Birth date: Feb. 19, 1952.
Birthplace: Oakland.
Occupation: Writer.
Current homes: San Francisco and New York.
Marital status: Married for 27 years to Lou DeMattei.
Working on: I’ll be reading from my new book, “The Bonesetter’s Daughter,” Feb. 23 at Borders on Michigan Avenue and The Book Stall in Winnetka.
The last good movie I saw: “Best in Show.” I loved it so much, I saw it twice. I have two Yorkies, Bubba and Lilli, that accompany me everywhere I go. They make it bearable for me to travel. I also co-own a Yorkie, Champion Tip Top Come Fly With Me, who lives in Chicago and will be in the International Kennel Club of Chicago dog show.
The book I’ve been reading: “Cracks” by Sheila Kohler. It’s an amazingly written, disturbing book about a South African schoolgirl’s coming of age.
Favorite meal: Chinese food, of course. I recently became a vegetarian, so it would be something with a lot of fresh vegetables like snow peas, lotus roots and bamboo shoots.
Favorite performer: Yo-Yo Ma.
Personal heroes: Helen Keller for her fortitude, and Albert Schweitzer because I wanted to travel and do something not entirely selfish.
I’d give anything to meet: My grandmother who died in 1925. She was so important in our family and left a legacy of good and bad. She’s a mystery to me.
If I could change one thing about myself: I wouldn’t see danger in everything.
The one thing I can’t stand: People who tell you what you should think about religion or politics or literature or anything. I’m not good at accepting prescribed thought.
My fantasy is: I’m sitting in a lovely place in San Francisco and I have nothing to do but write and play with my dogs, and somebody brings me food three times a day.
Most irrational act: Attempting to run away to Austria with a man who had escaped from a mental hospital–he was AWOL from the Army–so we could elope. I was 16 and living in Switzerland, and my mother had the police stop us at the train station.
My most humbling experience: I was giving a highfalutin talk on language development to a group of parents of developmentally disabled children. They didn’t understand a thing I said. All they wanted to know was if their child would learn to talk.
The three words that best describe me: Persistent, idealistic, realistic.
