If you had to choose one book to model your life after, what would it be?

The unnamed female protagonist in Sara Levine’s debut novel, Treasure Island!!!, shapes hers after Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic. Though the woman’s friends denigrate it as a book for children—specifically, boys—she argues that it clearly shows how everyone can be separated into two categories: those who work on the ship (pirates, cabin boys), and those who cling to its sides (barnacles).

Sara read to a packed basement at WORD on Wednesday night at a lively event hosted by Largehearted Boy, Vol.1 Brooklyn and Europa Editions. As promised, there was an abundance of rum punch. Sara chose to read several excerpts, all bitingly funny. In one scene, the protagonist, working as a “pet librarian,” is forced to shake off a young admirer (drawn to the “animal glamour” of her job). In another, she lists in detail her failed series of therapists. And in another she considers what her parrot—if she got a parrot, which she eventually does—would call out instead of “Pieces of eight” (one idea: “Be flexible, yet tenacious”).

After reading, Sara sat down with Vol. 1 Brooklyn’s Jason Diamond to discuss the book further. Asked why she chose Treasure Island, Sara explained that while teaching at the University of Iowa, she was reading Stevenson’s essays when someone suggested she read the book. (As opposed to his cerebral essays, Stephenson apparently “set the bar low,” leaving out psychology and female characters.) She didn’t expect to like the book, but ended up admiring its hyper-masculine ideals of abandoning consciousness and simply doing what you want. But despite the male slant: “I also thought Jim Hopkins was a bit of a pansy,” she said. “I liked that about him.”

Sara decided to write a woman’s version of the tale, choosing not to write about a physical adventure, but rather to uncover what adventure means. She was also interested in self-improvement—specifically “making fun of a desire to renovate so fully.” Stevenson apparently kept a journal in which he checked off traits he’d exhibited that day (“thriftiness,” etc.), which shows that the current days of Oprah self-help have deep roots.

One aspect of the book’s reception that surprised Sara was how many readers stressed her protagonist’s unlikeability. She wondered if writers of similarly-flawed male narrators got the same types of reactions. Even though Sara didn’t identify a whole lot with her character (besides their shared indecisiveness), she did feel a bond with her. Still, she admitted, “There’s a moral center to the book, and she doesn’t exhibit it.”

When asked what her moral message would then be, Sara ticked off: “Compassion, empathy, patience, and kindness.” She joking added: “You could never suggest that straight, though. Who’d want to read that?”