Author Kate Feiffer’s first adult novel “Morning Pages” is a play within a play.

The main character is a playwright and much of her internal dialogue is on the page as scenes from a play. Moreover, she’s turned to a popular daily artist’s exercise to jumpstart her imagination. It’s fair to say that “Morning Pages” is pretty meta. All that as the fictional Elise Hellman is caught in a life’s passage tending to the needs of an aging mother and a teenage son.

The book is not directly autobiographical, but Feiffer said many details of her novel are based on her own life experiences, including navigating a relationship with a parent going through dementia, career ups and downs, and the title itself, which refers to a writing exercise from the book “The Artist’s Way” by Julia Cameron.

“Morning pages is three pages of stream-of-consciousness writing done each morning as soon as you wake up,” Feiffer said. “It’s sort of like stretching before you exercise. I decided to use this device to tell the story in the book, which is about a playwright who’s blocked and has 65 days before her deadline to finish the play.”

The writing of the book itself was a surprise to Feiffer, as she is more well-known and familiar in the children’s book industry.

“I didn’t go about trying to write an adult novel, she said. “This book took over a decade in bits and spurts to write. So I didn’t sit down with the intent of writing a novel. I wrote a novel while taking care of my mother, taking care of my daughter — very much echoing the themes in the book.”

Though the topics covered in the novel are heavy, Feiffer’s writing style sparkles with humor and wit, which she says is how she copes with the difficulties of life.

“For this book, this time in the ‘sandwich generation’ with aging parents, with children, you’re trying to be true to who you are and your career and your desires. If you can’t find the humor in it, you’re going to get completely crushed by it,” she said.

“Morning Pages” is our September selection for “Bookmarked: The Under the Radar Book Club.”

GUESTS

  • Kate Feiffer, writer, illustrator and the author of eleven books for children, including “My Mom is Trying to Ruin My Life” and “No Go Sleep.” “Morning Pages” is her first novel for adults.