Finding Beauty and Happiness:

An Interview with Leslie Hooton

by Karin Cecile Davidson

 

Leslie Hooton’s debut novel, “Before Anyone Else” (Turner Publishing, 2020) is a story of hope and vision, reimagining spaces where we come together to celebrate meals and each other. At the same time, it is a story of restoring more intimate, fragile worlds where misfortune and happiness exchange places. Surrounded by loving, dynamic, southern men—her father Hank, brother Henry, and “best friend” Griffin—Bailey Ann Edgeworth grows into a young woman able to visualize and transform unrealized spaces into beautiful upscale restaurants, which reveal the owners’ and chefs’ individual stories. Ambition and imagination lead the Atlanta native to New York City, where success and the idea of love lead to trouble. True friends and family help Bailey find her way home, a path that reminds, as well as restores.

Originally from a small town in Alabama, Leslie Hooton holds a BA and MA from Auburn University and a JD from Samford University. At the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, she studied with Jill McCorkle, Alice McDermott, and Richard Bausch.

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KARIN CECILE DAVIDSON: Leslie, how did you come up with the ideas for “Before Anyone Else”? Specifically, the story line and the thematic use of the title’s acronym, which is also Bailey’s nickname: BAE.

LESLIE HOOTON: I had a 17-year-old girl in my orbit who called me her BAE, which I discovered means “Before Anyone Else” and thought would make a great title for a book. But who had time to write a book? I spent my mornings with divorce attorneys. In the afternoons I visited my once-brilliant mother in a dementia center. At night I didn’t have the brainpower to read, let alone write, so I browsed the pages of Architectural Digest and Veranda. The common theme was transforming rooms. I became curious about the idea of transformation, and I loved ending my days by looking at beautiful spaces. I started buying flowers because life’s too short to not be surrounded by beauty, which became one of Bailey’s signature phrases. I envisioned a character that could enter a space and completely change it from a disaster to a place of beauty, but could she transform her own imploding life? I realized I was writing this book for me. I wanted to be happy again.

At this point, I was eating out in restaurants at odd times of the day, and the wait staff, chefs, and managers would all keep me company and talk to me. I became intrigued with their line of work and their ability to create beautiful dishes. One of the bartenders befriended me and referred to himself as a “mixologist,” introducing me to the sidecar, which became my signature drink as well as my character’s. The drinks were pretty, the concoctions mesmerizing, the alcohol abundant. I found myself taking notes about dishes and drinks and thought that this, too, would be an interesting subject for a book. The ingredients were lining up, but I hadn’t found the connective tissue. Yet.

One early morning I was sitting with my mother in the emergency room, and it literally came to me. The character’s name had to have the initials, BAE. She would be surrounded by famous chefs, all men, who would also call her BAE. Bailey Ann Edgeworth was literally born in that hospital room. And while she was the central character and a woman, I wanted to give her another distinction from the men in the novel: the fact that she couldn’t cook her way out of a paper bag!

I was ready to choose happiness.

—Leslie Hooton, “Before Anyone Else”

DAVIDSON: Over time Bailey develops her own aesthetic within the realm of vintage shops, where objects like the opal and coral brooch, the Portofino painting, and the blue glass vases are found. Even in an old flannel shirt that once belonged to Griffin and in the wedding and engagement rings that once belonged to the mother who died when she was young, Bailey understands a sense of self.

Tell us about the objects that define Bailey and her world.

HOOTON: All the objects most sacred to Bailey remind her of the people most important to her. Even though she wants to have an identity of her own outside of her famous culinary lineage, she still strives to be connected to them on her own terms.

She treasures the flannel shirt that she appropriated from Griffin because it reminds her of the first time they were together. She doesn’t even have to wear it; she just needs to know it’s there.

While she was very young when her mother died, and so, never knew her, she understands her mother’s engagement ring as representative of the love between her mother and her father. She knows her father was capable of love, even if he didn’t say it.

The Portofino painting represents one of her first expressions of love for Griffin, another object of beauty. Like her men, she is much more comfortable expressing her love with tangible elements of beauty.
 

DAVIDSON: The novel is rich in characters: Bailey and her friends and family. For the most part, they are generous, funny, and appreciative of Bailey. Friendships and relationships are strong and realistic, and the characters carry imperfections as well as deep sensibilities. Hank, Henry, and especially Griffin are the trio of southern men who anchor Bailey. Reggie and Elle are the northern girlfriends who raise the feminine bar and raise a glass. Lea, Annabel, and Mac are more peripheral, but each plays a significant supporting role. Only Elliott stands apart, as he feigns love and promises danger. What led you to your characters, and what sort of inspiration determined their lives on the page?

