“Stepdog,” a novel by Nicole Galland. 391 pages, paperback, $14.99 from William Morrow Paperbacks. Available at Bunch of Grapes bookstore and at Island libraries.
Well. This is different.
Nicole Galland is a dazzler at making Shakespeare understandable through her work in Shakespeare for the Masses. She condenses the plays so they stride right along. I’m grateful not to have to wait two hours for Hamlet to make up his mind.
You may also know that she has written four historical novels of note, to her readers, and thus to Morrow, her big-deal publisher, and that she is a regular contributor to this newspaper.
What no one, including Ms. Galland, knew till now is that she can write a hell of a contemporary comic novel. Its name is “Stepdog,” and it was released this week.
“Stepdog” is a lark about a married couple who own a dog and another man who thinks he owns it. Since there’s a dog in the book, it has serious moments, of course, but mostly it’s a hoot about Sara, an American girl who fires her Irish-born colleague, then marries him. Not the same day, but quickly.
Getting a green card for actor-hubby Irishman Rory O’Connor is a central spin in “Stepdog’s” plot. Now as it happens, Ms. Galland is married to Irish-born actor Billy Meleady, who has trod the boards here and in far-flung places.
It’s also the reason for “Stepdog.” “Really, you have to work with what you’ve got available,” said Ms. Galland.
“Billy’s acting jobs would take us to England for a couple of months or L.A. for awhile. Lots of moving around. And that’s not how I normally work. I like to hunker down and do the research and writing for my [historical novel] work, and that wasn’t possible. They tell you to write what you know, and Billy and Leuco, my dog, are what I knew best. So I wrote about our life together, and then the imagination kicked in and the plot took off from there,” she said.
I’ll get back to the plot, but the backstory is pretty cool. See, publishers are nervous people these days. They like to know they have works on their lists that will pay the rent. Ms. Galland is known as a historical novelist and a rent payer.
“The marketing and PR people know how to sell me as a historical novelist, and they do it well,” she said. So it takes some faith to run with a book that was not in Ms. Galland’s “brand.”
Which, she said, is why she included gratitude to her agent and editor in her Acknowledgments, for supporting her maverick move. “I mean, it can be done. J.K. Rowling did it recently. But I’m not a household name, so their support was important and wonderful,” she said.
So back to the plot. Like Rory, Mr. Meleady was on a visa when they married, and working on obtaining a green card. Green cards offer permanent-resident status if the stars are aligned: i.e., you have steady work, lack of criminal tendencies, that sort of character proof. If you are espoused to a U.S. citizen, you are relatively fast-tracked, in bureaucratic terms.
Spousal is key here. The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) takes great pains to assure itself that these unions are, in fact, real marriages rather than matters of convenience to benefit the spouse whose work-visa clock is ticking down. They check. Diligently.
The way to pass the INS test is to be truly married. Living together, deciding who takes out the trash, and who cooks on which days. You know … married. That also means uprooting to travel to new jobs with the spouse, action that is viewed by the INS, and by normal people, as proof of a loving marriage. Which is what happened with Ms. Galland and with Mr. Meleady, and in turn to Rory and Sara; they were happily ensconced at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, where Rory was hired to fiddle background music appropriate to the masters being viewed by museum tourists. Then the funding ran out.
Rory’s response to his sacking was to kiss his boss. His move surprises him, but not as much as the return kiss he gets. Turns out they’ve been entranced for awhile. Rory and Sara become an item. Now Rory has two problems. First, Cody, an agreeable mutt, lives in the center of Sara’s world. Rory prefers Cody in the periphery, but he mans up and takes responsibility, including daily walks, rain or shine, in the Arnold Arboretum. He bonds with other dog walkers, including, unknowingly, Sara’s former lover, who is obsessed with getting Cody.
The other problem is more ticklish. Rory’s favorite cousin’s widow has agreed to marry him to expedite his green card. Since he’s on tap for a Hollywood series, the green card is an absolute necessity.
His new flame Sara has a better idea. Marry me, she proposes. Rory doesn’t want to mess with their relationship, but Sara is determined. Good thing, because Rory’s considerable skill set does not include attention to detail or voluminous paperwork. Sara’s a fiend for it, though, and fills out the mountain of green card forms. Rory is able to mail them, and they prepare for the cross-country road trip to L.A. for the acting gig.
What happens next is a twisty-turny cross-country chase with memorable characters and events. I will tell you the denouement involves the Grand Canyon.
Ms. Galland is hard at work on her next historical novel, and says she believes “Stepdog” is a one-off.
We’ll see.
Listen to Ms. Galland share her novel-writing experience at Islanders Write on Monday, August 10 at 11am during a panel on “Developing Character and Voice” at the Grange Hall in West Tisbury. She will also read from “Stepdog” at the Aquinnah library on August 27 at 5 pm and at the West Tisbury library on August 29 at 4 pm.
