Ann Packer Biography, Books, and Similar Authors

Interview

Ann Packer discusses how The Dive From Clausen's Pier explores the question of whether people are good or bad, or just who they've always been, and how her first-hand experiences helped her create the worlds of intensive care and rehab described in the book.

In The Dive From Clausen's Pier your 23-year-old heroine, Carrie Bell, is torn between whether to stay or go when her fiancé becomes quadriplegic after a terrible accident. It is a coming-of-age story that draws us in immediately to a complex web of moral dilemmas. What made you tackle this tragic subject?
That's a hard question, because it assumes an awareness of why one writes what one writes, and a measure of control over one's subjects that I don't think can really exist. I know HOW I began to write The Dive From Clausen's Pier; that is, I can locate the earliest retrievable moment in the process, which was a phrase I jotted down in my notebook, along the lines of "a woman whose boyfriend is injured in maybe a hunting accident." Looking back, I can see that I was intrigued by the ambiguities of the situation: he's her boyfriend, not her husband; he's injured, not killed. I imagine I was wondering what I'd do if I were this woman, how I'd find a way to live with and understand the choices I'd make.

Getting back to the why, though: I think that's more complex and perhaps not fully answerable. One of the characters in the book actually speculates about this, or ...