Jessica Elisheva Emerson didn’t have to look far for a setting to write “Olive Days.”

Her debut novel is set in the Pico-Robertson neighborhood of Los Angeles and follows Rina Kirsch, a modern Orthodox Jew. Struggling with her atheism, she is surprised when her husband asks her to participate in a wife swap. Rina reluctantly accepts and this experience leads her to take up painting, which she had previously abandoned. She and her married professor, Will Ochoa, embark on an affair, forcing Rina to choose between her unhappy marriage and an unknown path.

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Emerson, an Arizona native, was living in Los Angeles when she wrote “Olive Days” — not far from Pico-Robertson, where she often shopped for her kosher home. In writing the book, she had the chance to revisit other parts of Southern California that she loved, not only through the eyes of a resident, but through the eyes of an author.

“It was such a gift to go to these parts of Los Angeles that I loved with a fresh, different, observant set of eyes,” she says. “Some scenes take place along Pacific Palisades Park, and I never had to go there specifically because that’s just the place I walk around. There were also, at one point, scenes set during a walk around the Rose Bowl at the foot of the San Gabriel Mountains, which is another place I love to be.

Emerson answered questions about “Olive Days” via Zoom from her home in Tucson. This conversation has been condensed and edited for length and clarity.

Q: How did the character of Rina initially come to you?

It all started with an anecdote. Shortly after moving to the Pico-Robertson neighborhood, where I lived for four or five years of my life, I heard a story from a single young man I knew about an exchange of woman in the community. I said to myself, “Yes, keep going. » I asked around and ended up taking a few people out for coffee or lunch, and I got to hear the story a few times, but never in the first person.

The story had an impact on me, but I didn’t really know who the character was. It was much more difficult to get to the character. For several years, I had the idea of ​​a book where there would be a love triangle between a woman, her husband and another man resulting from the exchange. It took me a while to get to Rina. I kept thinking that for some people a consensual wife swap could be great, maybe it would be beneficial for their relationship. I do not approach the matter with any judgment. But I wondered about a woman for whom this would not be the case, particularly because of the parameters of her culture, her life and her education. And that’s how I thought of Rina. I don’t really believe in this thing about characters getting into your head. I created her, then the life she has. I really thought it would be very difficult to be a creative person who basically takes the least creative path available to them. That’s kind of how it came to be, although, as with everything you write, I spent a lot of time editing it to get it perfect.

Q: Rina is an atheist, but she always pretends to be pious. What do you think motivates her to get involved in this world?

This is probably the element of the story that I identify with the most. Although I am not a modern Orthodox Jew, I am an atheist, and I write and speak about it openly, so it was easy for me to access. When I was 12, I came to my parents’ dinner table and said, “I don’t think I believe in God,” and they said, “Let’s talk about that.” Would this have been the same kind of reaction in the community Rena came from? I found it easy to understand why things would still make sense to her, because my Jewishness, while not like Rina’s, is extraordinarily meaningful in the absence of theology.

One of the things I’ve been thinking about a lot is this idea that the biblical character Jacob is in conflict with God. I would say Rina is a wrestler. She has moved on to unbelief, but she is comfortable in a place of wrestling with that, with God, and with other things. She thinks a lot, and that doesn’t take away from the meaning. It’s interesting because we can also talk about guilt in this book, and I really tried to make a conscientious effort in most places to keep guilt out of Rina’s equation as to why she remained Jewish. She does not feel motivated by guilt, even if she feels motivated by time, by the weight of her ancestors and her generations.

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Q: She is reluctant when David suggests the trade, but she agrees to go through with it. What made her decide to give in?

She got exhausted. Look, it’s consensual, and I always try to be very clear about it. She agreed, and it’s actually part of her own internal calculations as a result of that, that she agreed, she consented. She tried her best argument against it, which is that she doesn’t think it’s Halachic. David has his own answers to this. And it’s not that she doesn’t care. I just think she’s very wary that it will be harder for him, or not as rewarding for him as he thinks, and that it will get him in trouble. I also think it becomes a thing that suits him. The wife swapping is a dividing point, but she was already in a bad marriage.

Q: Her affair with Will is obviously physical, but it seems like it’s driven by something more than just desire and lust. There is a deeper connection there. What makes Rina fall in love with Will?

He is extremely gentle, although later we see real moments where his blood rises. He cares about art and he immediately sees value in what she does, immediately recognizing that she has talent, even if his choice is to pretend she doesn’t have any. But that’s not what she’s known for in her life. This is not why she was acculturated to be recognized. He’s also clearly in the middle of an identity crisis. At the heart of their obsessive love, and I’m always wary of obsessive love like this, they both feel known by each other, and that’s a different and unique feeling for them. None of them go through life feeling known.