THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 15, 1995 TAG: 9501110384
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BILL RUEHLMANN
LENGTH: Medium: 90 lines
SARA PARETSKY'S next best seller has been born backstage at the Harrison Opera House.
The author of Tunnel Vision, Guardian Angel and six other action-adventures of feminist detective V.I. Warshawski was prowling the Norfolk headquarters of the Virginia Opera Association over the holidays, seeking background for her new book.
``It's my chance to see a production being built from the bones up,'' explained Paretsky, 47.
The creator of what Entertainment Weekly called ``America's most convincing and engaging female private eye'' was in town to observe another woman at work: composer Thea Musgrave. The Virginia Opera opens a world premiere production of Musgrave's ``Simon Bolivar'' on Friday. During rehearsals over several days, Paretsky, disguised as an industrious fly on the wall, took down copious notes in a neat copperplate hand.
No surprise; her suspense fiction has always been solidly grounded in fact. On the acknowledgments page of Tunnel Vision, Paretsky confides, ``I try to do careful research, especially for physical sites that actually exist.'' She conceived of a murder involving the mounting of a brand-new opera based on the Book of Esther. A longtime Chicago resident, Paretsky knew Ardis Krainik, director of the Lyric Opera there; Krainik knew Virginia Opera director Peter Mark, who had once been the Lyric's principal violinist.
Mark is married to Thea Musgrave, and so ``Simon Bolivar'' became an immediate opportunity for Paretsky to witness firsthand what might have been the staging dynamics of ``Esther.''
``I've always loved opera,'' Paretsky said, ``though you would be hard pressed to find an opera lover as ignorant as I am.''
She's learning.
``I had my composer being a lot younger,'' Paretsky said. ``But, after watching Thea Musgrave, I realized that to write an opera on such a scale, the composer needs to be a more mature artist. I'm in my late 40s; it's exciting to see an artist like Thea, who is 20 years older, at the height of her creative powers.
``It lets me know I haven't had all my best ideas yet.''
The ones she's already shared have been duly celebrated by readers and critics alike, earning her a Silver Dagger Award from the Crime Writers Association.
Paretsky, whose father was a university professor, ``grew up in a family where girls became secretaries and wives.'' Her parents put her four brothers through college, but she was expected to pay for her own education.
She did, acquiring a Ph.D. and an MBA from the University of Chicago. As a marketing manager at a Chicago insurance company, she felt unfulfilled and set about writing books concerning ``a woman who was doing what I was doing, which was trying to make a success in a field traditionally dominated by men.''
Enter private eye Victoria Iphigenia Warshawski, daughter of a Chicago cop, sharp-tongued, adept in karate, irresistible to but independent of men - who whistles ``se vuol ballare'' from ``The Marriage of Figaro'' under her breath.
``Vic'' debuted in Indemnity Only 14 years ago; in 1985 she starred in a major motion picture, after TriStar bought film rights to the character for $200,000.
Observes Paretsky wryly, ``As Sherlock Holmes said in another context, `Perhaps it would be best if a veil were pulled over that chapter.' ''
The film, which starred Kathleen Turner, frankly stank. But the money didn't. It allowed Paretsky to quit her day job and devote herself to writing, which has steadily flourished since.
Her stories tend to take stands on current social issues; Tunnel Vision, for example, concerns homelessness and spousal abuse. Sometimes those stands raise hackles. Paretsky supported abortion rights in Bitter Medicine (1987), and received a copy of her book in the mail - shredded, with a hate letter scrawled across the frontispiece.
Tough cheese, shrugs the author; she will continue to write from the heart and not to the market.
``If you're not willing to be engaged with people,'' she said, ``you shouldn't be doing something public.''
In private she is married to physics professor emeritus Courtenay Wright and has three stepsons, one granddaughter. And a golden retriever named Cardhu. She continues to receive considerably more bouquets than brickbats over an increasingly distinguished writing career.
Meanwhile, here at the Harrison Opera House, mystery fans can be assured that Sara Paretsky is on the case. MEMO: Bill Ruehlmann is a mass communication professor at Virginia Wesleyan
College. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Sara Paretsky
KEYWORDS: PROFILE BIOGRAPHY LITERATURE by CNB