Author Lindy West Talks Driving Herself Sane and Internet Pearl Clutching at Port Townsend Reading

The Cotton Building was full of people when Lindy West came to town this past Wednesday—and it was filled up with delighted laughter. 

West, recently pilloried on the internet for her new memoir “Adult Braces: Driving Myself Sane,” was positively buoyant as she greeted her audience at the Imprint Bookshop event. Writer and former Imprint owner Sam Ladwig would be interviewing West, but first the author read from a chapter near the climax of “Adult Braces.” In it, we go with West as she finishes the first half of an epic road trip, pulling into southernmost Florida.  

You see, West was going through a rough time back in 2021. Her marriage, her career and her mental health are not in excellent shape. So she rents a campervan and drives from her hometown of Seattle to Key West—solo. We get to go along for the ride via printed book or the audiobook, which is narrated well by West herself. 

West’s Florida expectations for Key West involve staying in a lovely, clean hotel, having a delicious lunch of avocado toast, and then going swimming in the warm, clear ocean where she maybe even communes with a turtle.

Instead, she sees a 2-inch cockroach (and tries to ignore it), is served a piece of Wonder bread with greenish spread, and gets talked into going out on a giant catamaran under less than ideal weather conditions.

“The sky was tense, as if poised to attack,” West writes. The water wherein she swims is opaque nothingness. This was supposed to be an enchanted snorkeling trip. Instead, it’s a booze cruise sans wildlife sightings, because really, “the sea owed us nothing.” 

What happens on West’s journey is not at all what she dreamed of. So, like any road trip worth its salt, it’s a metaphor for life. In her reading, she stopped short of the book's end, telling us we’d have to read it to find out whether she survived. 

In the wake of “Adult Braces”—and the many think pieces written about it—West has done much more than survive. In the book, she writes about having braces on her teeth as an adult; about working on the Hulu television series inspired by her first book, “Shrill” (2016), and about driving across states including Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska and Georgia. 

She also writes in detailed candor about her evolving relationship with her husband, Ahamefule, and about Roya, the other woman who becomes their mutual partner.  

At the Cotton Building, Ladwig asked West how she decided what to share and not to share with her readers, particularly when it came to recounting her experience of working on the “Shrill” TV series. 

“I tend to be . . . boundary-less,” West said, adding that when the show’s producers treated her poorly, she started to feel angry and defiant. She was “supposed to be quiet,” though. So she was, for a while. In “Adult Braces,” she no longer is. It felt good, West said, to finally express her anger. 

Largely, however, it was West’s personal relationships that sparked the backlash against the writer and her memoir. Columnists around the country just could not stand the idea that she is happily polyamorous. From far outside the marriage, critics opined—among other things—that West gave in to Ahamefule’s desires at the expense of her own. 

Nothing could be further from the truth. 

“Guess what,” she said, “I’m happy . . . I live this vibrant life full of love, with people I choose, and whom I am lucky to spend my life with.” 

And on top of that, they get to live in rural Jefferson County, a place West adores. Their cabin near Hood Canal belonged to West’s parents; it’s been her dream to live there since she was a kid. 

“And now I get to. It lives up to the hype,” she quipped. 

The place in the woods, with her people, proved perfect for writing this, her fourth book. West’s partners let her stay up in her office for 20 hours, coming down only to bring her dishes to the kitchen. 

“Now I know I can write a real book,” West said. 

“I’m really proud of it.” 

West, also producer of a podcast called “Text Me Back” and the “Butt News” newsletter, is poised to take on yet another kind of risk. She intends to write her first novel. She might even self-publish it, she said, seeing as how the traditional publishing industry no longer provides traditional promotion with its book contracts.  

This novel, West added, might be about a writer who moves from Seattle to the Olympic Peninsula and solves mysteries. All kinds of spooky stuff happens out here, after all. 

“I’ll do whatever you want me to,” she said, to another wave of laughter. And then West went to the book-signing table, where a long line of fans awaited, freshly purchased copies of “Adult Braces” in their hands.