Lora Black, an announcer and producer for the Nebraska Public Radio Network, has a suggestion for the state’s next big movie, now that “About Schmidt” has made its run from silver screen to rental stores.
It’s her book club’s selection: “The Quality of Life Report,” a novel the group just finished reading and a work they all feel is a perfect film fit for Nebraska’s winning streak. The story centers on the transition made by a young, single New York lifestyle reporter after moving to fictional Prairie City, a Midwestern town strikingly like Lincoln.
The novel’s author is Meghan Daum, a spiky-haired, 33-year-old former lifestyle columnist who, ahem, left New York and moved to Lincoln three years ago to start a new life. One thing making her real-life adjustment easier was actually becoming a member of Black’s book club a year ago after the group invited her to speak about her essay collection, “My Misspent Youth.” “They’ve given me my best friends since moving here, really,” Daum said. “I’ve spoken to other clubs, too, but this one I joined because they seemed like so much fun.”
Black’s observation that “The Quality of Life Report” would make a good Nebraska film may sound like simple loyalty to her book group’s newest member, but don’t be surprised if the story puts Nebraska back up on the big screen. This is a book club with real know-how in the image business, and they think this book is a contender.
Calling themselves the Crows of the Cornfield, some of the women have played prominent roles in Nebraska movie production — including “About Schmidt”; some are in the communications industry; others are in related fields.
Black, for example, created a popular public radio segment in which she reads the work of Nebraska authors who have written about the state. Club member Laurie Richards spent eight years as director of the state’s film office and helped coordinate shooting locations for “About Schmidt.”
Her predecessor in the Nebraska film office was book club member Mary Ethel Emanuel, who now serves as the communications director in the state tourism office. She has written four guides to Nebraska.
Club member Melinda Pearson worked on “To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar,” another film shot in Nebraska; she is an architect who recently designed a visitors’ center for the Rowe Sanctuary on the Platte River. Member Gail Folda is a freelance photographer and former staffer for the Lincoln Journal Star newspaper, and Michelle Engle was a coordinator for the state’s Lewis & Clark Commission.
“The book’s got a lot of social commentary that’s very topical, and it’s got some pretty colorful characters,” Emanuel said. “I do think her book’s got the ingredients for a good film.” “Either a movie, or TV series,” Black said. “I’m a fan of `Sex and the City’ and it’s got some of the same feel.”
Daum insists “Nebraska is not mentioned in the book, and I keep telling them it’s not Nebraska, but of course they don’t believe me for a second.”
She’s right; they don’t believe her. The Crows have no doubt Daum is writing about Nebraska, and they’ve had fun trying to pick out Lincoln’s real-life residents who might have served as subject material — though Meghan, with a wink, claims the effort is “only 32.9 percent autobiographical.”
The story line has Lucinda Trout, a reporter for a Manhattan-based morning TV show, assigned to Prairie City for a story on the growing methamphetamine addiction among Midwestern housewives. After a short period interviewing local women, she decides to shed a New York existence that had become increasingly tiresome and move to the heartland community.
Finding she can rent 1,200 square feet of living space for a monthly $500 — ridiculously, impossibly cheap by Manhattan standards — plus enticed by the prospect of meeting a mate, Trout finds the Prairie City move an easy decision. In the end, her new life begins to unravel during a harsh winter, and Lucinda is forced to face up to things about herself.
In real life, Daum is a New Jersey native who, after getting degrees at Vassar and Columbia, toiled on the New York periodical circuit. She has written for Self, The New Yorker, Harper’s, Vanity Fair, O, Vogue, GQ and Glamour and has created commentaries for National Public Radio’s “Morning Edition.”
Her move to Nebraska three years ago, prompted by a writing assignment, was inspired as much by economics — “it’s easy to go broke in Manhattan” — as it was to grow as a writer and tackle a novel.
“Sometimes it helps to be an outsider because your views are more objective,” she said. “I had absolutely no preconceptions, but my friends thought people in Nebraska all would be religious fanatics.”
Daum still travels frequently to New York, where she recently was interviewed with Joan Didion — an author with whom she is frequently compared — for a cable TV show. She has been traveling extensively to promote “The Quality of Life Report,” which has received excellent reviews, and she doesn’t rule out moving back to New York or to Los Angeles.
For now, her immediate projects include a second novel and a screenplay for “The Quality of Life Report.” A script is being shopped around by Radar Pictures to various Hollywood talents and is out of her hands.
Of course, Daum would love to see it shot in Nebraska and become the state’s next “About Schmidt.” “I thought the film was great,” she said. “If there was any negative comment, it was strictly out of naivete. I love the prairie and the big sky and all of that here, but I do think people here sometimes have an insecurity about their state.”
Not in the book club, however; these are women who are secure in their appreciation of the state. “Much of our discussion, when it came out, was along the lines of, `Oh, isn’t it nice they’re doing a movie on Nebraska,'” said Emanuel. “Then there was some thinking the rest of the country would judge us by this movie, which some felt didn’t make the state look too good. Well, that’s just goofy. That notion got shot down in a hurry.”
“Schmidt,” Black said, is “somewhat of a fair appraisal” of Nebraska. “He really captured our beautiful landscape.”
Emanuel added, “If people have a perception of Nebraska [from the movie] that is negative, then I know it is inaccurate.”`
