Introducing Laura Zigman

T

he anxious single chicks with
comeback as spokesperson for a new
ticking biological clocks who
perfume. Unfortunately, Julia's boss
populated
is involved in shady
Laura Zigman's first
dealings, the perfume
three novels have
stinks.and Mary has
been replaced in Piece.
personality quirks
of Work by a happily
that make Julia's
married stay-at-home
3-year-old seem an
mom. Unfortunately,
icon of maturity.
Julia's husband loses
Meanwhile, Julia's
his job and seems in
husband is proving
no rush to find another
to be a top-notch
one. So the plucky her-
housewife, a talented
oine squeezes into her
designer of ginger-
old dress-for-success
bread houses and an
clothes and returns to
efficient mud-room
the career she discard-
organizer.
ed three years earlier
In a year in which
Laura Zigman
– keeping celebrities
prejudice, violence
happy, prosperous and
and vulgarity domi-
in the pubic eye.
nate the headlines,
Julia's first new
Piece of Work pro-
client is a totally unpleasant, aging
vides a welcome escape.
actress. Like certain real-life celeb-
Zigman will speak at two author lun-
rities, Mary Ford is attempting a
cheons: the first at noon on Wednesday

Nov. 8, at the Jewish Community
Center of Washtenaw Cdunty in Ann
Arbor, and the second at 12:15 p.m.
Thursday, Nov. 9, at the JCC in West
Bloomfield, co-sponsored by National
Council of Jewish Women and West
Bloomfield Township Public Library.,,
At both sites, reservations are
required if one wants a catered lunch;
otherwise, there is no charge. For more
information or reservations, call Rachel
Rosenthal at (734) 971-0990 (Ann
Arbor) or Dalia Keen at (248) 432-
5577 (West Bloomfield).

Q. What sort of readers will enjoy
this book?
A: It's probably narcissistic to say
this – but probably someone like me:
People who have either stayed home
with children and felt guilty or gone
back to work and felt guilty.

Q: Were you ever a publicist your-
self?

A: I worked as a book publicist at
Random House for 10 years until 1995.
My last few years of full-time work
were spent at Knopf. As you can see in
this book, when you're a publicist, you
have to travel a lot.

Q: Is the situation in this book like
your own life in other ways?
A: For one thing, if I had to go back
to work full time, my husband would do
a great job. He is a much better cook
than I am. I am fairly organized, but, if
my husband were in charge, he'd take it
to a new level.
I actually made the gingerbread .
house two times.
The boy in the book is based on my
6-year-old son, Benji, when:he was
younger. I feel very lucky that I'm able
to be home with him while I'm still
working. 7:

— Diana Lieberman

Introducing Shira Nayman

I

n her first non-academic publica-
tion, clinical psychologist Shira
Nayman burst onto the literary
scene with a single short story, "The
House on Kronnenstrasse," published
in the 2005 fiction issue of the

from the pogroms in Poland in the
early 1900s and ended up in South
•
Africa. My parents left South Africa
for Australia because of the political
situation – because of apartheid. Most
of my friends were the children of sur-
vivors.

Atlantic Monthly.

This story and three other works of
fiction comprise Nayman's new collec-
tion, Awake in the Dark. With hypnotic
prose and startling imagery, she lays
bare the insidious psychological influ-
ence of the Holocaust on survivors and
their families, a generation after the
liberation of the Nazi death camps.
Each story is marked by dreamlike
episodes and the sense that some
unfinished business lurks around the
corner.
Nayman will discuss her work at
6:30 p.m. on Sunday, Nov.12, at the
Jewish Community Center in West
Bloomfield. The program is co-spon-
sored by CHAIM and the Workmen's
Circle-Arbeter Ring. There is no
charge.

0: Tell us about your background and
its influence on your writing.

SHIRE. NAYMA

A: I grew up in Melbourne, Australia,
in a community that was largely made
up of Holocaust survivors and their
children. My own grandparents escaped

Q: Your stories have a very dream-
like quality. In fact, the hidden room,
which figures so strongly in the first
story, is quite literally an image from
dreams. What motivated you to write
in this way?
A: The hidden room is a metaphor
for something secret in your life, some-
thing unknown even to you, but some-
thing that is still there.
I worked in a mental hospital for
some time, where there really are
these incredibly evocative underground
passages. Our own work was exploring
subterranean passages in a person's
life.
I tried to create in these stories an
atmosphere that was both symbolic
and universal.

chologist?
A: I worked at the hospital for about
five years, then consulted for business
and political campaigns for about 15
years.
There were two reasons. First, I
needed time to write, and [working in
a mental hospital] can leak into your
life in an all-encompassing way. Also, I
wanted to be able to care for my chil-
dren. They are now 6 and 11 years old.

Q: Some of the survivors in your
stories tell their children about their
experiences, while others keep them
secret. Which is healthier?
A: I think my stories raise that ques-
tion, but I don't really have an answer.
It's a gray area.
Perhaps we don't have as much
choice in the matter as we think. There
are people for whom it was impossible
to talk, and there are people for whom
it was impossible not to talk. —

— Diana Lieberman

0: Are you still a practicing psy-

October 26 2006

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