what I was always told,"
earned a bachelor's
Paretsky says. "I like that
degree in political sci-
story, so I'm not going
ence, and the
to question it."
University of Chicago,
Paretsky's father con-
where she earned a doc-
tinued that activist tradi-
torate in history.
tion. A microbiologist,
he was the first Jew
Career Path
hired on a tenure-track
position by the
Her timing was off.
University of Kansas in
"There were 29 Ph.D.s
Lawrence.
for every job opening,
"When he moved
including community
there, he made it possible
colleges in the boon-
w4a
for [the local Jewish
docks," Paretsky recalls.
In "Total Recall," her 10th
community] to have a
So she went back to the
V.I. Warshawki novel,
minyan," says the author.
University of Chicago
Paretsky unco.vers corruption and earned an MBA.
"My father was active in
in the present as she delves
helping form a Jewish
Paretsky then spent
into the horrors of the past.
community center."
nearly 10 years working
As the Paretsky family
in the marketing
grew — Sara has four brothers —
department of a large insurance com-
unwritten anti-Jewish zoning rules
party.
meant the family had to move far out
She continued to write throughout
of town, to the small farming commu-
this period. "I'd write a few pages, and
nity of Eudora, to find a suitable
then throw them out," she recalled.
house. There was an old Jewish ceme-
She'd been a voracious reader of
tery in the town, but Sara was the
mysteries: Raymond Chandler,
only Jew in her small two-room
Michael Lewin and Robert B. Parker.
schoolhouse.
The last two, she said, opened her
Still the family experienced little
mind to the possibility that detective
fiction didn't need to be populated by
overt anti-Semitism. In fact, a local
Sears repairman "would repair all our
hard-boiled private eyes.
appliances for free. He belonged to
She was also interested in having a
some small Protestant sect that believed
female detective, in part, she recog-
nizes, as a reaction to her own
the Jews were the Chosen People, and
upbringing.
it was an honor for him to serve us."
"When I turned 30, I said, 'This is
What problems there were —
it. I better do it.' So I wrote about 60
mean-spirited phone calls" — were
directed at the senior Paretsky's social
pages."
She took them to Stuart Kaminsky,
activism. He integrated his depart-
ment at the university, bringing in
a respected writer whose course,
"Writing Detective Fiction for
black and Asian graduate students,
Publication," she'd taken at
and fought for open-housing laws.
Northwestern University. He saw her
The family was "very book oriented.
My mother read to us, and she had us
potential and sent it to his agent.
It took almost a year for the agent to
reading. We all read. We all wrote. I
don't think that I thought of myself as
sell her manuscript. "There were
someone who had a particular talent. I
things [the publishers] didn't like:
They didn't like that [the lead charac-
didn't imagine myself writing for a liv-
ter] was a P.I. They thought that was a
ing, or [think] I had something
dead form. They didn't like that she
important to say. But I was always
was a woman. And they didn't like
writing."
that it was set in Chicago.
It didn't seem likely that her efforts
"New York is a pretty provincial
would lead anywhere. While her par-
place. They think if a book is set in
ents were socially progressive on most
Chicago, it's only of regional interest,
issues, they were very old fashioned
not national interest. If it's set in
when it came to their daughter. They
New York or Los Angeles, then it's
wanted her to attend secretarial school
national."
rather than college, where they hoped
Paretsky's criminals tend to come
to send their sons.
from the executive suites, -from the
Paretsky feels that may have been
white power structure." Asked if she
because of her parents' medical prob-
shies away from depicting Jews as bad
lems; they needed her around to care
guys, Paretsky stops to think.
of her younger brothers.
"I suppose," she says, almost whis-
So she paid her own way through
pering. "I suppose." ❑
the University of Kansas, where she

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