Authors Interviewing Characters: Suzanne Trauth

In What Remains of Love, Kate Whitman, a French professor living in New Jersey, has just lost her beloved father, Daniel Whitman, to illness. At the reading of his will, she discovers that he has left $250,000 to Emilie Renault, an artist living in the south of France, whom he apparently knew during his military service in World War II. Neither Kate, nor her brother DJ, knows anything about this woman. Family tension ensues over the bequest but Kate feels obligated to honor her father’s last wish. She also needs to know more about her father’s relationship with Emilie.

 Author Suzanne Trauth interviews Kate Whitman, in her home in New Jersey.

ST watches KW fold clothes.

ST: You’re packing. I’ll bet I know where you are headed.

KW: To the south of France.

ST: To—

KW: Meet my half-sister.

ST: Yes. You can’t let it all go, can you?

KW: When I found out Emilie had died, I was so disappointed and after I wrote to her daughter Yvette trying to get some information about Dad and Emilie during the war, she didn’t respond. Then, a few weeks later I get this package in the mail. 

ST: Souvenirs of the war, right? 

KW: Things a young girl might keep to remember special times. Like a dried flower, a handkerchief, a paper napkin with a heart drawn on it, and a train ticket. 

ST: Was that all? 

KW: And a photograph of Dad and Emilie.

ST: The only photo you have of them together.

KW: So far. They looked so happy… Maybe Emilie had more photos and now her daughter has them?

ST: Her daughter…your sister.

KW: Right. My sister. I don’t think she knows we’re related.

(KW picks up a book.)

ST: What are you going to do with that memoir?

KW: What do you think I should do? After all, you know this story better than me.

ST: True…but I’m curious about your feelings. What did you think when you discovered the memoir in your father’s apartment?

KW: (stops folding clothes and sits on the bed) I was bowled over. Details about Emilie’s life in Nice during the Nazi occupation and the Resistance and the liberation of the south of France. (She pauses.) And Dad. Their love affair. (Kate touches the edges of the memoir gently.) It’s a story of a man I don’t know.

ST: You feel he’s a bit of a stranger?

KW: The man in this memoir is.

ST: So, do you think Yvette will be happy to see you?

KW: (evasive) She doesn’t really know I’m coming. I wrote that I would be traveling this summer in France… She never answered back.

ST: She’ll be surprised to see you.

KW: (teasing) Ya’ think?

ST: Are you worried about meeting her?

KW: No. Well…yes. Maybe. It’s about the memoir.

ST: What about it.

KW: I intend to give it to her. At least that’s what I’m planning. Who knows what she’ll do…or say…or think. I just know it belongs with her.

(KW rises and continues to pack clothes. ST watches for a minute.)

ST: Something else is bothering you.

KW: Not really.

ST: Kate? I know you.

KW: (ironically) I guess you do.

ST: Seriously.

KW: I don’t understand how Dad could be this in love with Emilie and still come home to Mom. How he could give up his true love for…

ST: For what?

KW: For a marriage that was unsatisfying?

ST: How do you know it was unsatisfying?

KW: It had to be, after the torrid affair with Emilie. He stayed in touch with her after the war, right?

ST: Well…

KW: You know he did. He was engaged to Mom, so I understand his sense of duty. But…how could he leave Emilie? He abandoned the love of his life to live a respectable one with my mother.

ST: He must have felt it was the right thing to do.

KW: The honorable thing. Dad was big on honor.

ST: That’s admirable.

KW: And passion?

ST: What about it?

KW: He gave up passion too. At least as far as I could tell. 

ST: You’re talking about your mother.

KW: (she pauses) I am. There is so much I never understood… what her life was like. How hard it might have been. How much she actually knew about Emilie.

ST: Your uncle Bert says she did know, yes?

KW: So you say…this is your story. 

ST: (laughs) True.

(Kate closes her suitcase, zips it shut.)

KW: I wonder what she’s like.

ST: Yvette?

KW: She might be angry that I’m just showing up. Without an invitation. Then what?

ST: (shrugs) So she’s angry. You do what you intend to do—

KW: Talk about Dad and Emilie? 

ST: If that’s what you want—

KW: And if she refuses to tell me what she knows about the past?

ST: You give her the memoir and leave.

KW: Just like that…

ST: Just like that.

KW: So…you know how this story ends, don’t you?

ST: To a degree. 

KW: Meaning…?

ST: (smiling) Sometimes characters have a mind of their own.

KW: (smiling back) You’re not going to tell me, are you?

ST: Sorry. We both need to watch it all play out.

KW: I wish you were coming with me.

ST: Oh, I’ll be there…taking notes.

KW: Will I see you when I return from France?

ST: You won’t need to see me…you’ll be a new person. On your own.

(ST and KW hug good-bye.)

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Bio

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Suzanne Trauth is the author of the novel What Remains of Love, a first place winner in Women’s Fiction, Firebird Book Awards, and a finalist in General Fiction, American Book Festival. She authored the six-book Dodie O’Dell mystery series, and her plays and screenplays have won awards in contests and festivals and been developed in a variety of theatres. She is a member of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, the Dramatists Guild, Writers Theatre of New Jersey Women Playwrights program, and the League of Professional Theatre Women. She lives in Woodland Park, NJ.

www.suzannetrauth.com

Tags: featured, women writers

Category: On Writing