Margaret Karlin's first novel follows four young women in the 1950s who buck the idea of a nuclear family and choose to live life on their own terms!
Based on her own experiences as a nurse in the 1950s, Margaret Karlin's novel, Virtuous Women, examines the lives of four young nurses who made less traditional choices!
CommitmentNow.com: Virtuous Women is a book about four young women in the 1950s who buck the idea of a nuclear family and choose to live life on their own terms. What sparked the idea for this wonderful book?
Margaret Karlin: The idea for writing about four young women in the fifties came from a nursing reunion I attended when Michael Reese Hospital and Medical Center in Chicago closed it’s nursing school after 100 years. At that reunion I met up with classmates not just from my class, the class of 1954, but also from all the various classes before and after ours. The idea formed as we sat and talked and laughed about our student days. We exchanged ideas on sex; marriage, children and it became clear that those of us who did not marry directly after graduation waited several years to do so. Thus we had careers before marriage and were thought of, at the age of 26 or 27, as old maids. When I had my fourth child at thirty-six, I was considered too old to have any more and a hysterectomy was recommended.
CommitmentNow.com: The women in this book are all nursing school graduates. You, too, are a nurse. How did your own experiences influence the stories of June, Kate, Rebecca and Sue Ann?
Margaret: As a student nurse I formed friendships I cherished. Later when I was invited by The National Institute of mental Health to work on a study of college freshman and first mental breakdowns we discovered that the ability to form close friendships was what got students through their first year of college. So, I combined the stories of the four characters from about six friends who got ourselves through many difficulties and have reunited each year until recently
CommitmentNow.com: What is a “virtuous woman”?
Margaret: To me a virtuous woman is one who knows herself. Benjamin Franklin is quoted as saying, ‘Be in general virtuous, and you will be happy’. However, the general male reaction to my title has been that virtuous meant virginal.
CommitmentNow.com: How have things changed for women since the repressive era of 1950s America?
Margaret: Changes since the 1950’s? Well, nurses today are paid much more as I think most women are, though still not on a par with men. There are many more choices of careers, which is progress but also can make life more complicated. Sexually life since the pill has been liberating and safer for women but also less mysterious and exciting.
CommitmentNow.com: You are a nurse, mother and grandmother, and Virtuous Women represents your debut as a novelist! What inspired you to start writing at this point in your life?
Margaret: Why did I start writing so late in life? I always loved to write but I didn’t think I could make a living from it and nurses are always in demand. So, even in continuing education classes, I stuck to the sciences. My husband encouraged me to take writing classes when the kids had graduated college and I have loved every one of the classes.
CommitmentNow.com: Virtuous Women in an impressive first novel! Are you working on a second book?
Margaret: As to a second book. I have written a novel about a woman suddenly widowed making a choice between a retirement community and the ‘real world’. But, because so many readers asked for a sequel I thought I should turn the main character into one of the virtuous women and bring the others into the story too. As I lived in Scotland during the Second World War, it has been suggested that I write a memoir. I did so then took a memoir class, started moving chapters around and now am thoroughly mixed-up as is the memoir.
CommitmentNow.com: Where can we learn more about you and your writing?
Margaret: My life and my writing are on a website at www.margaretkarlin.wordpress.com
