façade is probably in your wheelhouse.  Now, if you hate the idea of statues climbing up and down walls, then you should probably pass on my novel.

What aspect of the book was the most fun to write?

Geneviève has a lot of crushes–on other statues as well as people–and writing into her longing was very fun. If you look at images of the statues on the Notre-Dame Cathedral, you’ll see that they’re all pretty serious looking and rather imposing. I thought letting Geneviève crush–and make moves!–on other characters made her feel more relatable and human.

If there is one emotion or theme that you would hope that the reader connects with, what would that be?

At the time I was writing this novel, I was helping my dad through cancer treatments, and sadly, he passed away shortly after I signed my publishing contract. I think I wrote a lot of grief into The West Façade. I was certainly lamenting the fact that in the grand scheme of things, our lives are infuriatingly short.

So, I’d say the main theme is life is short but beautiful, and we should honor our lives by enjoying ourselves and allowing ourselves to feel our full range of emotions–even the shitty ones–while we’re on this plane of conscious existence.