Despite her lover’s protestations that everyone wants to be at the centre of public attention in one way or another, the main character of Impersonation, Ruth, is not easy being protagonist. I get where she is coming from. A few years ago, I was unsettled to find aspects of myself, my home and my children in a book. It was a bitter parting gift that took the idea of writing what one knows to the extreme. Have you ever had a similar experience? Do you embrace the idea of being a muse no matter what, or do you value your privacy too much to want to see yourself in words. I would love to hear your thoughts on being written about…
One comment on “Being a protagonist”
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Mitch Cohen
November 29, 2012 at 6:01 am
I’ve had this experience, too. In “Handschrift eines Mordes”, my old girlfriend wrote a novel in which a character resembling her murdered one resembling me. My feeling about the book: a mixture of pride in being an essential character in a good writer’s book and shame at being depicted in the partially deserved way I was.