For a very long time, girls and women have been given the message that as we get older, we become invisible to the rest of the world—that we need to slow down the aging process as much as possible.
But more women—from the ladies of Ajumma EXP to Michelle Yeoh—are starting to publicly reject this narrative.
Author Jesse Q. Sutanto has done her part by highlighting Chinese Indonesian aunties in her chaotically hilarious Dial A for Aunties series. And in her latest book, Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers, the “lady of a certain age” shines. The story follows the title character, a 60-year-old Chinese woman, after she finds a dead body in her tea shop one morning. Deciding San Francisco police couldn’t possibly do a better job at solving the case than her, Vera swipes the flash drive in the dead man’s hand and proceeds to try to find the murderer herself.
The book’s only been out for about a month and has been well received. And just this week, it was announced that Mindy Kaling and Oprah Winfrey are teaming up with Warner Bros. Television to produce a new TV show based on Sutanto’s book and bring Vera to the small screen.
I recently spoke with the 37-year-old Jakarta-based writer about her protagonist, her disdain for research, balancing darkness with humor, the types of old Asian aunties we want to be when we grow up, and her (possibly) dedicating an upcoming book to me (I have it here in writing!).
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Samantha Pak: What first got you into writing?
Jesse Q. Sutanto: It must have started with my love of reading, which was always there from as early as I can remember. Wanting to branch out into writing was a very natural progression for me.
SP: What were some of your favorite books growing up?
JQS: I feel so bad saying this, because I feel like all of the authors that I read as a child have turned out to be so problematic, like Roald Dahl, you know? In Singapore, we get a lot of books by British authors—so Roald Dahl and Enid Blyton. I moved on to R.L. Stine. I loved the Fear Street books! I had a whole shelf of them. In my teen years, I moved on to Christopher Pike. And from Pike, I moved on to Stephen King. That carried me through the rest of my teen years.
SP: Was there any author or writer in particular that inspired you?
JQS: The late Sir Terry Pratchett. I loved his books, I discovered them when I was out of college, and I devoured all of them. They were amazing. I had never read anything so funny, so cozy, and yet also so brilliant, and so deep.
SP: Is there a book or series of his that you particularly enjoy?
JQS: My favorite would be the Witches books. My favorite (book) would be Witches Abroad because that one’s just so funny. I love the witches! The witches are part of the inspiration for the aunties in Dial A for Aunties. Even though they were very much informed by my own aunts, if you read Terry Pratchett’s Witches, you can totally see how the aunties were inspired by them: They’re so overbearing. They just assume that they’re right all the time. And they meddle in everybody’s business.
