Claire Lombardo’s debut novel, The Most Fun We Ever Had, was an instant New York Times bestseller. It was also an April 2024 pick for Reese Witherspoon’s Book Club. Claire is a graduate of the University of Illinois-Chicago and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. She has taught fiction writing at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and Grinnell College and currently works part-time as a bookseller at Prairie Lights Books. A native of Oak Park, Illinois, she now lives in Iowa City, Iowa, with her dog, Renee. ​We sat down with Claire to discuss her sophomore novel, Same As It Ever Was. 

Same as it Ever Was

Same As It Ever Was by Claire Lombardo

Julia Ames had a troubled youth but has finally reached a stable point in mid-life at the age of fifty-seven. But just as she is finally feeling in control, she faces a surprising announcement from her son, a separation from her rebellious teenage daughter, and a tempting return of past issues. As all of these events threaten to overwhelm her, Julia must fight to keep the peace that she has always longed for.

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The Most Fun We Ever Had (TMFWEH) was an instant NYT bestseller and was extremely successful. How did your life change after publishing your first novel? 

That’s a good question… It’s funny, I wrote TMFWEH not even really cognizant of the fact that I was writing a book, and not expecting that it would get published. Even further, certainly not expecting that it would find a large readership. It’s been really incredible. The biggest change is that I’m able to be a full-time writer right now which is so incredible. I feel very lucky, but I do work hard. There are plenty of writers who work hard and aren’t able to do that, so I feel very lucky that I’m able to do the thing I love as my job. Another big change is that I’m able to publish this second book. I’m really thrilled about that. I have a terrific publisher and I’m excited that I’m able to work with them again. It’s been exciting. Both of these books actually started as short stories – I’m very drawn to long stories, so I love short fiction but I like the freedom that novels afford you as a writer, to explore whatever avenues you want.

What pressure, if any, did you feel to follow up the success of TMFWEH while writing this book?

I’ve had many, many conversations with writer friends about how the second book is the hardest book to write, which I very much hope is true, because for me the second book was very difficult. It’s a blessing and a curse, because with a second book, that pressure comes from having a readership, which is incredible, that’s the dream, to have readers, people who are eagerly awaiting your second book. You’re also going into the second book with a lot of knowledge and white noise that wasn’t there with the first book. Like I said, with my first book, I never even expected it to be a book, I was just having fun, trying new things and not really thinking about it from a structural standpoint, definitely not from a marketing standpoint. With the second book, there IS pressure, but I’d rather have it than not have it. It’s also been really lovely, now that I’ve finished the book, having so many readers that are excited about it. I feel so grateful that those people exist and want to read this story. 

Where did you get the idea for this novel?

This book started for me with the voice of Julia, the protagonist. I think the first scenes I wrote were the scenes pretty early in the book, where Julia is in her mid-30s, a young mom to her toddler, and she’s in the botanic garden and runs into this illustrious older woman. I was really interested in Julia’s voice, but also this inter-generational dynamic, between a woman in her 60s, who is at a point in her life where she feels like she accomplished much of what she’s wanted to, and thus has a lot of confidence. Then you have Julia, who is embarking on everything very reluctantly, not happily, she’s very lonely… I liked playing with the dynamic between those two women. This book has multiple hearts for me, but that was one of the central ones. It’s a marriage novel, it’s a family novel, but it’s also very much a novel about female friendship to me. 

In this novel, there are themes of motherhood, and in particular, the struggles some women have postpartum. Where did you draw the inspiration for this?

I guess I approached that the same way I approached any other phase of Julia’s life… just really spending a lot of time with her, and trying to understand how she would react to different situations. I was a nanny for awhile, and also worked at a preschool, which is where I drew some of my inspiration for scenes at the preschool. They’re such little hotbeds for adult drama!  I was thinking about what that would feel like, to be a woman who is fairly certain you don’t want to have children, and then having a child, who you really love, but who also is making you feel claustrophobic in your own life. I was interested in playing around in that space, and then contrasting her with someone like Helen, who seems to have done all of it effortlessly. I also wanted to express some of the things that I think we as women experience, but feel like we’re not allowed to say, which isn’t fair.

Do you outline your stories, or just write?

I’m a very messy writer – I wrote TMFWEH in the most haphazard way. I swore I wouldn’t do that with this book, I thought I’d be a lot more strategic and organized but I wasn’t. I wrote this book the same way I wrote TMFWEH – I wrote the scenes I wanted to on the days I wanted to. Sometimes we were with Julia in the ‘70s, sometimes we were with Julia in the present arc. Sometimes I was focused on her daughter in law, or her daughter, or Helen, and then I just had all these pages that I had to figure out. So, that’s when my outlining starts, when I have a full draft. I have this giant board where once I have a draft, I lay out almost an entire wall in my office, I lay out the story using Post-It notes, which is super helpful, and kind of fun! It took me many, many tries and different permutations to figure out the best shape for this novel. Ultimately, all these pages amounted to a woman’s life story, and I had to figure out “Do I want to tell this chronologically? In reverse?” When you’re telling a life story,  it’s hard to maintain tension over 50 years, and I had to figure out how to do that, how to structure it in a way that made readers want to keep reading. 

In both of your novels, characters are making decisions that readers may not agree with – how does that tension affect your writing of the novel? 

One adage I keep in mind, which was often repeated when I was a grad student is “bad behavior makes plot” – so, all you have to do is have a character “misbehave” in one tiny way, and they’ll probably have to misbehave again after that, or lie to cover up their misbehavior, and that snowballs. That’s always something that I, because I write more character driven stories, the way those characters act is a huge part of where the plot and tension comes from. I was certainly aware of that, but Julia was such a force – she was such a fun character to be with. She DOES make decisions that I think some readers will take issue with. I tried not to judge Julia as I was writing her, and kind of understood where she was coming from, but that’s what was fun about going into the past – oh, she’s this way because of this other thing that happened. The last third of the book you meet Julia as a child, and learn things about her upbringing that will shed some light on the “bad decisions” she makes as an adult. 

You have a busy summer on tour – what are you most looking forward to during your book tour? 

I’m really looking forward to doing in-person book events again… it’s been 5 years! TMFWEH came out before COVID, so I did get to go on tour in the first few months, but I’ve done very few in-person book events since 2020. I’m excited to be meeting readers. I’ve met so many lovely and interesting people since TMFWEH came out. That’s one of the best surprises about publishing a book, all the nice people I get to meet. So many readers bring their own lived experiences to my books and share their stories, so that’s been really nice.

Can you tell us anything about what you’re working on next? 

I always like to have two projects going on at once, so I started an untitled third project while working on Same As It Ever Was. I haven’t looked at it in awhile, so I’m looking forward to diving back in and meeting some new characters, and introducing readers to some new characters.