.

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otaging No. 2 two editor; her
boss, who wears endless,gray in
a place where everyone else
seems to view life as an endless
Mardi Gras"; and an elegant,
mostly absent top editor who's
nearly model-thin with a
throaty voice, fluent in several
languages.

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A Serious Side

From the first sentence of
Chapter One, "I don't know
anything about art," to the
novel's closing line, "I could
learn," Sandra Berlin does fig-
81e; witchel
ure a few things out.
Interrupting the narrative are
several not-quite fairy tales, the
Film rights to "Me Times Three"
kind of children's stories Sandra
likes to write.
have already been acquired by
Miramar, with Gwyneth Paltrow
The tales mirror Sandra's
slated to star in and co-produce
growth in her own story: The
the romantic comedy.
woman who's looking for per-
fect princes and "happily-ever-
after" endings realizes that she's better
gogue life to be exclusionary. Her fami-
off with sturdy shoes than glass slip-
ly belonged to an Orthodoxshul and a
pers for her journey.
Conservative synagogue. "It always
The novel also has a serious stripe.
angered me that I was the smartest one
Witchel balances elements that are
in my Hebrew school and I couldn't do
laugh-out-loud funny with a tragic
anything in the synagogue," she says.
sequence in which Paul, the character
Now, she remarks, "I am a very spir-
who's most embracing of life, learns he itual person, I believe very strongly in
has AIDS.
God," adding, "My religion has little
This is another aspect of the story
to do with synagogue, but the one we
based on the author's life. She lost a
choose to go to is Reconstructionist."
dear friend to AIDS; he shares the
She expresses relief of being free of
book's dedication, along with her hus-
rules and fears of breaking the rules. "I
band, New York Times columnist
like it a lot better without the 'don'ts.'"
Frank Rich.
11,
Sandra's complicated feelings about
She'd Rather Cook
her Judaism also seem to reflect
Witchel, who joined the New York
Witches.
Times in 1990, is also the author of
"I would describe her connection as
Girls Only: Sleepovers, Squabbles, Tuna
something that makes her feel com-
Fish Sandwiches and Other Facts of
promised," the author says of her
Family Life.
character. "I can speak from my own
experiences."
Although her prose reads like it
flows with ease, she describes the
process of writing as torturous. This
Growing Up Jewish
novel took four years to write, and she
Witchel describes the post-war period
says she is still too close to it to decide
as a time when Jewish parents instilled
what she might do next, whether fic-
the idea that their kids had to be
tion or nonfiction.
quiet, well behaved, that they should-
There's a lot of food and wine in the
n't draw attention, that the world did-
novel, too, and Witchel says that she
n't like them.
loves to cook. She points out that writ-
She recalls that when her family
ing, unlike cooking, "doesn't always go
moved to Scarsdale in 1969, certain
the way that it's supposed to go."
activities, like dance classes and
When she married Rich, who had
belonging to a riding club, were closed two young sons "who were starving all
to Jews.
the time," she was very pleased to
She developed a "fairy-tale imagina-
learn that they loved her cooking.
tion of what it meant to be a WASP
"I still like nothing better than
and go everywhere, have everything."
being in my kitchen, making huge
As a young girl, she also felt syna-
amounts of food. Not writing." ❑

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