How difficult was it to write in two voices that are so different from one another–a woman who is a recovering alcoholic and an Iranian woman?
Both characters seem a far cry from you. It was very challenging. I was scared to death of writing from the point of view of an Iranian. I had written from a woman’s point of view before and I know that people get flack. I think that knee-jerk reaction misses the point. The job description for the author is to imagine the lives of others. I found it hard to find the voice of the Colonel, though I wasn’t making it all up because I had spent time with Iranians and immersed myself in the culture. The difficult part was finding his sound, and for awhile I was judging him as the bad guy, because the Shah’s regime was bad. But he wouldn’t show up when I did that. There’s that great line from Hemingway, “The job of the writer is not to judge, but to seek to understand.” And so as soon as I stopped judging he showed up. When I was writing from his point of view, I was on his side, and when I was writing as Kathy, I was on her side. I gave the book to my neighbor, who is of Iranian descent and
