- 216 Sara Paretsky: V.I. Warshawski Fights on for Women’s Rights Gail Zelitzky and Catherine Marienau 32:33
Sara Paretsky is a lifelong reader of crime fiction. She developed her social conscience early on, realizing that women were so often represented in negative ways, and so often invisible. Years later when she began to write crime stories herself, she turned the tables on how women are depicted through her well-known series of books featuring V.I. Warshawski, a tough, intelligent private detective from Chicago.
Among her readership are many women who insist on their right to speech and to take up space in a room. V.I. resonates with women readers, allowing them to find their own voices and feel valued and respected. From Sara’s first book, Indemnity Only, to her most recent novel, Overboard, V.I. Warshawski has relentlessly fought for social justice.
The bottom line is that Sara hates to see anyone suffering.
Overboard is about for-profit nursing homes and the extremes some will go to for the money and power they can bring. Sara wants to entertain readers yet raise issues of white-collar crime which, inevitably, carries with it political overtones.
Prone to depression, what keeps Sara going isn’t some pollyannaish approach to life. She wakes up each morning, gets out of bed, puts one foot in front of the other and believes the day will follow. You might find her singing as she writes today. “Singing lessons, she says, are like meditation. You can’t think about anything else while singing”.
” The core issue for me is abortion rights and the right of women to make their own decisions.” – Sara Paretsky
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