Caroline Goldberg Igra is the author of the new novel Pictures of My Desire. Her other books include From Where I Stand. She is also an art historian, and she lives in Tel Aviv.
Q: What inspired you to write Pictures of My Desire, and how did you create your characters Emily, Nate, and Julia?
A: I wanted to write about art and passion, about individuals seeking something big, something that moves them greatly. I immediately decided on a male and female protagonist whose individual searches would bring them together but possibly also pull them apart.
Creating Emily was fairly straightforward, as she, like me in my 20s, was an art historian moved by art and searching to find her place in the world. Nate’s story evolved as I wrote and developed the idea of a missing painting, becoming one mired in deep trauma.
Julia emerged much later during the writing process. Once I’d made things difficult for Emily and Nate, I needed a third strong character to enter the fray and cause further complications.
Q: How was the novel’s title chosen, and what does it signify for you?
A: I came up with the title before I even considered the plot or the characters! It emerged in a dream, or possibly, when I was under water, swimming. A lot of my best sentences and ideas emerge in those states of half consciousness.
Once I had it, I knew the novel would be about a coveted painting, the goal of a deep and passion-compelled search. I have a special affinity for Art History. I discovered the discipline by accident in college and made a career of it, working for years as an assistant professor, publishing academic articles, and curating exhibitions. I loved the idea of instilling that passion in my characters.
Q: How did you research the book, and did you learn anything that especially surprised you?
A: Although I knew that both art and property had been stolen from Jewish collectors/owners during the Holocaust, I’d never done any formal research into the subject.
As part of the preparation for writing about Nate’s search for the painting taken from his family, I read about families who’d had art stolen or appropriated by occupying governments, followed reports of miraculous discoveries and returns decades later, and acquainted myself with the laws governing such restitution.
I learned many surprising things. One was that art was frequently traded for the promise that a family would not be deported. Another was the fact that all art that was part of a transaction that occurred when a country was occupied, was considered stolen.
Q: The writer Caroline Leavitt said of the book, “This is a quest about finding out who we—and our histories—really are, leading us to who we are really meant to be. What can I say, this novel is true art, and as such, it digs deep, it makes us feel—and isn’t that what art is all about?” What do you think of that description?
A: I love Caroline’s description of my novel because it gets to the heart of the matter. She has an uncanny knack for discovering the way that the strands of a story, its different themes, converge, congealing to form something concrete and meaningful.
In my novel, she discovered how journeys into the past, and the search for what motivates us and drives us forward, are intricately tied to the quest for self-realization.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I’m currently writing a work of historical fiction. The narrative centers on a young girl smuggled out of wartime Paris and the artist who makes it possible.
Spread over three distinct periods of time, it will explore Italian artists in Paris in the late 1880s who left their own homes to seek a better future, displaced Jews in Paris during the Vichy Occupation, and the painful situation of being forced to surrender one’s homeland and identity in an effort to survive. An underlying theme is the challenge, heartbreak, and, sometimes, unexpected joy of immigration and assimilation.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: I adore teaching. I was an art history professor for two decades and enjoy sharing my knowledge and educating those with less awareness of how to appreciate art, and its role in history.
I embrace every opportunity to share Pictures of My Desire and encourage interested institutions and book clubs to check out my website and contact me directly. I promise a lively conversation! www.carolinegoldbergigra.com
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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