HOOTON: I wanted to make Elliott a foreign character. For Bailey he represents the concept of intrigue, of being drawn to people and ideas unfamiliar and exotic. The way he behaves, the way he speaks, in his British accent, is utterly different, completely unusual, and sexy. Bailey opens up to him, feeling like a woman, rather than a girl.

While there was an absence of female presence in her early life, Bailey eventually gravitated toward female friends like Reggie and Elle. Reggie is the mother figure she felt she had lost, and Elle is the sister she never knew she needed. She treats these relationships with reverence.

I myself have been surrounded by great friendships. I refer to my friends as my beloved village. People may say I have a talent for writing, but I think my talent is picking extraordinary friends.

In the end, we hold onto love, then beauty.

—Leslie Hooton, “Before Anyone Else”

DAVIDSON: Toward the end of the book, there is a touching scene between Bailey and her father. Here, her father—even in his state of dementia, at the time when he’d lost most language, in a moment of confusing Bailey with his deceased wife, the mother she never knew—finds a way to communicate. He struggles, but comes up with one word: “beauty.” Tell us about this scene and about Bailey’s relationship with her father.

HOOTON: Bailey knows her father loves her, and that he has a hard time expressing his love for her. In fact, all of the men in her life struggle with words. They are much more comfortable expressing their love through food.

This was how my mother expressed her love: through actions and doing; not words, despite the fact that she loved poetry. One of her favorite things to say was, “Saying I love you doesn’t put food on the table.” My mother was more comfortable cooking my favorite foods and having flowers around the house, like the men in Bailey’s life. It took me and Bailey a long time to realize that these acts of service were synonymous with the words themselves.

Even though some things look lost, they are merely misplaced.

—Leslie Hooton, “Before Anyone Else”

DAVIDSON: The language of “Before Anyone Else” is an emotional language. Words as clear and uncluttered as “breathe” and “repair” lead us to understand complicated elements, like those of Griffin and Bae’s relationship. Plus Griffin has given Bailey her nickname, establishing a tie between them that is not easily undone. On the other hand, weighted words like “love” and “soul” are associated with Bailey and Elliott’s relationship, one that is as fraught as it is romantic. In this culinary world, Griffin promises brioche and perfect lattes; whereas, Elliot leans toward breakfasts perfumed with tarragon and bergamot. Speak to us of these relationships in terms of their language.

HOOTON: Elliott’s love is esoteric and intangible like “love” and “soul.” He chooses to coopt the poet’s language to connect to Bailey. The foods he prepares for her are exotic and complicated, as well as romantic. In contrast, Griffin’s love is rooted in a foundation like history, nicknames, and words like “breathe” and “repair,” things that are very tangible and essential. His food is basic and non-fussy like bread and peanut butter and jelly. Elliott’s love is about ideas; Griffin’s love is based on reality. Elliott is like an exotic dish resembling something Anthony Bourdain would prepare. Griffin’s love is like comfort food that warms you and connects you to your best memories.
 

DAVIDSON: Within the scope of the novel, Bailey realizes amazing sorrow as well as beauty, happiness, and success. Her brother Henry and Griffin’s restaurant VERT is re-imagined and given new life by a brighter palette and new footprint. This is a project that Bailey has wished for since the beginning of her career, and in her proposal she describes her ideas of how “the color green represents limitless possibilities … hope … [and] beauty.” What inspired you to write a novel about the culinary arts and restaurant design? And now that you have, what comes next?

HOOTON: In my quest to define transformation in Bailey’s life, I was also trying to simultaneously create transformation in my own. I believed if it were possible for Bailey to amend her life, it would be possible to revise and rework my own. Because beauty is such a central theme, I wanted to find beauty in preparing and plating meals and designing a space where one dined on them. I also wanted readers to look up from the book and discover beauty in their own world. The world can be so weighted that it’s difficult to remember to breathe, look around, and take in the scent of flowers and the aromas and tastes of beautiful dishes.

I have just submitted a new manuscript based on the William Wordsworth poem “Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood.” “What Remains Behind” is about friendship, funeral casseroles, and lucky dust. It is part coming-of-age in a small Alabama town and part reconciling one’s past with one’s present and future.

I am also playing around with a sequel to “Before Anyone Else” on the topic of domestic turbulence in terms of motherhood. I would love to explore the contours of Bailey as a mother. She did not have a mother, nor did she have a female role model, so I am very curious as to how she would interact with her own child. In her job, walls do not talk back … Children, on the other hand do.

 

Karin Cecile Davidson, Interviews Editor