Novelist Mona Simpson, a child of the 1960s, says she feels fortunate to have grown up at a time when American society was more optimistic and open to new possibilities than it is now.
Simpson, 34, has written two novels, both with a main character who grew up during the days when free love and revolutionary youth were hip. The New York writer is coming to Chicago this week to promote her second novel, ”The Lost Father” (Knopf, $22).
Simpson`s first novel, ”Anywhere But Here” (Knopf, $11), won critical praise when it was published in 1986, and was picked up by Disney Studios for a possible movie. ”Anywhere But Here” was the story of Ann Stevenson and her divorced mother, Adele, as they move from the Midwest to Beverly Hills, where Adele plans to turn her daughter into a child star.
The second novel picks up where the first one leaves off, with Ann, now an adult, seeking her father, a professor, gambler and gigolo who deserted his family when she was a child.
Simpson, whose real father is a native Syrian who left the family when she was 13, said her novels are not autobiographical, although they serve a purpose.
”I guess they leave some record of what meant most to me,” she said.
”I hold to the proposition that fiction makes what we imagine as much a part of the history of the world as (the real-life events) . . . other people call history,” Simpson said.
Simpson was born in Green Bay and moved with her family to Southern California when she was 10. She arrived in California to find her schoolmates doing drugs and having sexual relations, she recalled, which was beyond the limits of her Midwestern girlhood.
She said she enjoys chronicling childhood during the Age of Aquarius.
”I think it was a wonderful time to grow up,” she said. ”It was a luxury to grow up when America was really optimistic. Young people are growing up now with a much greater sense of constraint, panic and skepticism.”
Simpson will read from and sign her new novel at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Barbara`s Bookstore, 3130 N. Broadway, and at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Kroch`s & Brentano`s, 1711 Sherman Ave., Evanston. The appearances are free.
