Virginia Holman Biography, Books, and Similar Authors

Interview

Amongst many things, Virginia Holman describes what it is likely living with somebody who is mentally ill and why it took her so long to find the words and courage to write the autobiography of her own childhood in Rescuing Patty Hearst.

A piece of Rescuing Patty Hearst was originally published in DoubleTake and won a Pushcart Prize. Can you describe how you came to expand the essay into a full-length work?
I had probably been working on telling this story in everything I had written since I began writing. I was engaged off and on for a number of years writing a novel based on these experiences—but this story refused to work as fiction for me, despite the fact that many first novels are near pure autobiography. I am cursed with a perhaps unfortunate amount of earnestness. When I first spoke with the woman who would later become my agent she asked if I had ever considered writing this material as nonfiction and I said "Absolutely not! I couldn’t do that. Especially to my family." I felt it would be some sort of betrayal to tell some of our secrets. But soon after that conversation I began writing short essays about my experiences and—with great fear—showing them to my family.

I suppose deep down I thought that I'd be cast out, but instead they were immensely kind and supportive of the endeavor. And that's why the book exists. I could never have published this book—there’s so much pain and exposure involved ...