A couple’s open marriage collapses as their three daughters are sucked into a billionaire-led criminal conspiracy in Madeline Cash’s buzzy, hilarious, and richly rendered new novel Lost Lambs, out this week from Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Threading together no small number of well-turned puns (to wit: a mobile bris service called “Take an Inch, Give a Mohel”), Cash captures a level of family dysfunction that is also, somehow, totally appealing.
This week, Vogue spoke to Cash about “leaning into sentimentality” with Lost Lambs; taking inspiration from Raymond Chandler and insane tech bros; her feelings about being lumped in with the “downtown lit” scene; and celebrating her book launch with her mom.
Vogue: How did the Flynn family first enter your mind?
Madeline Cash: Well, I wanted to write something that was completely fictional and really bears no resemblance to my own life. I don’t have any siblings and I have a single parent from a big city, so it was sort of an initial challenge to fully create characters. The first character was honestly the villain, Paul Alabaster. I was really obsessed with this guy, Bryan Johnson, who uses his son’s blood to fight aging, so that was sort of where Paul came from. The other characters were just kind of composites and studies; I made character maps for them, but I don’t know, I kind of just made them up. [Laughs.]
What did your writing process look like?
I wish that it was more organic or that I had a typewriter from my grandfather, but it was on the computer in my apartment. I make charts and diagrams, physically and digitally. I mapped out the timeline really thoroughly, so there was a high level of organization with it, but I was working at the time, so nights and weekends I’d be at my desk or at a coffee shop, on the computer.
I love all the puns in this novel; did you have to kill any darlings in the editing process?
I was a copywriter, so wordplay is really something that I love. My editors did have me really tone down the humor and lean into sentimentality more, which I think felt a bit uncomfortable, but I’m glad that they did. They actually did cut a significant [part] of a character, which I also, at first, was reluctant to do. But I do think they’re right and are good at their jobs, and it ended up being for the best.
Do you have other favorite novels that are sort of arranged around a family setup?
Definitely The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen—that’s a great family novel and I think that was my most recent sort of inspiration. I also really love Underworld by Don DeLillo. A lot of mysteries were also a big influence. I like The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler, and I read quite a bit of it to kind of understand that plotting, because it’s kind of a mix of a family saga and a mystery.
If you had to spend eternity—or even just have dinner—with one Flynn, which would it be?
Oh, my God, I probably would want to hang out with Harper, although over the course of eternity, she would get quite annoying.
I guess most people would, to be fair.
You know, that’s true. I don’t know that I’d want to spend eternity with anyone. Don’t tell my boyfriend that. [Laughs.]
Do you have feelings about the “downtown-lit” descriptor that people sometimes apply to your work?