I continue with what will be my penultimate wish list entry (for the time being) of a character from a contemporary novel. Last year, I had the pleasure of enjoying Emma Straub's All Adults Here. I'm pretty sure that at the time I was drawn to it for the very reason I've recently picked up a handful of other books. It's got a role for Meryl! And I'll mention off the bat that it, like State of Wonder, has already been optioned for a (likely limited) television series.
Quick summary. The main character, 68 year-old Astrid Strick witnesses the death of an acquaintance, Barbara, when Barbara is hit by a school bus. Astrid wasn't particularly fond of Barbara, but her death sparks questions in Astrid, as she begins to think back on the upbringing of her now three grown children, Elliot, Porter, and Nicky. The same day of Barbara's death, Nicky's daughter Cecelia comes to live with Astrid, after she's bullied at school for "snitching" on a friend who ended up in a potentially dangerous sexual scenario with an adult the friend met online. Fun twist: Astrid, a widow, has been secretly dating her long-time hairdresser, Birdie. Astrid comes out to her kids as bisexual, and the book continues with an unweaving of preconceptions, misconceptions, and finally, some reconnections.
It's interesting if one looks at the Goodreads synopsis of this book that it is super centered on Astrid. Yes, she's the main character, but the lives of the kids and the granddaughter are all pretty well drawn, with lots of individual focus. While that may be an attribute to the book on the whole, it might draw away from Astrid as the central character a bit, at least as it might concern her depiction on screen. That said, were this project to come to fruition, and if Meryl were somehow cast, she would unquestionably receive top billing and the classification of "lead." It was only announced as being optioned in July 2020, so it's not so long ago to think it's necessarily in development hell. It'll be interesting to see if it ever gets greenlit. Could be a good project.
