Bringing Sarah Mandelbaum to life one page at a time

Magazine editor and writer Cara Kagan built her career at some of the leading names in fashion and beauty publishing. With the release of her debut book, “The Rise, Fall, and Return of Sarah Mandelbaum,” she’s added novelist to her list of titles.

The Riverdalian’s bylines have been featured in esteemed publications, like Harper’s Bazaar, Glamour and Elle, where she served as the beauty and fitness director. Writing fiction was not what Kagan foresaw in her professional trajectory until she enrolled in a creative writing course at the Gotham Writers Workshop in 2021, with one particular prompt that sparked her desire to dive into the literary world.

“The teacher gave us this topic like, let's write about your first kiss, your first award, your first home run, you know,” Kagan explained. “Everybody had the same story of their first kiss, it’s not really interesting. So I decided to write about a seminal time in my life that really stood out.”

In the allotted 15 minutes, she penned an embellished account of an unforgettable night on the Upper East Side – a dinner with a friend, chance encounters with two celebrities and the lively, chaotic energy of New York City nightlife. The main character, Sarah Mandelbaum, was a playful nod to Kagan’s maiden name, Applebaum. 

The story was a hit with her classmates.

At first, the protagonist was based on Kagan’s lived experiences – although quite exaggerated. Penny Abernathy, Mandelbaum’s southern-twanged best friend, was a dressed-up, fictionalized version of a real friend. The writer described her work as depicting a slice of life in the Big Apple, much like an episode of “Sex and the City.” 

Kagan continued writing sketches, taking the two women on adventurous paths and incorporating details of her own life. She assigned the main character a “nightmare roommate,” reminiscent of the author’s first Manhattan housemate.

“In fiction, the good becomes stupendous and the bad becomes horrifying,” she noted. “It just makes for a better story.”

Other parallels between Mandelbaum and Kagan echo stories of the author’s past. Like Kagan, the title figure is also a fashion writer who faces daily battles against the frizz of her black curly hair. She also plays the guitar – though Kagan confessed her fictional counterpart is the better musician and “way cooler.” In speaking to The Press, she admitted to out living her own rock-and-roll fantasies through Mandelbaum, who embarks on globe-trotting adventures with a band. 

The writer estimates about 75 percent of characters and events in her book are based on her own real-life experiences.

“In the beginning, she was an extension of me, until she wasn’t,” Kagan said. “She was her own girl.”

Set against the backdrop of the 1990s, Mandelbaum’s latest adventure charts a “soul-crushing stint” at music school, leading to a life-changing move to New York City where she lands a coveted job at the fictional high-fashion magazine Sophistiquée. Before long, Mandelbaum pulls back the curtain, offering what Kagan describes as a “rich and hilarious bird’s-eye view” of the dog-eat-dog world of the music and fashion publishing industries.”

Kagan also wove in a hometown tribute, setting Mandelbaum up in an apartment on Bailey Avenue.

The book earned Kagan the title of award-winning author, with accolades including first place in chick-lit fiction and women’s fiction at the spring 2024 Book Fest Awards. Her most recent achievement was landing a spot in the Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing’s summer workshop.

Outside of writing, Kagan is still immersed in the literary world – facilitating KRVC’s free monthly book club. The group read “The Rise, Fall, and Return of Sarah Mandelbaum” last September.

“My volunteer work really added a wonderful dimension to my life,” she reflected. “One of the main themes of the book was the power of friendship. Having good friends can sustain us.”