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A Novel
by Marianne WigginsThis article relates to The Shadow Catcher
Marianne Wiggins was born
in Lancaster, Pennsylvania in
1947. Her father, a farmer,
preached in a conservative
Christian church founded by her
grandfather. She married at 17
and shortly after gave birth to
a daughter, Lara, who she
brought up on Martha's Vineyard
(Lara is now a
professional photographer in
Los Angeles and took the jacket
and author photo for The
Shadow Catcher). Wiggins's
first book was published in 1975
but it wasn't until 1984 with
the publication of Separate
Checks that she was able to
support herself with her writing
(full
bibliography at BookBrowse).
She lived in London for 16 years
and also briefly in Paris,
Brussels and Rome. She married
Salman Rushdie in January 1988.
A little over a year later, on
Valentine's Day 1989, the couple
learned that Ayatollah Khomeini
had issued a fatwa against
Rushdie for perceived
blasphemies in The Satanic
Verses (1988). For about six
months, she lived in a multitude
of safe houses under the
protection of the British
government before deciding to
take a flat (apartment) under a
assumed name. In 1993, she and
Rushdie divorced.
Since then, she has chased
tornadoes in Nevada, explored
the Amazon Basin, won various
awards and in general led "a
really interesting life". She
currently lives in Los Angeles
where she is a Professor of
English at the University of
Southern California.
The Shadow Catcher is
intended to be the first in a
series of novels set in
California. She is currently
working on a novel set in Owens
Valley about the water wars and
the building of of the Los
Angeles aqueduct.
Edward Sheriff Curtis
spent 30 years capturing more
than 40,000 images of Native
Americans including
Geronimo,
Chief Joseph,
Red Cloud, and
Medicine Crow. Although
undoubtedly a gifted
photographer, he has been
charged with misrepresenting
Native American people and
cultures by paying people to
pose in staged scenes, wear
historically inaccurate dress
and costumes, and take part in
simulated ceremonies. The result
are pictures that create an
image of people untouched by
Western society; whereas the
reality was that at the time his
photos were taken, many Native
Americans
where successfully adapting to
western society while others
were living in squalid
conditions on reservations. In
short, his photos were
propaganda, altered to remove
all traces of modern life, of
people who, in the words of the
fictional Marianne, were
"confined in high-security
encampments .... deprived of
their livelihoods, forced into
the manufacture of 'Indian-ized'
tourist junk."
Interesting Links:
This "beyond the book article" relates to The Shadow Catcher. It originally ran in September 2007 and has been updated for the June 2008 paperback edition. Go to magazine.
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