What was the spark behind you wanting to tell this story now?

I wanted to write this book because I feel like this moment in midlife for Generation X, the generation that I’m in, is big; we’re not written about so much, for whatever reason, but I did think this experience of taking care of children and being sort of in the shadow of boomers is actually really interesting, and a lot of my friends are going through it. Boomers really did, and I mean this with all the love in the world, they kind of did take over. They were so culturally important; they’re still president, right? They’ve taken over our culture. They’ve taken over our politics and they’ve really ruled us, in a way, so I think the culture writ large is sort of reflected in this experience with my boomer parents.

What’s the most important thing you learned from your mother?

She made me feel like I could do anything, and that was amazing parenting. She really did believe that I was incredibly smart and incredibly talented, with almost no evidence to support that, and she was, in that way, an incredible mother.

From one publishing-world nepo baby to another, I have to ask: How do you thread the needle of showing gratitude for your privilege—as you do in your book—without becoming exhausting about it?

It is a huge advantage to be the child of a famous writer, and I do believe people secretly root for you a little bit because they’re sort of interested; they read the book or whatever, and they want you to succeed in a way, which is very cool, because mostly the world doesn’t necessarily want you to succeed. You just have to work super-hard and you have to be incredibly kind to everyone, which sometimes I do, and occasionally I fail [at], but those are the two things I’ve tried really hard to do. I mean, not everyone’s going to agree with you or like you; Kellyanne Conway is still going to hate me, right? But because you get a little more attention, you have to use it for positive stuff.

If your child came to you and told you they were writing a memoir about their life with you, how do you think you’d respond?