Costco Connection - January 2011

book pick

Picture perfect
FRANCE FREEMAN

Exploring some of life’s greatest fears
By Hope Katz Gibbs

“It was always a shameful thing for me, something that made me feel weird and different, so I FROM A FATAL car crash and the death of a parent to comforting a chronically sick child and coping with infidelity, life’s greatest challenges play out in the pages of Pictures of You by Caroline Leavitt.

Here’s the scenario: Two slightly desperate
women get into their cars late on a September after-
noon in an attempt to run away from their mar-
riages. On a windy, foggy highway they collide. The
survivor is left to pick up the pieces,
Then an odd thing happened. As Leavitt wrote
about Sam, her symptoms began to disappear.

“I’m always obsessed with what pulls people together and what tugs them apart, particularly families,” Leavitt tells The Connection from her home in New Jersey. “I love to try to figure out how people are at their best, or their worst, in difficult situations.

“I don’t think it was the asthma that was being healed as much as my personal shame of being a sick child,” she insists, noting that the book also enabled her to tackle her phobia of driving. “Suddenly I was talking to everyone about the things I had buried for decades, and I honestly felt better.”

Caroline Leavitt

In Pictures of You, my goal was to explore the idea of how well we really know those we love, and whether or not we can open our hearts to forgive the unforgivable. Can life be derailed without being ruined?”

THADDEUS ROMBAUER

Of course, Leavitt has long known that writing is a cathartic experience. A writer since she was a child, she felt a special passion for short stories. But soon after winning first prize in Redbook magazine’s Young Writers Contest for “Meeting Rozzy Halfway,” when she was 26, several New York agents called asking if they could sell it as a book.

This novel, which is Leavitt’s ninth in the last two decades, is the first with an air of mystery to it. She also tackles one of her own personal sorrows. Like Sam, the boy in the story, Leavitt suffered from life-threatening asthma as a child.

“When one of the agents successfully sold it, she called to tell me the good news—and I nearly threw up,” jokes Leavitt, who says that turning the short story into a novel was the most painful thing she has done in her writing life. But by the end of the two-year process, she found a new true love.

Signed book giveaway

“Writing a short story is like going on a great date, and writing a novel is like embarking on a marriage,” she believes. “You really get to know your characters, and you get extremely involved in their stories. I could never go back to the dating phase of my life.”

Leavitt says that writing is like a drug to her— one that keeps her sane.

“In my books, I delve into difficult situations and work them out,” she explains. “It’s where I put all the things I’m afraid of and obsess about. This makes me a much happier person in regular life.”

FRANCE FREEMAN

Fortunately, her husband can relate. He’s music journalist Jeff Tamarkin.

NO PURCHASE OR PAYMENT OF ANY KIND IS NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN THIS SWEEPSTAKES.

“Our son, Max, is 14 and never reads any of our articles or books,” Leavitt admits. “Why would he? Both of his parents are writers, and it’s kind of boring to him. But at some point he or one of his girlfriends will want to. Now that could be the topic for another novel.” C

COSTCO HAS 50 COPIES of Caroline Leavitt’s Pictures of You with a signed book plate to give away. For a chance to win, send an e-mail with your name and mailing address to giveaway@costco.com, with “Caroline Leavitt” in the subject line. Or print your name, address and daytime phone number on a postcard or letter and send it to: Caroline Leavitt, The Costco Connection, P.O. Box 34088, Seattle, WA 98124-1088.

I’VE BEEN KNOWN to
occasionally fall for a
science-fiction book, but
overall I prefer what I read
to be a reflection of the
world as we know it, rather
than a vision of a world yet
to come. If you, too, look for
richly developed characters
who move fluidly through a
well-paced plot, then
Caroline Leavitt’s Pictures
of You is an ideal read.
The story begins with
two women running away
from home. When their cars
collide on a foggy highway,
one is killed. The survivor,
trying to heal herself, sets
out to help the husband and
child left behind by the
deceased. Once their lives
intersect, the unlikely trio
fumble through questions of
forgiveness, love, truth and
what really matters.

You may not love all of the characters who inhabit these pages, but you won’t be let down if you decide to follow them on their journeys.

For more book picks, see page 87.

Purchase will not improve odds of winning. S weepstakes is sponsored by Algonquin Books, P.O. Box 2225, Chapel Hill, NC, 27515. Open to legal residents of the U.S. (except Puerto Rico) who are age 18 or older at the time of entry. One entry per household. Entries must be received by February 1, 2011. Winners will be randomly selected and noti;ed by mail on or before March 1, 2011. The value of the prize is $13.95. Void where prohibited. Winners are responsible for all applicable federal, state and local taxes. Odds of winning depend on the number of eligible entries received. Employees of Costco or Algonquin Books and their families are not eligible.