Karen F. Uhlmann is the author of the new novel Intersections. Her work has appeared in a variety of publications, including Southern Indiana Review. She lives in Los Angeles.
Q: What inspired you to write Intersections, and how did you create your characters Charlotte and Ed?
A: Nearly 20 years ago, a small girl was struck and killed while crossing the street with her family. The driver ran a stop sign and sped away, dragging the girl under the car. My Chicago neighborhood mourned. Her school, which my children had also attended, mourned.
The tragedy was all over the news and the newspapers. Her family, of course, was traumatized, but I discovered that there was another person who was heartbroken.
A policeman, who had been on the scene, began parking his squad car at the crosswalk most weekdays. Here, he used a small video camera to film and ticket stop sign runners. I learned from an article that he pressed stickers with the child’s face onto these tickets. It seemed that he did not want drivers to forget how easily a life can be taken. How quickly one could lose a loved one.
I often walked past him, and the image of this man standing on a corner day after day stayed with me for years. I wrote stories, got an MFA, and he lingered. Eventually, he became the seed for my novel Intersections.
Charlotte came about in an entirely different way.
I fainted, for no apparent reason, at a holiday party. One minute I was standing, and the next, I was on the floor. It was embarrassing and worrying. The next day, I was checked out by my internist, and there was nothing wrong with me. The fainting was a mystery, and there was something about it that I couldn’t let go of.
This was how Charlotte came to life. What were circumstances in which a woman, who had not been drinking, would faint at a party?
In my novel, Intersections, it turned out that Charlotte was pregnant, at nearly 45, and not by her husband. Her long marriage had been dead for years. She had also broken up with the lover who impregnated her, and she had no intention of telling him about the baby.
Wanting to write a novel about friendship, I had Charlotte, who lived near the intersection, also witness the hit-and-run. In shock, she thought she saw her Prius flee the scene. Her daughter, Libby, a mentally ill addict, was the only one who could have been driving.
Charlotte began bringing white roses to the memorial at the intersection, and here, she met Ed. They became unlikely friends and confidants, although she did not tell Ed she witnessed the accident and had suspicions about her daughter.
So, there were two real incidents which became the seeds for the novel. But I didn’t know Charlotte or Ed until I began writing.
Charlotte’s situation created a lot of questions. What would she do about her pregnancy? Would she get a divorce? If she decided to keep the baby, would she tell her ex-lover? Did she still love him? Would she eventually confront her daughter? She gave me a lot to think about.
Writing Intersections, I tried to both be generous with my characters and answer some of my own questions. I realized many had to do with safety. How do we keep our loved ones safe? The answer, of course, is that we can’t. All we can do, like Charlotte and Ed, is try our best.
Q: How was the novel’s title chosen, and what does it signify for you?
A: Intersections was chosen as a title for a variety of reasons. The hit-and-run happened at a literal intersection. Then the lives of Charlotte and Ed intersected as did their grief and loneliness.
This led to more life intersections. Charlotte’s daughter Libby was forced to intersect with Ed over her possible involvement with the accident.
Maggie, Ed’s wife, was a devout Catholic, but her wish to be a surrogate for her daughter, who could not carry a baby, led her to the world of in vitro, which is very much forbidden by the church. This decision shifted her beliefs, and she intersected with a new world of possibilities.
Charlotte, who was in a dead marriage, had an affair which led to a pregnancy that ended her marriage and changed her life. And then, there is a final intersection, but I do not want to give away the ending.
Q: The writer Erica Plouffe Lazure said of the book, “Karen Uhlmann’s sharp-eyed take on the complicated lives of two Chicago families illustrates effectively the intersection between truth-telling, justice, and the power of love.” What do you think of that description?
A: I think Erica’s description is excellent. The book raises the question of how far a parent will go to protect their child. Does love trump lying and preventing justice? That is for the reader to judge. I can’t say more without spoiling the ending.
Q: Did you know how the novel would end before you started writing it, or did you make many changes along the way?
A: I did know the ending, which is unusual for me. Many incidents were changed as I wrote, but the ending was not one of them.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I am currently working on turning a collection of linked stories into a novel.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: I believe there should always be an animal, preferably a dog, in a novel. Mainly, because I love dogs and enjoy reading and writing about them.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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