four questions Susan Shapiro chats with Platinum. A self proclaimed "shrinkaholic." WHAT BOOK, CD OR OTHER MEDIA DO YOU LONG TO SHARE? When I was in high school at Roeper City and Country School in Birmingham, I was drawn to two hilarious sex-- Jewish female authors. One was Erica Jong, whose poetry and novel Fear of Flying rocked my world. Aside from the sex, I loved all the crazy shrinks. When I moved to New York, I met Erica, and she became a mentor who gave me a great blurb for my book Five Men Who Broke My Heart. As a teenager, I also was entranced by Michigan girl Gael Greene's novel Blue Skies No Candy. She's also a great role model and a riot in person. author SUSAN SHAPIRO has found a way to work psychotherapy into the therapeutic art form of writ- ing. Her debut comic novel. Speed Shrinking (Thomas Dunne Books: S23.99). due out this month. focuses on a self-help author's desperate search for a replacement therapist. Shapiro, 48. grew up in Southfield and West Bloomfield and now lives in Manhattan with her husband. TV/film writer Charlie Rubin. She points out •IR that many of her closest family mem- bers don't believe in psychotherapy, but "overanalyzing is a good quality for a writer because you have to understand the motivations of your characters, - she explains. The University of Michigan graduate is a New York University and New School joumalism professor and the author of four nonfiction books. She's also writ- ten for the New York Times, Washington Post, Glamour magazine and numerous other publications. "My parents hate all of my memoirs so much they inspired a line I tell my students," Shapiro says. "The first piece you write that your family hates means you have found your voice." Shapiro will hold a local reading and signing for Speed Shrinking 7 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 11. at Borders in Birmingham (248-203-0005). Here, we ask her our version of the Four Questions. — Robin Schwartz IF YOUCOULD HAVE BRUNCH WITH ONE BIBLICAL OR HISTORICAL JEWISH FIGURE., WHO WOULD IT BE? I'd love to have brunch with Sigmund Freud. I grew up in a conservative West Bloomfield family of doctors who didn't believe in psychotherapy. So, of course, right after I graduated from U-NI, I moved to Greenwich Village, became a shrinkaholic — and I put that line in my novel. In fact, in the middle of a recent argument, my father e-mailed me, "Stop wasting your talent on psychobabble. Repression is the greatest gift of the human intellect." I love all of Freud's books and theo- ries. I went into therapy afraid I'd never find a husband or a book editor. My shrink actually wound up dancing at my wedding and at my book party. \\ FLAT IMPORTANT LIFE LESSONS HAVE YOU RECENTLY LEARNED? My favorite lesson, which I overuse in my books Lighting Up and Speed Shrinking, is a line from my shrink.: "Lead the least secretive life you can." I personally find secrets can be poison, and opening up is liberating. WHAT WOULD PEOPLE BE SURPRISED TO KNOW ABOUT YOU? People would be surprised to know after all of my autobiographical work that most of the time I'm a private person who has tons of stuff I haven't revealed. (At least, not vet.) Now I have the guise of calling what I'm working on fiction. 111 Gives Fullness Gives Highlights While Maintaining Your Exact Stile Consultation are Free Available with Private Suite West Bloomfield Office Offers: Brighton Office Offers: tar.zx 248-855-8845 www.raydiancefor-v/omen.corn gavdt. t_day..cre or P1 8 • AUGUST AV evte.,4e-t". 2009 • .1.\ platinum 5799 V•,'. Mop,-; • Surie 167 Bloomfied • 248-855-8845 537 W. P.idin • Brighton • 810-220-8888 Y5700 WoL-kiward _eve. • behocen H- Mile Se Lincoln • Bir m ingham .com 2.48.6++.8563 • www.