(8) Who was your model for the character......?
I've been asked more than once who my source was for one character or
another in the book. Each time I was reminded of Flaubert's answer when
he was asked who had served as his model for the tragic heroine and
adulteress Madame Bovary in the novel of the same name.
"Madame Bovary....c'est moi," he replied.
Well, I can't say that. But none of my characters were inspired by a single
person. They're almost always an amalgam of people I've met somewhere
- some of them in life, some in books, some even in dreams.
In the case of the four insurance claimants in the story, I've met each of
them many times during my thirty-five years as an insurance adjuster,
each time with a different name, different face, and different life story.
Look at the adjuster Katya Lyvetsky. I've met that charming tom boy
several times on the road of my life. Each time she enchanted me, and
each time I learned a little more about her, until, finally, I knew her well
enough to put her in The Birdcatcher.
No, none of my characters were lifted straight from life - except for one.
That was the little stray black and white cat Brigit, who joined my family in
1987 and stayed with us for fifteen years. She gave me permission to put
her in the book, just the way she was.
I've been asked more than once who my source was for one character or
another in the book. Each time I was reminded of Flaubert's answer when
he was asked who had served as his model for the tragic heroine and
adulteress Madame Bovary in the novel of the same name.
"Madame Bovary....c'est moi," he replied.
Well, I can't say that. But none of my characters were inspired by a single
person. They're almost always an amalgam of people I've met somewhere
- some of them in life, some in books, some even in dreams.
In the case of the four insurance claimants in the story, I've met each of
them many times during my thirty-five years as an insurance adjuster,
each time with a different name, different face, and different life story.
Look at the adjuster Katya Lyvetsky. I've met that charming tom boy
several times on the road of my life. Each time she enchanted me, and
each time I learned a little more about her, until, finally, I knew her well
enough to put her in The Birdcatcher.
No, none of my characters were lifted straight from life - except for one.
That was the little stray black and white cat Brigit, who joined my family in
1987 and stayed with us for fifteen years. She gave me permission to put
her in the book, just the way she was.
Photo - Brigit - copyright Alan Conrad