Pictures of You

Caroline Leavitt‘s latest novel, Pictures of You, is already in its third printing. So I consider myself incredibly fortunate to have recently email interviewed her about the book. As detailed at her site, the book can best be described as: “A mysterious car crash on a deserted, foggy road brings three people together in a collision of their own: A photographer fleeing her philandering husband and consumed with guilt. An asthmatic boy with a terrible secret. A husband who realizes that he never really knew his wife.”

Tim O’Shea: After reading your recent essay for The San Francisco Chronicle Book Review, I am left with one question. Had you ever regarded writing as a form of therapy prior to writing your latest novel-and would you agree that to some extent it is a form of therapy?

Caroline Leavitt: Great question. I absolutely agree. I think I knew early on that writing made me feel better. I was a tense, moody, unsettled kid with terrible asthma, and I started out writing when I was most unhappy or felt most alone. I could lose myself and my problems in the work, and I quickly became addicted. I also quickly learned that to be any good, I had to write when I was happy, too—every day, in fact. I also knew somehow that I could be a happy, silly person in everyday life IF I got out all my demons in my work.

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