Ah, mix tapes. We’ve all made them, enjoyed them and passed them on to friends and family. Although CDs and CD burners have mostly replaced records and cassette tapes, the fact remains that music-lovers everywhere have a desire to create their own “perfect” mixes, combining the best from many albums onto one random masterpiece.

Perhaps it was Nick Hornby’s novel “High Fidelity” that first gave the mix tape the central role it deserved in pop culture. As protagonist Rob reveals his relationship woes and expresses his feelings to romantic interests, it’s always in the context of a mix tape.

Although it’s been some time since “High Fidelity” hit the shelves, another author is now stepping up to give mixes their rightful place in our minds and hearts. In Emily Franklin’s new novel, “Liner Notes,” released Oct. 1 on Downtown Press, protagonist Laney shows us that mix tapes are a powerful means of recording our life events and playing them back for others to interpret.

“I wondered, at the start of writing this novel — if someone were given a box of mixes, would they somehow get the life story of the creator/recipient? Each song put on a mix is so loaded with meaning or interpreted as such that stories are a natural part of the process of making and listening to them,” Franklin told The Badger Herald via e-mail.

Following this line of thinking, she constructed a well-developed story of a recent college graduate unexpectedly making her way across the country with her mother, the two of them seeking to recover chunks of each other’s pasts they’d missed out on.

Laney has just finished graduate school on the West Coast and plans a big move back East to look for a job. Her plan is to make one final road trip with just herself, her car and her mix tapes, as a way of letting go of the past and moving forward into her adult life. However, these plans are tabled when her mother, Annie, ends up on the road trip with her, and Laney must grapple with how to explain herself to a mother who has been largely absent from her young-adult life, according to Franklin, “both because of her (Annie’s) cancer treatment and the natural gaps between parents and children.”

“I intentionally set up a lot of road blocks and scenarios that involved loss for Laney,” Franklin said. “I think she is a character who lived most of her life worried about what might happen, what might go wrong. I think after getting close to her mother, and reconciling the past, Laney is better able to live a full life in the present.”

Each chapter in the book chronicles a period in Laney’s life, including first loves, conflicts with friends, unexpected deaths and unexpected pregnancies, and each chapter is accompanied by a two-sided track listing for the mix tape that accompanied the time period. Readers and Annie alike learn about both the good and the bad in Laney’s past through her narration, with the songs from the tapes providing a backdrop for the re-telling.

Choosing the music that would work its way onto the tapes was not a solitary effort for Franklin. “Since I knew the music would be a huge part of the book — another character, almost — I e-mailed a whole group of people and asked them to send mix tapes and songs so I would make sure I had a variety of music, not just my own,” Franklin said.

“One thing I find fascinating is how the same song can make two people think of completely different things — one person’s break-up tune is another person’s summer spent waitressing,” Franklin said. This is undoubtedly true, but Annie seems to immediately understand and relate to much of the past Laney is trying to express. Would a mother really react this way to her daughter’s mistakes and secrets?

“[Annie] needed to be strong but empathetic and annoying in a motherly way, but [not] so off-putting that she’d drive people crazy. Eventually, in a later draft, she evolved into this kind woman who just had this intense longing to find out what she missed out on with her daughter.”

Among the aspects of Laney’s past that play prominently in “Liner Notes” is her Jewish identity. “When I set out to write this story, the Jewish aspect wasn’t a part of who Laney was — but as I got further into it, and the novel progressed, I realized that Laney was struggling with many parts of her past and her identity, and Judaism seemed to fit into this search for her true self,” Franklin said.

One of the central conflicts of the novel lies in the fact that, when at a summer camp as a young teen, she revealed to her friend Shana’s anti-Semitic crush that Shana was Jewish, causing him to immediately break up with her. This episode has affected the friends’ relationship to the present day and no doubt provides one of the central pivots for Laney’s reconciliation of her past.

After Annie and Laney complete their road trip and settle back into the East, things start to fall into place for Laney. She finds closure of lost loves, apologizes to Shana and saves their friendship and comes to terms with the death, change and chaos in her past. She is greatly rewarded at the end of the novel, as she comes full circle and (without giving too much away) ends up with the happiest of happy endings.

“I wanted Laney to move forward, for the reader to know where she wound up and with whom. Without bringing that resolution in, the narrative seemed lacking. However, I didn’t want to linger with Laney too long — we’d been with her in the past and present for a while, and I felt like a glimpse brought a certain amount of closure without protecting Laney too much from whatever might occur for her in the future,” Franklin said of the brief-but-happy ending.

In the end, “Liner Notes” is a good reminder to all of us to consider the role music has played in our lives and how that music can tell others so much about who we are and where we’ve been.

In Franklin’s words, “I guess I view music as a constant force, something that manages to be both external (heard by anyone) and internal (the meaning is known only to the listener). There aren’t many things in life, like songs, that can elicit smiles or instant tears or immediately transport us back in time. I love listening to music, but even more than that, I love the way certain songs make me feel — that’s how I see it as a background to my life.”

“Liner Notes” is available Oct. 1 from Downtown Press, and can be ordered from www.amazon.com. Catch up with author Emily Franklin at her website, www.emilyfranklin.com.